From having everything at a stone’s throw, to an arm’s length, to a flip (of a switch), to a push (of a button), to a click (of a button), to a touch (of an icon), to a wave (of a hand), we have come a long way. It isn’t long before we would only have to think of something to operate it.
Interestingly, much of these changes have happened in the last 100 years (many in my own lifetime), and almost all of them in the last 400. Despite what doomsday soothsayers may have you believe, we are living the dream. Humans have achieved much in the modern age, and I am sure that going ahead, humanity will only get better and better. And take the rest of the biosphere with it sustainably, even as we harness more and more energy towards the development of humanity in the centuries and millennia to come. We have learnt many things, and while there are many things we have refused to learn yet, in the long run, we aren’t dead. We are, in fact, getting better and better at living. And letting live.
Better (and more widely available) medicine, healthcare, food, clothing, shelter, combined with more predictability in life, faster and safer travel and transport of goods to longer and longer distances in shorter and shorter times, ease and convenience in communicating over vast distances, more information available faster to more people, a general lack of violence in daily lives, education and opportunity getting more and more equitable, and wealth being distributed, if not more evenly, at least more widely. All of this has been becoming better and better consistently for centuries on end. And while on an individual level, sometimes, one may feel one is probably not too much better off than yesterday, and possibly even worse off, looked at from the perspectives of longer timespans, it has always been getting better and better without dipping at all for generations on end.
So, my dear friends, don’t let the naysayers get to you. Onwards. And upwards. Yep. That’s where humanity is headed. That’s where you, your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren are destined for, even if at the cost of some hardship, some lessons learnt, unlearnt, and relearnt, and the state of constant despair that we are perhaps not moving fast enough. Fear not, though. We are destined for a better world, and through our defeats and adversity, towards a better humanity. Ad aspera per astra.
