that the cycle will continue. Out of the crisis will come some form of stability over the next decade. Will that be an authoritarian dystopia? Repressive regimes may be horrible places to live, but they can provide some version of stability until they are inevitably overthrown by the oppressed. Or could that next stage usher in a renaissance of freedom and responsibility, a new golden age fueled by new technology and values that harken back to those in the U.S. Constitution? The choice is ours. Together we build society, and investors like us have an outsized impact on the way our communities operate. We must envision the communities we want to live in and do the hard work to structure them in ways that benefit all their residents. Will we design communities that supply all their basic needs (power, food, water, sewer, housing), or ones that depend on larger regional or global supply chains? It is feasible now through novel power sources to provide power for a community rather than a whole region or just an individual home. Food can be grown indoors year- round in a relatively small footprint and supply all of a community’s requirements. Water can be pulled from the atmosphere directly rather than from fragile surface sources or depleting aquifers. Will we target our investments and our building to create structures that will last years, or centuries? Will we use materials that can be sourced locally, or from across the globe? New materials like hemp adobe or nanoceramics outperform wood and steel and also cost less. Emerging building techniques like 3D printing and advanced design tools minimize costs of plumbing and electrical and reduce the time to build.
Will we use technologies that process waste into useful products (e.g., fuel, plastics, fertilizer, raw materials for products), or continue to dump the waste in huge piles? Waste-to-energy technologies are now available that quickly convert waste to biofuels or fertilizers. These same systems can sort waste to recover raw materials (like steel) for reuse in new products. These raw materials can be made into filaments or powders that can be used in 3D printers to print numerous types of household goods or replacement parts. Will we support existing financial and ownership systems that divide our residents into renters and owners, investors and consumers, managers and employees? Will we increase the loss of privacy and control in our financial system, ceding authority to centralized institutions? Or will we embrace new ownership approaches like tokenization that can make owners of us all? Will we set up a parallel economy that supports transactions that can’t be controlled by governments or big tech? Cryptocurrency is not just cute collectible tokens that might increase in price. It is the internet of transactions and can create systems of trustless transactions that don’t rely on counterparties. Cryptocurrency can make fractionalized ownership transparent and easy to implement.
START NOW TO CREATE THE FUTURE It may be too late to avert the crises that appear to be imminent. And our situation is likely to get worse, much worse. But the nature of the turnings described in Strauss’ book is that they are not predicted. All the trends point in a particular direction—until suddenly they don’t. Yes, our trends show growing crises, including war and pandemics, supply shortages, internal strife, and societal upheaval. But sometime in the next few years there will be a reversal. The cycle is inherent in the way generations of people interact. When the fifth turning comes, what will you choose to be? Advocate now for the kinds of communities, investments, technologies, and social constructs you want to see when the crisis passes. Maybe what you do, what you advocate, how you approach the world will create the fifth turning and a new golden age. •
Steve Streetman is a real estate consultant specializing in deal structuring and the use of cryptocurrency. His book “Cryptocurrency and Real Estate: How to
Profit as Bitcoin and Blockchain Transform Real Estate Investing” is available on Amazon. You can also find out more at https:/CryptoREBook.com. If you are interested in agile, sustainable communities, check out https:/ www.DataArchitectureSolutions. com or contact the author.
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