Thank you to everyone involved with Whole Earth for the inspiring conversations you’ve sparked over the years, including the ones happening on this stage tonight. I feel honored to be here with you, and particularly to share the stage with Stephanie Mills.
I come from the Back to the Future generation. In just a few decades, we’ve made advances in technology that have put super computers in our pockets that we can charge with the power of the sun. Things we only dreamed of in science fiction and that feed the sense that someday, maybe when we have hover cars, the world will be different.
Throughout my life, there’s always been this deification of technology, this belief that technology will save us all, whether it’s from our own mortality or the damage we’ve done to the planet and other species. But there is no high-tech silver bullet that can change the realities of nature, including the fact that we’re part of it and that it has its limits.
Technology has done amazing things. Despite its drawbacks, I enjoy being part of the Age of Information as much as the next daily google user and I look forward to the longer life span that technology promises me. And there’s a long list of advances like solar energy and water purification that are a key part of mitigating decades of environmental exploitation.
But technology isn’t our savior. It’s a tool – and not even the most important one. We don’t need to wait for technology to save us, nor can we afford to do so.
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