The Ledger
This essay is part of The Blueprint, a series exploring what contribution looks like in practice. It builds on The Default is Contribution, which argued that moral responsibility is the foundation (Part 1), contribution is architecture (Part 2), and the purpose of productivity gains is human flourishing (Part 3). In the early 1990s, ornithologists at Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan noticed that the vultures were disappearing. Not gradually. Catastrophically. Breeding colonies that had darkened the sky were thinning to nothing.