Do we innovate as humanitarians or technicians?

I still remember the chair I was sitting in on July 21, 1969 when I watched astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first walk on the moon. I was thrilled and enthralled. But little did I know how much that moment would change the way we see our lives and our work today.

Imagine if you yourself had the opportunity to travel to the moon, and you see the earth rising above the surface of the moon, like in this picture. What impression does it make on you? What thoughts and feelings do you have?

In 1971, Edgar Mitchell was one of the first human beings to actually have that experience. Years later, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with him at length about the creative challenges of that mission. At one point, minutes before the moon landing was to occur, there was a malfunction that required reprogramming the onboard computer to enable the landing. (By the way, can you guess the total memory of that onboard computer? Would you believe 64KB?!)

Edgar told me about a transformational moment he experienced as the astronauts were returning to earth:

“See­ing Earth and our whole solar system against the background of the cosmos had a very profound effect – an overwhelming sense of being connected to all things.” 

“What came out of that experience was an enormous sense of responsibility that goes with the power of creativity. And that means letting go of fear. Automatically that brings this deeper sense of love and responsibility for one's self, surroundings, environment and planet.”

He ended our conversation by saying, as he often has:

“We went to the moon as technicians. We returned as humanitarians.”

That shift from technician to humanitarian is a powerful first definition of innovation with a conscience – innovating not just as technicians, but as humanitarians who: 

-  Are connected to all things

-  Accept the responsibility that goes with the power of our creativity

-  Are proactive rather than reactive… willing to let go of fear

-  Feel a sense of love and responsibility for one's self, surroundings, environment and planet

These represent the qualities of good character found across all cultures and time – those human values such ashonesty, caring, doing no harm, being responsible, and respecting others – that are signs of following our conscience.

Today we face a crucial choice point:

As humanitarians, will we put our good character and conscience in charge of what we innovate, why we innovate and how we innovate? If so, that will bring out our best as human beings and generate healthy sustainable societies around the world.

Or will we act in terms of what I will call “technicians without conscience”? If so, an innovative hell of unintended negative consequences can break loose. For example, to help feed a fast growing planetary population (a noble goal), we have innovative new pesticides, fertilizers, and biotechnologies. Yet some of those same technologies and by-products can be toxic to our groundwater and food chain.

To illustrate the poignancy of the choice point we face, I’d like to share a story of my father as he was dying of lung cancer…

One morning, as he was having a rough time with the cancer, he told me he had been up all night looking at his life “as if watching a series of videos”, and repeatedly asking himself:

“If our lives are filled with the results of what we choose, why do we choose what we choose?”

That same morning he told his doctor that he had made a new choice: he didn’t want any pain killers unless the pain became too hard near the end. I felt so proud of him. You see, he was a lifelong alcoholic and he wanted to face death fully conscious and sober. In my eyes, he had won the battle of his addiction.

We face a similar choice: 

Do we choose to innovate our future in a fully conscious, uplifting way for all of us?

Or do we choose to innovate a future that feeds our addiction to a material standard of living such that, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review, if India and China attains the same material consumption as Europe, Japan and North America, it will take the resources of four planet earths to support that consumption?

Which way will we go? The choice is up to us.