Our Paradoxical Future

Does technology spell a dystopian future for our society? Or will it save us from our previously-inevitable destruction? Paradoxically, the answer is, in my view, a little bit of both.

Even in today's hyper-connected world, misuse of technology remains a major concern. Hackers constantly attempt to infiltrate the servers that form the underpinnings of the Internet. We continue to utilize dirty fossil fuels that possess an extreme externality cost on future generations of world citizens. Children and adults are distracted by an overload of context-less, meaningless information. Unscrupulous governments, and in many cases, even supposedly-democratic governments like our own, spy on their citizens under the guise of "security." Taken like this, it would seem that technology is an oppressive force that will ultimately bring about our society's collapse.

But the paradoxical reality is that technology will be our savior to these problems. More effective security protocols can protect the web from hackers. Green energy technologies like wind, solar, and geothermal will in the future carry the day as we choose to drive primarily electric vehicles. We can engineer new technologies to "humanize" the Internet and educate our citizens in such a way as to provide context to an increasingly overloaded world. And public participation, outcry, and ultimately, technological advancements and reform, can reduce the harmful use of warrantless wiretapping by governments. Indeed, there are challenges to meet with technological advancement, but ultimately, we will be defined by our response, and our response, like it or not, is going to come in the form of technology.

Above, I embedded the trailer for Showtime's new miniseries Years of Living Dangerously, which premiered Sunday night. The documentary series follows influencers and change-makers as they discover the real-world impacts of anthropogenic climate change and potential strategies for its mitigation. In a paradoxical fashion, technology (in this case, fossil fuel technologies, like deep-sea drilling and hydrofracking) are bringing about unprecedented global destruction, and yet technology forms our best answer at solving the problem (new renewable energy production, all-electric vehicles, and energy-efficiency best practices). It's a paradoxical perspective, but it aligns well with our paradoxical reality.