Thoughts on Society

A certain someone made me read Industrial Society and Its Future¹ and it took a while for me to sort out my thoughts regarding it. Here is the result.

Industrial Society presents modern societal structure as the enemy of freedom and nature. I don't disagree. Most humans now live in unhealthily dense populations facilitated by technology. The loss of freedom is evident by the decline in the power of individuals. The destruction of nature is also obvious, with the rapid loss of biodiversity and extremification of weather due to climate change.

However, I think it is misguided to think that the losses completely outweigh the benefits of living in an industrial society. Although individuals in an industrial society have less power over events in their life than individuals in pre-modern societies, an industrial society now grants the individual an unprecedented amount of Potential.

I think of Potential as describing the entropy between all the possible future action paths. Whereas the range of a squirrel's activities are limited to burying nuts, sleeping on a branch, etc., humans partake in an incredible range of activities: from watching sitcoms to studying our own biology, skydiving to welding, eating fruits and spices from around the world, and so on and so forth. These activities enabled by technology are neither better nor worse than "natural" activities. They are simply different; many alternate ways of living.

Unfortunately, humans have experienced an increase in depression and mental health issues. Why would an increase of Potential decrease satisfaction? Human psychology is to blame. You may have heard of choice paralysis: it is difficult to choose when there are too many options, and after making a decision people are less satisfied when there were many other options to choose from. On the other extreme, we have tunnel vision. Due to experiences growing up, an individual may believe that they only have one path in life and grow dissatisfied. Luckily, there's always something that can be done to address dissatisfication.

• Convinced you don't have a future in X? You can either work really hard towards X, or shrug it off and find yourself another place where you can shine.
• Frustrated about [wealth inequality, issue]? Become part of the efforts to solve or alleviate the issue.
• Bored? Spin a globe and point to a place, walk/swim all several thousand miles to that place and there's no way you won't meet someome interesting along the way.

etc. The trouble comes when the thing you actually wish for is someone else to address it for you.

Regarding any remaining qualms about the state of society, I'd like to keep in mind that society is a growing organism. Industrial society is not the plateau nor the edge of ruination. Society will continue to morph; evolve in the Darwinian sense, not necessarily always getting better, but constantly adjusting to the environment.

For now, I will live life grateful for the things our ancestors enabled, and help create a more exciting future for our posterity. As simple as that.

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