This is the Most Interesting Time in Human History. So far.
In some ways, the world may seem to be a dark place. The reality is quite different and this may well be the most interesting time to be alive for humanity.
It may seem like we are in dark times. A senseless war in Europe, raging culture wars in America and populist authoritarians in Western democracies, the existential threat of Artificial Intelligence looming over us like a brooding, heavy cloud. A collective global state of despair from three years of a pandemic. Inflation. Trolls lurking about in social media. Growing wealth inequality akin to the Robber Barons of the early 20th century.
Oddly enough though, this may well be the most interesting time in human history. Much of it due to the rise of digital technologies. Further down, I list some of the incredible, exciting changes underway
We’ve been through such tumultuous changes many times before. The barbarians sweeping into Europe, the period of the Black Death. The rise and fall of the Roman empire and many other empires that have risen and fallen. The rise of colonialism and capitalism. It is the cycle of humanity.
Through each of these massive societal changes, humanity has always progressed. Much of this due to the technologies that we’ve invented. In her seminal book, “Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital”, economist Dr. Carlota Perez maps out the cycle of societal changes that happen every 50 to 60 years as the result of revolutionary technologies.
Until the last 50 years however, such societal revolutions and changes took a lot longer. It took around one hundred years to shift from feudalism to capitalism. Now, even capitalism is undergoing a huge change. What comes next we can’t be sure of, but it will be a new version of capitalism.
So why is this the most interesting time in human history?
Because humanity is becoming more aware. Of nature. Of our relationship with our planet. With each other and what lies beyond our planet.
Unlike analog technologies, digital technologies can evolve far more quickly and have greater ability to be used in innovative ways. Digital technologies can also be embedded into analog technologies, further transforming their capabilities. We’ve never been able to do this before.
Humans have always been knowledge seekers. The first thing we do upon waking is search. We don’t think about it, it’s just a survival technique. We listen for the environment around us, to assess any threats or opportunities and determine how we will approach the day.
We have always searched. We have always imagined futures, from our own personal lives to our societies. And a very long time ago, we developed culture as a survival mechanism to help us where biological evolution took too long. Somehow, we inherently understood that a key aspect of what we could do with culture was to invent technologies. This enabled us to thrive in niches where other animals would go extinct.
Through many thousands of years, using culture and technology, we have arrived to this most interesting point in our history.
Today, we can work anywhere in the world. We can travel anywhere in at most 24 hours. We are living longer than ever before. In less than a year, the worlds top scientific minds came together and created a vaccine. This feat was not possible for the Spanish Flu or the Black Plague.
We carry in our pockets access to an immense pool of knowledge. Tools like ChatGPT can be used to summarise, in easy to understand snippets, complex ideas and theories that took centuries and decades to learn. With this, we can ideate, imagine and create at the next level. This speeds up innovation and exposes us to ever more ideas.
It may not seem like it, but we are evolving in incredible ways. We often don’t realise just how immense some changes are until we’ve gone through them and can look back.
The Incredible Changes Underway Today
A short list of just some of the amazing things that are changing in our world. No, we’re not heading towards a utopia and with great changes, there is always rough waters to navigate and that’s the challenging part.
Understanding Animals and Nature: We often forget or try to see ourselves as “not animals” but we are. With all the sensors and data we are collecting and yes, even all the cat and dog videos and memes on the internet, we are changing our relationship with nature. In a way that will see us connect with our planet much like our ancestors. Hey, everything old is new again?
Living Longer: Rapid advances in genetic engineering and related medical technologies means we will live longer. Imagine having maybe 3 careers in life and a great retirement filled with play!
Capitalism 2.0: The current form of capitalism isn’t sustainable. Especially if we’re going to live longer and as has always happened before, when the wealth inequality gap grows, societies get riled up and force change. The next iteration of capitalism will be, I think, better.
Democracy 2.0: Authoritarianism never lasts. Democracy is changing and while it may seem bleak now, we will create new forms of democracy. One current example is the rise of participative budgeting.
Invisible Technologies: As AI tools like LLMs and Machine Learning advance, computational power improves (i.e. quantum computing), data storage gets better and smaller, certain technologies will operate in the background, augmenting us. We will have more time to create and ideate and innovate. Invisible technologies have the most profound impacts on society.
One Big Technology Problem
All this will play out in different ways and over different time scales. But one technology issue remains that we really haven’t advanced that much. Transportation. We’ve only gained incremental speed and fuel efficiency advantages over the past 50 years. So we need to figure that out. I have an article on this topic coming up.
For humans, technology is all about imagined futures. And we are imagining and thus innovating, more than ever before in our history. Exciting times are ahead. Buckle up.