I delivered this speech at a Toastmasters meeting this-morning; enjoy.
We often hear about how humans can and have caused damage to the environment, we have global warming currently the most prominent thing on the public conscience; we've heard about the potential of a so-called 'nuclear winter.'
Often the largest barrier to solving problems of this scale isn't technological, it's human. Us. For all our ingenuity, what these issues highlight is the darker side of our character; the side that will see crises like these, and tell us to look for scapegoats, when instead what we should be looking at is a mirror.
If we did that more often, we would see plenty of reason for hope. It's easy to look at technology and see putty in our hands, but forget to consider how readily it can shape us too. Fortunately, history is there to remind us. Time has graced us with more than immense improvements in technology; many technological developments have brought humans closer together.
10000 years ago, all humans lived as hunter gatherers. The dawn of agriculture basically coincided with the coming of the city. The discovery of grain brought for the first time a large and stable enough food to support permanent settlements. Later developments in transportation – like the railway - would quickly bolster cities to fantastic scales, by enabling the transfer of food over large distances.
This shows that our biological need for food has exerted enormous influence over our organisation as a species. More important, however, is that these and other innovations continue to separate us from our biology. Advances in medicine and standards of hygeine have ballooned life expectancies, and we now have more control than ever before over the quality of our own lives, and those of our descendants.
This control inevitably brings with it ever greater responsibilities. For millenia, various political systems have been guiding development of societies, but every day, individuals and businesses must also make decisions about how to conduct their activities.
Our increasing responsibilities make it very important that we scrutinise these decisions carefully. Despite significant precedent for highly profitable sustainable and fair business ventures, exploitation of vulnerable communities is still disturbingly prevalent. Satisfying shareholders is no excuse.
Now, I'm not here to condemn capitalism. There is nothing wrong with being answerable to a group of interested individuals – it is the foundation of modern democracy after all. The law in many countries has provisions against rent-seeking behaviours and monopolies – which while directly beneficial to the parties involved, are recognised as damaging to society as a whole. We should recognise the same thing in the exploitation of the vulnerable.
Being accountable isn't the issue, it's who we're accountable to. In order to meet the interests of a group, people in positions of influence must empathise with the group's situation. So, either outsiders must understand the group, or self-interested members of the group must be in these positions. History tells us this is rare; look at how long it took before women were able to vote, and how much further gender equity still has to go. We need more Martin Luther King Jr.s, more Mohadmas Ghandi's.
Technology, again, can help. Statistics abound that demonstrate declines in violence over millenia, century, and decade scales, which many believe to be partly due to how much closer cities have brought people together. It is also reasonably well known that racial stereotypes are far less prevalent with those exposed to more ethnic diversity in their daily lives. People in merchant classes for instance have traditionally been recognised as leading a so-called 'cosmopolitan' lifestyle – being bound to no particular culture and instead just citizens of the cosmos. I've heard one person sum this all up nicely; “Don't bomb Japan, they build my minivan.”
Most of us are oblivious to the labour and manufacturing processes that go into the goods and services we consume every day. New technologies can provide this information at point of purchase. For instance, the ability to scan a barcode and get information telling us whether a product is of virtuous origins – then being able to make purchasing decisions based on such information – serves as a powerful, and immensely feasible way to let the consumer be heard – to extend shareholder interest to consumer interest. Helping customers vote with their wallets, rather than have them emptied by corporate bullies.
Recent decades have been popularly classified as the 'information age.' Information has a very unique quality. Economists like the phrase 'non-rival good,' but I think Thomas Jefferson put it wonderfully when he said: “He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.” Information, however – like most things – is useless on its own. If humanity is to continue – I hope that over the next centuries we come to enter an 'empowerment age,' one in which people of all backgrounds can look at this information that has become so democratised, and see opportunity – the potential to take their unique perspectives and skills to make the world a better place.
Winston Churchill once said that “we shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us.” We need to build in such a way that we cultivate a desireable future for later generations. Who are the architects of this future? I'd like to help; would you?
