What is happening in the world? Where is my place in it? To what extent have I contributed to the world? Where are we as a species? Where do we need to go? What’s getting in the way? What’re the obstacles? What role can I play in this drama?
The world seems like it’s falling apart. People are being torn apart. And yet, is that really what’s happening? An alternate perspective is that people have always been apart; it is only now that privileged people are seeing that the divide is so much greater than they thought.
What’s happening is not unlike the gap between parents and children. It is a divide between the powerful and the powerless. There is an uprising where the child must slay the image of their despotic father as an omnipotent figure. The child must learn to stand on her own two feet.
Technology has enabled so much progress with the core foundation of freedom of speech. None of what is happening in the world would be possible without technology enabling transparency and the spread of that information. Technology enables organization of viewpoints and action at an unprecedented level.
We are witnessing the democratizing force of technology. Nay, we are witnessing the democratic spirit of the American people explode through the use of technology. Technology enables our psychological spirit to express itself, for better or for worse.
Digital computers in our pockets enable transparency and accountability in a manner that has exceeded any tool in the past. It is almost more valuable to have a phone in our pockets than to have a gun to keep others accountable. We will find a way to live cooperatively when we can resolve our differences with peace instead of with violence, with words instead of with guns.
For technology to improve our collective lives, we must get proper representation in the technology industry. There are too few black leaders at technology companies. There are too few black leaders at venture capital firms. Noah’s Ark was the vehicle that saved life from the flood. Technology is today’s ark. And without proper representation, our minorities will be left behind.
Our leaders in technology need to begin to take seriously the need for diversity. This cannot be speech alone. There must be action. This will not be easy. Diversity is a strength, not a weakness. Diversity offers different points of view. In a world where data is near limitless, alternate ways of processing information are a strength, not a weakness. The more ways we can see a problem, the more ways we can find solutions.
Blockchain is where our technological ark is leading us. It may take a few decades or maybe even centuries, but blockchain offers the promise of a truly free society. Blockchain is blind to color, gender, and ethnicity. Blockchain enables trust at scale.
Our current centralized society and its monopoly on violence show us that trust is scarce. Our legal and police forces do not trust our minority groups. And their viewpoints reflect the morality of our social elite. Our legal and police organizations will be hard-pressed to change their views unless our social elite change their views.
Our technology must evolve so that our safety, trust, and cooperation is facilitated by neutral and distributed forces (e.g. blockchain) instead of biased and centralized forces (e.g. government).
Before we talk about others changing their views, let us talk about how we can change our own views. We must all evolve together or we will all die together. Technology scales our actions. We can either scale peace or we can scale violence. The atomic bomb has shown that we are more than capable of destroying all life on Earth. There is more on the line than ever before.
If COVID-19 has shown us anything, it is that we are all interconnected. A single individual has the ability—for better or for worse—to impact the entire world. The energy that we put out into the world will be reflected back to us tenfold.
We all belong to the human race. Mankind’s existence on this Earth is a blip on the radar in the cosmic timeline. If Earth formed 24 hours ago at midnight, homo sapiens appeared on the scene at 11:59:59 pm. We have more in common than we have different. We are all blessed to be alive, to experience this wonder called life. We have been entrusted with the only planet we know to contain life. Whether we take care of it or destroy it is up to us.
While there are structural issues with society, there are also structural issues with our minds. We each have our own traumas from our childhood that cause us suffering. If we do not each heal our inner conflict, we will discharge pain through outer conflict. We need to learn to pay attention to how we feel. We need to learn to treat our emotions as our friends, not our enemies. Our emotions are the path to our salvation, not the path to our damnation.
We prefer to blame others instead of ourselves. But we are all responsible for finding a way to come together. We each have a role to play. May we all find a way to value and respect others. May we all find a way to contribute to the greater good. May we all contribute to peace on Earth.
