Progress is defined as gradual advancement and improvement, especially in terms of society and the human condition.
For many people progress is nearly synonymous with technological development. While this is clearly the case with respect to something such as dentistry, technology comes with trade offs. We only need to look at the toxic and carcinogenic industrial substances and chemicals in our food, air, and water, the ever-present electromagnetic radiation, noise pollution, or the loss of privacy to see that technological development is not always a panacea.
Die Technologie ist mittlerweile so weit fortgeschritten, dass wir einen Großteil unseres Lebens in einer digitalen Scheinwelt verbringen. Abgesehen von den psychologischen Auswirkungen (Entfremdung, Depression, Mobbing, Stress und Sucht) gibt es das ...
Technology has now advanced to such a degree that we willingly spend a significant portion of our lives in a digital semblance of reality. Beyond the psychological impact (alienation, depression, bullying, stress, and addiction) there's problem in the clip above...
Collectively, there's no turning back, but individually we can seek to find a balance. This week I am going to engage in a bit of escapism, and use technology to visit the past. One thing that struck me right away is the realization that progress can't be disassociated from population growth. One look at the graph below reveals the dilemma -- our once stable world population exploded in the middle of the 20th century. If we had today's technology with a world population of 2.5 billion people as we did in 1950, it would be easier to imagine a rosy scenario – but in only six decades it has increased by an additional five billion people.
Explosion
San Francisco 1851
San Francisco 2018
Kollektiv gibt es kein Zurück mehr, aber individuell können wir versuchen, ein Gleichgewicht zu finden. Diese Woche werde ich ein wenig aus der Gegenwart flüchten und die Technologie nutzen, um in die Vergangenheit einzutauchen. Eine Sache, die mir sofort auffiel, ist die Erkenntnis, dass Fortschritt nicht vom Bevölkerungswachstum zu trennen ist. Ein Blick auf diese Grafik zeigt das Dilemma -- unsere einst stabile Weltbevölkerung ist Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts explodiert. Wenn wir die Technologie von heute mit einer Weltbevölkerung von 2,5 Milliarden Menschen hätten, wie wir es 1950 hatten, wäre es leichter, sich ein rosiges Szenario vorzustellen - aber in nur sechs Jahrzehnten ist sie um zusätzliche fünf Milliarden Menschen gewachsen.
The Great Depression
So I decided to explore the Appalachian region of Tennessee in the midst of the Great Depression in 1933. At that time America had a population of about 125 million people, land was plentiful. Today that number has increased to nearly 325 million.
Family trumps technology
By today's standards people were monetarily poor. Instead of food stamps the people there tended to have gardens, and were self sufficient in many other areas. Families were generally intact, mass shootings, and heroin and meth addiction were unknown.
"The Glandon family around the fireplace in their home at Bridges Chapel near Loydston[sic], Tennessee. Glandon's wife plays both the guitar and the organ."
Nach heutigen Maßstäben waren die Menschen arm, aber anstelle von Essensmarken hatten die Menschen dort Gärten und waren in vielen anderen Dingen Selbstversorger. Familien waren überwiegend intakt, „Mass-Shootings“ sowie Heroin- und Meth-Sucht waren unbekannt.
Mr. Glandon rents his land and rebuilt his cabin himself.
Mr. Glandon pachtete das Land und baute sein Haus selbst.
The Great Escape begins tomorrow, hope you come back and join me.
Photos
Lead photo & progress graph are free use no attribution needed stock image collages.
Population graph if from Wikipedia
San Francisco 1851 is from Wikicommons
Glandon Family 1933 photos are from national archives, free use. Colorized & effects by
