The way humanity is changing is shocking. That doesn’t necessarily mean good or bad. It means creating shock. One generation ago, at the turn of the century, we had technologies that most reasonably intelligent people could understand. Our communications systems were paced at a rhythm almost everyone could cope with. Money was defined by millions and billions. War was seen as non-nuclear if we were to survive. We had attained the moon but still thought of it as made of cheese. There was time to watch the sunset and believe in tomorrow.
Then came digitisation. Its promise of efficiency, speed, automation and accuracy was the door to a life of luxury which included less work. “Free time”, that hangover concept from prep school, was to be available to all. A new world beckoned. And it wasn’t kidding. So new that when a pandemic hit we were still occupied – but now by Netflix, crude language and too much violence to let us remain civilized. In or out, our messaging service kept us connected nonstop, as though on a rubber raft in a tropical cyclone.
Pirates, weather balloons, smugglers and high-tech cable cutters followed or crossed our paths. Typhoons took precedence for destruction, competing with a society that said its purpose was wealth and its only satisfaction, excess. Rules were made so complicated that many fake suggestions became law before being debunked. We denounced AI until we mastered the fundamentals of it. Then we worshiped it. Now some cybersecurity experts are begging us to print everything and keep it in a locked drawer. Or under the mattress?
Easy to be cynical about progress; difficult not to be when it detracts from the unique beauty of being a person. Measuring everything is a rote for conformity. Growing diversity is a plea for appreciation, the ultimate achievement of humankind. To feel the warmth of someone’s love, to shed a tear because language directs the mind to happiness, to laugh from the belly at the idiocy of life when it is exposed as a joke – these are what we developed in our thirteen billion years of consciousness.
Our most precious gift is our ability to decide. If education teaches nothing else it is still doing the job for which it is intended.
The wind decides which way the leaves will blow.
The rain confirms which flower and tree shall grow.
Each human says who future folks will be.
The choice today is left to you and me.
Good morning
John Bittleston
“Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.”
Eugene Ionesco, playwright.
It’s an old theme but a new context. Would you agree?
Please say so if you’d like, at [email protected].
27 November 2025
