In this second episode, we'll talk about why innovations get away from what is usually done. But first, let me share with you a story.
Recurring Dream
I've been having this recurring dream. It's a very scary and strange dream, and I've been having it for two years now. In this dream, I die. And everybody I love also dies. It's a dream of the end of the world. And it's a dream of hope.
The Cataclysm
I'm at home, looking out the window. At first, I feel at peace, watching the blue sky. Then suddenly I start to grow hot and uneasy. The sky shifts from clear blue to green, then yellow. At that point, I know something is wrong.
The heat presses down on me. I go outside. I look up and see a small point in the sky—this time is not a meteorite, it's nuclear bomb. It draws closer and closer until I can see it its shape in the sky. I know what's about to happen.
People start leaving their houses too, but they're not my neighbors. They are everyone I love: my partner, my children, my parents, my friends. We all stand together, staring at the sky as it the bomb is on top of us.
The bomb now explodes nearby and a mushroom of smoke fills up the whole sky. I know I will not survive. Neither will the people around me. None of us will. I try to run toward them, to give one last hug, one last goodbye. But I can't move.
The pressure in my body and head builds up. My heart pounds, my ears ring, I feel dizzy. It builds and builds until my head explodes. I'm dead.
The Void
Then—only darkness and silence. I can't think. I can't act. I can't do anything. I only float in emptiness. I exist, and nothing more.
They say you always wake up when you die in a dream, but not me. I stay in the void for what feels like a very long time. Time doesn’t exist there. I remain until nothing matters anymore. It almost feels soothing. Everything is wiped out—nothing to worry about, because there’s nothing.
Eventually, my awareness stirs. A dot of light appears in the distance. It grows brighter, larger, pulling me toward it. Closer and closer.
Suddenly, I wake up.
The Cabin
I'm a small rustic wooden cabin. I feel déjà vu—as if I’ve been here before.
A fire burns. A man sits in front of it, in an armchair, his back turned to me.
Without looking, Argoss greets me:
“Finally, you're here. I am here to teach you.”
"Teach me about what," I ask.
"Don't you remember? You applied for this."
"No. All I remember is darkness."
"Something must have gone wrong," he says. "But you've been reborn 1000 years into the past. We're on Earth, with your ancestors. You're here to learn about how to think."
"Don't I already know how to think?", is all I can ask.
And he replies: "No. You think you do, but you don't."
Fear rises in me and I cross the room to open the only door.
The Pod
And then I'm in a pod.
As I arrive in the room, Lidia greets me:
“Finally, you're here. I am here to prepare you for your mission.”
"What mission," I ask.
"Don't you remember? You've self-selected."
"No. All I remember is a cabin."
"Something must have gone wrong," she says. "But you've been reborn a thousand years into the future. We're on Protoma, a planet newly colonized. You're here to help set up a new society."
"We're not on planet Earth?", is all I can ask.
"No. We're here to start from scratch."
And then—I wake up.
The meaning
This dream changed my life because it reminded me that humanity is not eternal. There are still risks of cataclysm that we are facing, but nobody is thinking about this. We're too worried about being distracted.
It also reminded me that life is about your connections. The people you love. Without them, you life a way less meaning.
So the cataclysm was different. From a meteorite to an atomic bomb, but the end result was the same.
I remembered Argoss this time, and he told me he was here to teach me about myself. That was a dream of course, but the irony here is important. How can someone else teach me about thinking?
I remembered Lidia too, and she told me that I was to help rebuild a new society. That was a dream of course, but the analogy here is important. Imagine rebuilding a society from scratch. On another planet, in the future. Would it change the way that we approach how to do it?