We're also not very good at imagining the future being very much like the now. It's always utopias (Star Trek, ) and dystopias (Transmetropolitan, V For Vendetta, The Handmaid's Tale, ...). What people don't seem to be very good at understanding is that things change massively quickly, but they do so mostly in the background. Star Trek technology looks like magic to us, but to the characters it's commonplace. LCD TVs and smartphones are commonplace to us, but even a generation ago they would have seemed marvellous, and 100 years ago they would have seemed like magic.
We can look back at the last century, and see astounding changes in technology, but we missed most of them as they happened. The big, obvious changes, sure - people noticed the television, the personal computer, the mobile telephone. But who noticed the vast but creeping changes to video displays once we had them? Who noticed the increasing power of satellite telescopes, and the wonder of seeing stars millions of light years away? Things have been getting better by increments, we've been learning more and more by increments, and our global culture has changed by increments to accommodate and surround those changes. But it's very easy to miss that happening.
Compared to 300 years ago, we do live in an utopia. And equally, we live in a dystopia. And compared to life now, life 300 years ago was an utopia - and a dystopia. Everything is relative; it depends what you expect, and what you focus on, and what you value. Real life is more complex than you think.
No comments:
Post a Comment