You know more about how the world works than 95% of people.
I’m sorry, but it is not because you’re special. An average high school education today teaches you more about how the world works than 95% of people who have existed knew. This number is probably even higher if you are from a first-world country with a decent education system.
If one chooses, it is easy to develop a better understanding of the mechanism of the universe than Aristotle, Davinci or even Newton had. These are some of the greatest minds ever!
The universe to me is one big mystery, and we are the detectives trying to crack the case. Mathematics and science are the tools we use to crack this case. Each scientific finding is another clue, another step in solving this mystery.
Think of human existence as a movie, but this movie gets more interesting the further you watch. We are all watching a more interesting part of the movie than everyone who came before us. This is because we have found more clues in the mystery that is the universe. This shows the intellectual advantage of being born in the 20th century compared to the 17th or even the 5th.
There is another advantage to being alive later: technology. Technology is the byproduct of understanding how the world works; it is the fruit of the tree of science. Technology allows us to do more in less time and with less effort.
When humanity was just getting started on the plains of Africa, 100% of people spent 100% of their time making sure they had enough food and water to survive. Today, a much smaller percentage of people spend their time producing food. How is this possible? Technology!
Modern farming equipment, such as combines and fertilizers, means we can grow more food with less time and less effort. But think of the science that has gone into developing these technologies. Fertilizer delivers precise molecular compounds to plants that result in optimal growth. In order to make fertilizer we first needed to understand how plants worked, and then we needed to understand how to actually engineer these compounds, and then we needed to build machines to apply these compounds to the plants. These are all non-trivial steps.
Technology is a self-perpetuating cycle. Because we can do more with less, we have more free time. We can then use this free time to learn more about how the world works, and then use this understanding to develop more technology. We can also use this more advanced technology to learn more about how the world works, and the cycle continues.
Technology results in a higher quality of life. Using technology we can control our environment to solve problems we face. We solved being hungry with modern farming practices. We solved the problem of being too cold or hot with temperature-controlled boxes. We even solved being lost with google maps and mobile phones.
However, we haven’t solved all our problems. There are still illnesses which we haven’t found a cure for. We have made transportation better but haven’t solved. Just ask someone stuck in traffic on their commute to work or in the middle seat with a crying baby next to them on a long flight.
As technology improves we will be able to find a cure for cancer and teleport to anywhere in the world using wormholes. We will be able to control more aspects of our environment to increase our quality of life.
What is needed to develop these technologies? Science! A.K.A more clues in the mystery that is the universe. We need to continue to expand our understanding of how the world works in order to advance technology.
Remember how I told you that you knew more than 95% of people? Well, the sad thing is this is probably the highest this number will be. Future generations will know more than we do because advancements in mathematics and science will have expanded human understanding. People born in the 30th century will look back and say thank goodness I wasn’t alive in the 21st century, those noobs knew nothing!
This is the unfortunate reality. We are going to miss out on the most interesting parts of the movie. We won’t get to see if humans crack teleportation, make realistic virtual worlds or develop tools for aging. We won’t ever truly solve the mystery of the universe.
This is why I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die because I want to learn how far we get in solving this mystery. I want to know more about the science of our universe. I want to see how far humans push technological development.
You wouldn’t want to stop watching a mystery movie halfway through.
– Mitch