Great call to inspiration. I would only add that scientists, inventors, and founders, while among the greatest and most necessary heroes of progress, are not the only ones, and we should also urge people with other gifts and interests to think bigger. In particular, scientists, inventors, and founders need institutionalists and social entrepreneurs to create the conditions that multiply their impact.
Take my current hobbyhorse, urbanism. In the Western world today, it is very rare for cities to simultaneously be:
-- dense enough to get the agglomeration and amenity benefits of density
-- safe enough to spare dwellers the stress of worrying about crime and traffic collisions
-- beautiful enough to feel like worthy successors to the great places our ancestors built, the places we go to marvel at as tourists
-- and family-friendly enough to make it straightforward for a middle-class couple to raise even two, much less three or four or six, children happily to adulthood there.
That's bad for both quality of life and speed of future-building. And there is no law of physics that says it has to be this way. We know that there is a set of institutional and social changes that could convert cities to have all four of those properties. People with the determination and skill to help make that conversion happen are heroes of progress too, and should feel the inspiration and the responsibility that comes with that.
Yes, and there is a role for VCs and philanthropists, for academics and educators, for authors and journalists, for storytellers, for government. I'll say more about that in the next chapter.
Interestingly, just before this came up on my FB feed, I finally got around to watching Heinlein's commentary on the lunar landing. He had this neat idea of it being "New Year's Day of Year One" of a great new era of human history.
Unfortunately, he added, too many people are missing the significance of such progress.
The real frontier is getting rid of capitalism with its destructive hold on humanity, and designing and transitioning to a new replacement system. It is what hindering all progress and degrading us. We are good as we are and will do just fine without naming exploration as some vanity uplifting project.
Building and exploring the new worlds is a given for a successful civilisation.
You see how spirit fell and how depressed we are that now exploration is a dream that may not ever come true and is now relegated to publications like this, where it’s mentioned one last time as a dream.
Great call to inspiration. I would only add that scientists, inventors, and founders, while among the greatest and most necessary heroes of progress, are not the only ones, and we should also urge people with other gifts and interests to think bigger. In particular, scientists, inventors, and founders need institutionalists and social entrepreneurs to create the conditions that multiply their impact.
Take my current hobbyhorse, urbanism. In the Western world today, it is very rare for cities to simultaneously be:
-- dense enough to get the agglomeration and amenity benefits of density
-- safe enough to spare dwellers the stress of worrying about crime and traffic collisions
-- beautiful enough to feel like worthy successors to the great places our ancestors built, the places we go to marvel at as tourists
-- and family-friendly enough to make it straightforward for a middle-class couple to raise even two, much less three or four or six, children happily to adulthood there.
That's bad for both quality of life and speed of future-building. And there is no law of physics that says it has to be this way. We know that there is a set of institutional and social changes that could convert cities to have all four of those properties. People with the determination and skill to help make that conversion happen are heroes of progress too, and should feel the inspiration and the responsibility that comes with that.
Yes, and there is a role for VCs and philanthropists, for academics and educators, for authors and journalists, for storytellers, for government. I'll say more about that in the next chapter.
Interestingly, just before this came up on my FB feed, I finally got around to watching Heinlein's commentary on the lunar landing. He had this neat idea of it being "New Year's Day of Year One" of a great new era of human history.
Unfortunately, he added, too many people are missing the significance of such progress.
The irony is that it was more like the opposite: the end of an era of progress and the beginning of stagnation
The real frontier is getting rid of capitalism with its destructive hold on humanity, and designing and transitioning to a new replacement system. It is what hindering all progress and degrading us. We are good as we are and will do just fine without naming exploration as some vanity uplifting project.
Building and exploring the new worlds is a given for a successful civilisation.
You see how spirit fell and how depressed we are that now exploration is a dream that may not ever come true and is now relegated to publications like this, where it’s mentioned one last time as a dream.