"Were there Dinosaurs when you were a Kid?"

One day, over lunch, my wife and I were talking of Star Trek. When my 9 yo daughter insisted on being part of the conversation, the topic became how so many things we take for granted today were considered were futuristic/hi-fi when Star Trek was made. Like sliding doors, walkie talkies , computers that could speak and answer your questions.

 

Continuing in that vein, she couldn’t believe that we had lived through the dark ages before the Internet, Wi-fi and smartphones had been invented. I could almost see her wondering if this strip spoke the truth after all:


And it’s not just in technological aspects that things have improved overwhelmingly over the ages, writes Kevin Kelly. He starts by asking the reader a hypothetical question:

“I give you a ride in a time machine. It has only one lever. You can choose to go forward in time, or backwards. All trips are one-way. Whenever you arrive, you arrive as a newborn baby.  Where you land is random, and so are your parents. You might be born rich or poor, male or female, dark or light, healthy or sick, wanted or unwanted. Your only choice is whether you choose to be thrust forward in time, spending your new life in some random future in some random place, or thrust into the past, in some random time and random place.”

In such a randomized scenario, would you prefer to go to the future? Or to the past? The results of his admitedly unscientific survey?

“Virtually everyone would rather be at the bottom today than at the bottom 200+ years ago. Indeed, those most eager to point their time machine ride into the future are those who have the least today, which is the bulk, or most of humanity. We would rather inhabit a random future role than a random past role because progress (on average) is real.”

 

Kiddo, one day, your kid too will wonder whether you come from the prehistoric era. On that day, I will gleefully remind you of that line from the Lion King movie you so like: It’s the Circle of Life.

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