I want to talk about an idea that’s been said a million times before, but needs reiterating every now and again. It’s a simple concept and concerns how we can effect change in the world.

OK, are you sitting comfortably?

It might seem like we’re on a freighter that’s speeding toward some unspeakably horrendous event. Much of our minds are pre-occupied with kings and queens, politics, religion, corporations, wars, banks and the like, and we feel totally impotent and powerless. I think that is a massive distraction, when the actual driver of change is technology. It always has been and it always will be. If you want to effect the world in a tangible way, this is how to go about it.

Think about these examples. Each one is a technology which has fundamentally changed the direction we have taken as a species, nudging our seemingly immovable freighter in different directions:

- Stone Tools
- Creation of The Wheel
- Harnessing Fire
- Writing Implements
- Creation of Gun Powder
- Farming Technology / Irrigation
- The Printing Press
- Advances in Medicine and Healthcare
- Harnessing Electricity / The Lightbulb
- Telegrams / Telephones
- Television / Radio
- The Combustion Engine / The Automobile
- Atomic Weapons
- The Computer
- The Internet
- ?

Philosophy also plays a key role in our advancement, but I think it is technology which actually enables change in our everyday lives. People don’t need to understand complex philosophical theories in order to gain the benefits of using technology. They see it for themselves with the evidence of their senses.

THERE IS NO BETTER TIME THAN NOW

We are incredibly lucky to be alive right now. There is so much opportunity and possibility. Decentralization is playing a key role in allowing more people to get involved in the creation of new technologies, all without having to ask permission to do so.

Remember that nearly every problem we face is the result of other humans, meaning we have the same mental capacities to reverse, sidestep, or counter whatever is in front of us.

Think about what issues effect you today. How can you solve them with technology? Are others already working on solutions? I say get involved where you can. Need to learn a new skill? Then learn it! There’s literally nothing stopping you when you have the sum of humanities knowledge at your fingertips.

It may be a small incremental step, or a huge leap forward, but YOU will be playing your hand in the game and effecting where this thing goes.

Let’s fucking do this!

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BY CHRIS ROBINSON