Our Place in Time
September 16, 2024
It feels like we're at that point in the human history curve where things are starting to get crazy really quickly. The rate at which history is being made has accelerated so much that it seems every year hits a new record, every month a scientific breakthrough, every week a tragic disaster strikes, and every day a meme takes over our minds. Now is a fascinating time to exist. Right?
Every era has its list of impactful developments and themes, but only because we wrote down the history that way. Our textbooks recount the centuries in terms of the Socrates, Newtons and Mozarts of the world, the people and ideas that were exceptional within their context. What this means is that even if you manage theorize about a mysterious pulling force from the Earth at 10 years old, you'll never be a Newton, which kind of sucks. Most of the intellectually low hanging fruit has been picked and you'll probably have to get a Ph.D. or some equivalent intensive study or unique experience to have an insight to something truly new.
Still, for the vast majority of people, work is much more satisfying today than ever. Sure we've got communities like r/antiwork, but the availability of interesting work and quality of working conditions have certainly gone upwards compared to past centuries. I, for one, am especially happy to be a researcher today with so many resources available. A musician in the 1800s might write hundreds of songs only to be forgotten and maybe rediscovered posthumously. Now talented musicians can upload their work on the Internet and um, maybe get views on YouTube1 if the algorithm is kind to them... Ok, there's a lot of complexity here, but in general opportunities are more accessible even though the competitiveness is definitely much higher.
I'm not particularly looking forward to the future, because I don't think humans will ever be able to fix all of our problems— in fact, we'll probably make more. I guess if techno-optimists are on one end of the spectrum and eco-terrorism on the other, I would consider myself a chaotic neutralist. Every step we take with technology is surely taking us somewhere new, but it's not necessarily a step forward. That's okay though. The world may change, but human curiosity will always remain. We will keep wandering, charting new lands of knowledge, and discovering more questions faster than we can find answers.
The best time is now, probably. Might as well be excited about it!
1 Please subscribe to more musicians like this guy: Meliton Soupelin