I came across the photo of a Concorde and a Spitfire, above, and perhaps for the first time, was awestruck by the speed of technological development in my lifetime. It is fascinating, at least to me, to think that these two aircraft were designed and built, both as major advances in aviation at the time, only thirty (30) years apart; the Spitfire was designed in the mid 1930’s and first flew in 1936, and Concorde was designed in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s and first flew in 1969: The difference is all too obvious in the picture. Ironically, the Spitfire is still flying, and Concorde isn’t.
The pace of technological advancements is only getting faster, and I wonder what the world will look like when my grandchildren are my age. Computers and AI are obvious examples for rapid evolution but so many things that are beyond our present conception abilities are also bound to occur, assuming mankind doesn’t destroy itself in the meantime and the few survivors end up living in caves with the monumental task of starting some form, hopefully more durable, of civilization all over again. Nothing is guaranteed but it can be controllable if we put the brakes on just a little and think through advances before we become their slaves rather than their masters; AI is particularly relevant in this context.
I never flew in Concorde, unfortunately, but I did watch it land, up close, a few times and those experiences will stay with me forever. Equally, I watch Spitfires fly at my favourite vintage car racing circuit in the U.K. each year and that sight, and unique sound, will also stay with me forever. It is a reminder of what mankind/womankind can achieve that is positive.
Unfortunately, I have to balance that sentiment of hope for the future against the destructive and myopic side of the human race, and nothing typifies that more, or more vividly, than the current Donald Trump U.S. presidency. In next to no time, he seems to have turned the world order upside down in pursuit of his dictatorial ambitions and deranged ideas. Worse, no-one in any position to stop him seems to have the faintest idea of how to do that.
Beyond the immediate danger of letting this deranged egotist run amuck, it is a sad commentary on the fragility of what we call civilization. You would think we would have learned by now how to put in place indestructible guardrails against such individuals, but we have a remarkable ability to learn virtually nothing from our own history. Its not as if we have had a dirth of previous dictators to learn from, there have been plenty, many of whom have been worse than Trump could ever be.
In a brief search for some sort of sanity to address the destructive side of mankind/womankind, namely this blog, I am reminded of a statement from an old sage. It sounds like Churchill but I’m not sure it is. Whoever it was, suggested that, by far the best form of government was a benevolent dictator. The only problem was finding one.
Megalomania seems to be an inevitable disease for anyone in a position of power…even me, I hate to admit. It seems to be a basic part of the human genome. However, since the vast majority of supposedly-educated voters do not want the responsibility of being involved in governance – they just want the retain their right to complain about it – it seems inevitable that such relinquishing-of-responsibility will continue to throw up dictators and dictator wanabees like Trump.
We will probably survive such curses as a race, as we always have in the past but the process will be unnecessarily painful. Huge amounts of regressive damage will be done, and then eventually corrected, but it seems myopic and stupid to keep letting it happen when we have the innate ability to make amazingly positive progress in such short timeframes. We could stop this stupidity if we wanted to.
In that sense, the picture above of the Spitfire and Concorde could serve as a guiding reminder of what we can do; maybe we should hang it in all government offices/community centers as a constant reminder/guiding light. I think we need the “guiding light” to bring us to our senses before, one day, the percentages catch up with us and we negligently allow a dictator-wanabee to drive us into total anarchy and self-destruction.
I guess that was why the picture above affected me in such a fundamental way and gave me hope.
Here endeth today’s epistle to the human race!! I promise to get out of my pulpit now…at least for a while!
