Why can’t we solve humanity’s biggest problems?

We live in amazing times. We understand more about the world than ever. We have powerful computers in our pocket and artificial intelligence tools that analyze data for us. All of this at the consumer’s fingertips. The Internet is connecting all the top minds of the planet. Automation makes our lives easier every day. Violent crime rates are going down and there are fewer wars than ever in history. We live in a world of information, connectivity and peace, and yet, we are so paralyzed in fear that we can’t see the solutions to the world’s biggest problems are in our hands.

We’ll always get confused by our own experiences and illusions. It gives us the impression things are getting worse, and it may be getting worse in your pocket of the universe. On average however, humanity is doing rather well. The reason we think things are getting worse is because we have access to every bit of information from anywhere in the world through the Internet. Being bombarded with all that information sometimes gives us the wrong impression. Many years ago, we were exposed to only a fraction of the bad things going on in the world. Now that everyone has a smartphone with news alerts going off every minute, we see a much higher percentage of the nasty things that happen in the world, even though the world has become a progressively more peaceful place. It is that impression that…