Us human beings evolved with a fundamental flaw. We could either be nearsighted or visionary at one given point of time. Not both. So we each have two kinds of personalities. Either we are stuck in worrying about the immediate future, our day to day workings, the petty problems we face. Or we are lost in wondering about the distant future and dreaming about how utopian that would be. Each of us has both these aspects in different proportions. We use various terms to describe ourselves at that particular moment— optimists and pessimists, realists and idealists, the wise and the foolish…
The world and our species are always evolving. Every single day, there are little (and sometimes monumental) blocks which join onto the mosaic. It is never whole; never complete. Our world is always a work in progress. Each generation is wired to think of itself as the most crucial part of that puzzle. Without that sense of self-importance, we would probably be lost! But in reality, we just happen to be at a place where the world has brought us to, and what we make of the present is what defines the future. Often, we are stuck with the challenges of the present and imagine that armageddon is upon us. Change is so swift that it consumes us and we can’t decipher the repercussions it has on the world we created for ourselves, and end up making doomsday predictions. The generation before us is always described as the golden period. We fondly remember the 80s and 90s pace of life. Our parents reminisce about the 60s.
Modern humans evolved only about 50000 years ago. For a very long period of time after that, they had little superiority over other species till they made the bow and arrow some 18000–20000 years ago. Suddenly they gained a massive advantage over animals. Then we invented the wheel about 5000 years ago. All the inventions made till a thousand years ago seem so little today, but the way they changed the world at that time is unimaginable! Evolution is always exponential. It reaches a particular point, gathers momentum, and launches itself to the next level from there. This is true for all species — from humans to disease-causing-viruses. It is a constant challenge. Each time there is a breakthrough, it is life-changing for the people of that generation. When Copernicus proposed that the Sun was at the center of the universe, it took hundreds of years for that discovery to get accepted, to sink in, and to be factored into further technological and philosophical advancements. Some of us never accept change! Though we’ve known that the Earth is spherical for over 2500 years, we still have a Flat Earth society 🤷🏻♂️.
In Dan Brown’s Origin, there is a wonderful prayer that the protagonist makes — May our philosophies keep pace with our technologies.
Each time there is new technology, our philosophy comes into question. Sometimes discoveries shake up our belief system and make us doubt the very foundation we base our ideology on. No wonder religion and science are constantly at loggerheads with each other. The pace of discoveries and inventions in today’s world are so rapid that before a philosophy is postulated, it is already in doubt! This doubt creates friction and we are stuck trying to justify our position to those who don’t agree with us. In the world of crypto currency, each time the original code runs into a change of protocol, it comes to something called a hard fork. Either the code itself changes to adapt to this change of protocol, or there is a split in the crypto currency, with one currency going the original way and another being created to incorporate the new protocol. That is how Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold formed out of the original Bitcoin code. Whether it is religion, politics, family values, personal choices, there are so many hard forks we run into in our life, that an increasing number of new ideologies are constantly being formed in our world. Philosophies we’ve grown up on sometimes can’t keep up with the pace of these changes ushered in by technological advancements, and whole new monsters are created. Some of them will die away with time and maturity, some will get absorbed into other better-formed ideas, and some will make space for themselves in our world. That is how all advancement has happened. In the present, it always appears radical. It appeared radical when the bow and arrow were discovered 20000 years ago, and it appears radical to us today when artificial intelligence is making its way into our day to day lives. But when we step back and look at it from a bigger perspective, it is all one giant mosaic.
Evolution is always guided by an overpowering sense of survival. Human spirit will never accept defeat. As we fear running out of fossil fuels, alternate sources of energy have already become affordable. By the time we start having wars for drinking water, desalination will become commonplace. Whenever something gets critical, our adaptation of technology will step in and give us options. There will always be upheavals. We will never be able to perfectly juxtapose philosophy and technology. But all our lives, we will keep trying and we will keep getting better at it. After us, our children will do the same thing. And their children after them. Each of us will think we are the most important generation to walk this planet. Each of us will consider ourselves caretakers of our universe. Each of us will blame the previous generation for having been so blind to the adverse affects their actions were bringing about. But as a people, we will thrive. It is the fundamental rule of evolution. To thrive.
When we suddenly had the need to feed an uncontrollable population, our people did what they thought was best — to cut down forests and grow whatever would grow the easiest. They forced soil into giving an output beyond its means. Today we’re learning that there are better ways of producing food. In a few decades, anyone using fertilizers and pesticides will be frowned upon. Produce from small plots of land will be much greater than what hectares are producing today. That is how the world works. It keeps getting better. We play our part in it. We build upon the learnings of the previous generations. Sometimes we dig out knowledge of our ancestors which has been forgotten for centuries and use it as a slingshot to propel ourselves forward. In the coming decades, we will recreate forests — better ones than before. Our children will bring dying rivers back to life again. Wars may be fought, but we will not wipe out our species; simply because it is against the concept of evolution. We will fight disease through nanobots being injected into our bloodstream. What seems radical and evil today will become the norm someday. More and more people will move away from working for money to working for themselves and to grow / produce their requirements. A lot of parallel economies will be in place. Money will become less important and won’t be hoarded as much. The driver of all evolution is knowledge. Access to knowledge is the biggest differentiator between today’s pace of change and that of the past. Everyone at every corner of our planet will have access to all the knowledge there is in our world. This will happen within this generation. And with that will come an empowerment like never before. Everyone will be able to create their own dynamo, produce their own energy, purify their own water, grow their own food in better ways, take care of their children, create new art, and evolve through those experiences. Stuff we can’t even imagine today will become central to evolution and progress in the coming centuries. Little issues we vacillate between all our lives won’t even have consequence.
If there is one thing we believe in, one thing we have great hope for, let that be the human spirit. This spirit exists in all living things. But since we can’t yet understand other species, let’s stick to what we know – about our spirit. The great urge to get better, to evolve and to thrive. That spirit will always persist and guide us in times of great conflict. It will make sure that we take the better path, pick the better choice. For what appears obvious at that particular point of time may lead to a disaster in the long run. Our spirit will always pervade. Nature intends for us to be this way. We may think we’ve tamed nature and that we’re its caretakers. But in reality, nature has always been our caretaker and it will continue to do so. If we do manage to destroy the world as we know it, it will take root again and evolve further from there. That is how life is meant to be.
So lets not worry too much about the little things which are taking up all our energy in the present. Being aware that there is something big we are a part of is a wonderful way to live this life. We don’t need religion to tell us that. Nature tells us that every single day. The only thing we constantly make an effort to is to strike a balance between our personal philosophy and the technology we have access to. Moving too much in either direction will pull us into a vortex, and brand us with a label we cannot escape from. Many of us can never come out of that abyss. By not going in too deep into either side, we’ll be able to enjoy the fruits and calm of both sides fully. Gazing into the future with fondness gives us the energy and hope to keep pace with the manic flow of our present.
May our philosophies keep pace with our technologies.
