Being Human in the 21st Century #7 — Importance of Acceptance
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The world around us is rapidly changing thanks to technological advances. I hope that you’ll join me on the journey of figuring out just what it is that we need to do to realize our full potential, understand our meaning in life, and leave society and the world in a slightly better place than when we got here.
Importance of Acceptance
I’m a big believer that tech will end up helping with empathy in the long term, but it’s hard to dispute the fact that it’s been hurting it in the meantime. It’s easy to hope that greater access to information would help understand the situations that others are going through, but it seems that we just use technology to create information bubbles for ourselves. It’s gotten to the point where close-minded decisions can take place despite not being financially sound. I guess that’s not all that surprising, at least relative to a witness from a Russian mob case mysteriously falling out of a window. It seems as though we live in a society where we’re confronted with such a plethora of information that denying it and not wanting to deal with it can seem like a very natural response. But I believe that we have to embrace the acceptance of new ideas, especially ones that have merit to them, regardless of our own opinions on the underlying matters.
We’re in an era when acceptance should be an at all time high. I mean, when we see examples of how psychedelic drugs can help with depression or how neuro-focused devices can help professionally or how scientists are creating solar powered skin for prosthetic limbs, it’s hard not to imagine how people are being pushed out of their comfort zones on a daily basis. And maybe one day, we’ll be at a point where the emotional and societal components compare to the economic ones, but until then we are left to try and make the most of the new information coming our way. We also have to consider that private companies are starting to lead research and education in ways that the public sector used to. And computers leading research themselves, so in this new paradigm of discovery, we’re going to be confronted with the unknown in many new ways.
Yet at the same time as we resist certain positive advances, we seem to condone ones that do not end up benefiting the intended groups. From research finding that tax cuts don’t lead to economic growth to the FBI using a facial recognition database without any oversight to the majority of savings from automation going to right business owners to large scale corruption between lobby groups and politicians, there are no shortage of examples of abuses of power that people seem to ignore thanks to the comforts of distraction.
It’s a shame we can’t focus on the projects that are meant to improve our society. Musk, in addition to have Tesla becoming more valuable than Ford, launched a company to merge the human brain with AI AND managed landing a rocket so that it could be reused. There’s also the Japanese man who received a reprogrammed stem cell from another person. Or the multiple examples of billionaires using their fortunes to help innovation and focusing on social innovation. Or how there’s a company focusing on using sound to transfer data. Or the many examples in European countries of focusing on the creative arts as a successful way to combat unemployment. I really believe that if we learn how to shed our egos and focus on the potential of collaboration, we could stand to benefit so much. That journey starts with accepting others and the unknown.
PS I’ve been dealing with a cold so apologies for any thoughts that seemed sound but in reality are nonsense
Top Three Articles
How recycled water could revolutionise sustainable development — The Conversation
The Young Venture Capitalist Betting Big On Middle America — OZY
Tillerson: ‘I didn’t want this job’ — The Hill
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Happy learning and enjoy your week!
