At the Door to the New World

The world around us is always changing, but there are moments when the changes are so intense and pervasive that we realize that the world is entering a truly new stage.

We are now at the door of such a moment, and like it or not, we are entering.

The catalyst for such global transformations is almost always human technology. While our earliest tools were created over hundreds of thousands of years, the velocity of technological change has increased constantly over the past 5,000 years to the present time, when change is exponential.

The seemingly dazzling introduction of communications and transportation innovation alone has quickly altered life for billions of persons. But the current introduction of artificial intelligence now even more accelerates the conclusion of the old world and the birth of the new.

At the same time, it must always be remembered that human life on this planet is always at some level of risk, facing ongoing and new threats and challenges from natural and human-made disasters. As often happens, these can occur simultaneously — earthquakes and wars, epidemics and economic depressions, and so on.

Every age sees itself as modern, but its modernity fades quickly and it is succeeded by the next age. Older persons today think of a world of computers, smartphones, the internet, satellites, rockets to the moon, artificial hearts, artificial intelligence, etc., but usually forget that these technological “miracles” will be regarded as primitive by future generations.

Some human habits, despite technological change, seem to persist. The slaughter of human lives in wars seems to be a constant whether by ancient Romans, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, on the fields at Gettysburg, The Light Brigade, the battlefields of World War I and II, the Holocaust, forced famine in Russia, or today in Ukraine. Whether at the hands of despotic kings and emperors, warlords, or dictators, this tragedy keeps reappearing in every age.

As the U.S. electorate goes to vote this year, amid all the hoopla, slogans, political ads, dirty tricks, misleading polls, dire predictions, candidate promises, and voter dreams, it might be useful to remember that this election will be followed by another, and then another.

That periodic voter accountability, with our free-market system, spirit of innovation, institutions of justice, a passion for liberty, and the inalienable rights of all citizens is what protects us all from whatever challenges both nature and human evil might confront us with in our always changing and unpredictable world.