Or: Why We Can Microwave a Burrito in 90 Seconds but Can’t Plan 10,000 Years Ahead

By Quanta Consulting, in the spirit of Douglas Adams

Intelligence, Time, and the Beautiful Lie of Progress

Let’s be clear: humans are clever. Ridiculously clever.

We’ve invented glitter-infused coffee, machines that dream in cat memes, and microwave ovens that heat up sadness in under two minutes.

But ask us to think 10,000 years into the future — to actually embody planetary intelligence — and suddenly the signal drops. The synapses go quiet. The room gets awkward.

The Beaker of Human Intelligence

Picture a narrow glass beaker (see image).

Local IQ vs Epoch IQ

Day to Year = Manageable
Decade = Abstract
Century = Philosophical
1,000+ Years = Fantasy novel territory

We’re brilliant at building quarterly plans, but incapable of designing systems that thrive across epochs.

Why? Because our brains evolved to find berries, avoid tigers, and win promotions. Not to think in carbon cycles, biodiversity curves, or universal entropy gradients.

Enter Douglas Adams

In a galaxy not so far away, Douglas Adams once said:

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”

He understood that being clever isn’t the same as being wise. That we could calculate orbital trajectories while still arguing over parking spaces.

He might say of our planetary crisis:

“They had the intelligence to build supercomputers, but not the wisdom to keep from boiling their oceans. Very clever. Rather sad.”

What Is Planetary Intelligence?

It’s not more data. It’s not faster servers. It’s not a dashboard with real-time emissions tracking. It may be AI. If it doesn't run off like a delinquent child.

It’s the ability to design and act with the whole system in mind:

100-year supply chains
Regenerative energy cycles
Education systems that evolve consciousness, not just curriculum
Organisations that think like forests, not factories

It’s what we don’t have — yet.

But we must.

What Can Leaders Do?

Stop optimising only for the neck of the beaker. Start asking:

What systems will outlive me?
What if profit and planetary health weren’t mutually exclusive?
What intelligence is required to navigate not the next quarter — but the next 10,000 years?

Leadership is no longer about control. It’s about conscious design over deep time.

Don’t Panic. Think Longer.

Douglas Adams told us the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42.

But maybe the real question we need to ask is:

“How do we grow the kind of intelligence a planet needs to survive?”

Let’s go beyond Local IQ. Let’s develop Epoch IQ. Let’s stretch the neck of the beaker — and widen the base of our wisdom.

The Beaker, the Brain, and the Big Bang of Short-Term Thinking