Has humanity peaked? Or can we make more progress?
Just the idea of 'progress' implies that we have further to go.
But, is that true, or just wishful thinking? Can humanity actually improve on our current circumstances? Or is this it. This is the best humanity can achieve. How can we even make that judgement accurately?
The best way to make that judgment is to understand our desired destination, understand our history, and measure to see if we are in fact making progress from one to the other. If we honestly, diligently, and precisely go through this exercise, regardless of the measurement you decide to use, humanity is in fact making real progress. We just haven't gotten to where we know we can yet. Which is frustrating, but also hopeful as it demonstrates that progress is in fact possible, and therefore worth pursuing.
So, yes, progress can still be made.
This brings up the next level of frustration: Why isn't humanity further along?
Solutions to some of today's problems seem absurdly simple and straightforward. Yet, somehow, we still have to spend time, money, energy, resources, hours, and lives on it. Which seems absurd when literally no one in their right mind disagrees on them.
So why? Why haven't we made more progress?
First, knowledge is tough.
Far tougher than we'd typically like to admit. People are born small, soft, and uninformed. It takes literally decades for them to become generally competent adults, and even then, it's a crapshoot.
Then, even if they successfully learn to think, reason, and make good decisions, unless they are fortunate and dedicated enough to become a leader in their community, that investment and value doesn't have a wider and more lasting impact. Meaning, it doesn't lead to positive change and 'progress'.
Even so, if in the absurdly rare event that a person becomes a well-informed, effective leader helping to bring about real change, they've only got a few years before they die. And we have to start the process all over.
So, knowledge and progress are tough.
And people, even good ones, have a small window to effect positive change. This is why progress just doesn't accidentally happen. And requires years of dedication.
Luckily, today more than ever in history, we have an army of informed, dedicated, and talented people working to make progress.
However, there's another roadblock, before these amazing people can help effect real change.
All actions taken to help make progress are based on information, information that's formed into ideas, words, models, symbols, and stories that we use as the basis of our actions, and that determine their effectiveness. Unfortunately, today, humanity hasn't been able to make further progress because most of our foundational information are hundreds or thousands of years old.
This doesn't seem apparent until you start to reflect on what those foundational ideas are, and where they originated.
For instance, a few common ideas, and their age:
Moral Rules - 100,000+ years old
Economic Exchange - 100,000+ years old
Money - 7,000 years old
Algorithms - 4,500 years old
Democracy - 2,500 years old
Artificial Intelligence - 64 years
Luckily, since we've had a lot of time to try to our lives and ideas, we have amassed all the fundamental parts. We have proven ideas, methods, and technology today that can help people accurately understand reality and live good lives.
We simply haven't put them all together into a simple set of ideas, methods, and technologies.
That's what we are doing at EffectiveLI.
We are taking the best ideas and technology, collecting and unifying them into a consistent ideological and technical platform that is simple, easy to use, and effective in helping people live full lives on their own terms.
We are fortunate to live in a time where real answers to questions exist, are easy to find, and possible to apply.
We don't need to guess, if we don't want to.
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