New Year’s Resolutions - A Biosphere Project Blog

Forest, Somogy province, Hungary, April 2025

Dear friends,

I know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Still, I have conjured a few for this new year (which is already not that new anymore). Both in terms of my personal life and my current path, this “work in progress,” A Biosphere Project.

I won't bore you with the resolutions concerning my personal life, although there is sometimes a lot of overlap with my current “work.” Over the past year, it has sometimes been difficult for me to keep the two somewhat separate, which led to a kind of ‘workaholism’ emerging, something that has not done me much good. I wrote about this in the blog post ‘Best Wishes’.

Resolution number one is therefore: more attention to all the good things in life, such as: the smell of wet grass after the rain (an interesting fact about this: humans are about 200,000 times more sensitive to this smell than sharks are to blood in water), the taste of ginger tea or a delicious apple, the quality and energy of the light during our morning walk with our dog. Add to this list as you please! I wish the same for you.

From resolution number two onwards, the resolutions concern my current path, A Biosphere Project.

As you could read (or listen to) in the post ‘The Travels, an Update’, my focus in this project has shifted from the ‘core themes’ concerning the ecological meta-crisis to aspects of worldview and metaphysics that underlie our current trajectory towards a not-so-great future.

My intention, therefore, is to take you further along a path of exploration in the coming year, which is actually a rather exciting Sherlock-style investigation, an inquiry into which aspects of our current worldview make our current trajectory toward the abyss almost inevitable, and how a new worldview would enable us to imagine a very different kind of future, of a different order than we can even imagine today.

An excerpt from a letter I just sent to the supporting members and sponsors of the project: "The worldview in which we live is a bit like our ‘operating system’: it determines which programs we can ‘run’ and which ideas are allowed. I don't like the comparison of the human mind to computers, a comparison that is flawed for many reasons (something I will return to in my future work). But the idea of our worldview as a kind of ‘operating system’ does make sense in that it illustrates how everything we think and perceive and consider possible is largely determined (and often limited) by our worldview or paradigm."

So, my intention is to embark on this journey of exploration in the most accessible and engaging way possible, taking you along with me through ideas, meditations, and perception exercises in a way that not only brings you new information, but also helps your perspective on what we call “reality” to evolve.

Resolution number three: this year, I want to explore how I can make more use of audio-visual resources to complement text. The ‘Walkie-Talkies’ are a first expression of this, but more will follow. I want to learn more about video, and also start a second series of videos that would have a slightly different tone or focus than the ‘Walkie-Talkies’.

More on that in the near future!

Resolution number four: I will continue with the ‘Walkie-Talkies’ and use them to address ideas that cross my path in an accessible way. My goal is to share information related to a paradigm shift in a light-hearted and spontaneous way, in rather small “portions.” Precisely because the subject is so comprehensive and far-reaching, I think it is appropriate to proceed in small steps, something that, judging by the responses I have received so far, is also appreciated.

Resolution number five: I am going to try to make more use of social media, particularly Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. This does not come naturally to me, and I have to overcome some resistance in order to do so. But despite all the serious problems with these platforms, which I probably don't need to explain to you, these media still offer opportunities to reach more people. On all of the above platforms, I follow a number of philosophers, scientists, and activists whom I respect, and I find their approach to these media inspiring and useful. So I am going to explore whether and how I can also use these platforms more intensively. Apparently, there are ways to do this that I was not aware of before, either because they are still new or because I spent so little time on these platforms. Such as sharing texts (both short and long) on YouTube and Instagram, for example, which also offers opportunities and points to a more hybrid way of using these media.

Resolution number six: I assume that the days of really long blog posts are behind me. Possible exceptions to this are a number of essays that I have wanted to write for a long time, but otherwise the texts here will be shorter. The blog posts and musings may follow each other a little more frequently, but they will be more concise. The long musings were necessary until now to find my way and to crystallize my thoughts into a line that could only become clear to me in this way. (The intention to keep it short and concise will possibly be the biggest challenge of all these intentions :-)

Intention number seven: I also want to continue the series ‘Musings and Meditations’, with a focus on sharing a selection of the information I encounter in my research. These could be lectures and interviews with scientists, thinkers, visionaries, and sages who send extraordinarily interesting, not to say incredibly fascinating messages from the frontiers of what we (think we) know. This is also intended to ‘signal boost’ the work of those individuals and institutions, and my contribution to helping spread that fascinating information.

Resolution number eight: writing something long is apparently in my nature too, and so I am mind-mapping and brainstorming for my first book, in which I will synthesize the insights I gain on this path. This promises to be quite an undertaking, about which I will share more soon. I don't intend to lock myself away for years to write a book, so I would rather make it an open process, reporting regularly on where I am in that process and how the ideas are taking shape.

Resolution number nine: I want to keep moving, literally and figuratively. That's why I want to continue traveling and seeking out the beauty of nature that we want to save. I will therefore be researching writing residencies and other opportunities to immerse myself in the splendor of what remains of our natural treasures, as I recently did in Slovenia.

Resolution number ten: I will continue to explore the role my photography will play in all this, now that the original project of photographic journeys (at least for now) has been put on hold. Images remain important to me, which is why I keep the habit of adding an image of beauty to each blog post, that beauty which in itself is also a great mystery. The question is not only, “why is there something rather than nothing?”, but also: “why is that ‘something’ so incredibly beautiful?”

Beauty cannot be explained in any way in a mechanistic worldview.

Resolution number eleven: I will investigate the possibility of creating a new website for the project, which could also be given a new name. A new name and a new website could be an appropriate reflection of the ‘change of course’ on my path and a clearer representation of my current intentions.

Resolution number twelve: I will explore opportunities to recruit more supporting members and sponsors for my project. If I want to continue doing this, more financial support is needed. So, a small “campaign” will soon follow via email and social media to convince people to support this work through a monthly, annual, or one-time donation. If you already feel called to respond to this, you can immediately take a look at the support page on the website. Thank you in advance for considering this, if you find this work important!

So, twelve is a nice number. One for each month of the year, as it were. I could formulate even more resolutions, but then I might already be sinning against resolution number one.

I realize that there is always a gap between intentions and realizations, and I don't know if I will be able to materialize all of these intentions. Let this list be my “guiding star” for the coming year, something to set my compass by, and a guide for my choices and actions.

I feel more musings bubbling up about the nature of resolutions, the essence of action and decisiveness, the characteristics of the phenomenon of ‘intention’ and the power that intention itself has in the world... but in order not to immediately sin against resolution number six (conciseness), I will end here, because I am already digressing much more than I had intended. Are resolutions doomed anyway? Well, if I stick to resolution number one, I'm not going to worry too much about that, and I'm going to go outside now for a nice walk with our dog Cheddar. And while I'm out, I'm really going to try to notice how beautiful the evening light is, how a sense of calm descends as darkness approaches, and how wonderful this day is, just like every other day.

I wish you all a wonderful day, on the day you read this, and every day.

Thanks for reading, and until the next episode,

All the best to you,

Filip

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