A SECRETARY OF THE FUTURE!

From an interview with the late great Kurt Vonnegut:

DAVID BRANCACCIO: The planet is sort of trying to shed us as if we are some sort of toxin.

KURT VONNEGUT: Look, I'll tell you. It's one thing that no cabinet had ever had, is a Secretary Of The Future. And there are no plans at all for my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: That's a great idea. In other words a Cabinet post--

KURT VONNEGUT: Well, it's too late! Look, the game is over! The game is over. We've killed the planet, the life support system. And, and it's so damaged that there's no recovery from that. And we're very soon going to run out of petroleum which powered everything that's modern. Razzmatazz about America. And, and it was very shallow people who imagined that we could keep this up indefinitely. But when I tell others, they say; Well, look there's-- you said hydrogen fuel. Nobody's working on it.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: No one is working seriously on it is what you're saying.

KURT VONNEGUT: That's right. And, and what, our energy people, presidents of our companies, energy companies never think. All they wanna do is make a lot of money right now.

[LINK: Perry Barlow to explore the future workings of American democracy. Expanding on the genius of Kurt Vonnegut, Barlow draws forth Vonnegut's insight and wit from his last major interview on NOW in 2005. While Vonnegut spoke about the end of the world, he also had ideas about the future of America's government. A co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization dedicated to "defending rights in the digital world," Barlow expands on Vonnegut's idea for a "Cabinet Secretary of the Future" that would watch over current policy and make sure it wouldn't have adverse effects on future generations.]