What I don’t
like about Steven Pinker mantra that “we are living in the best time” is that
he tends to ignore the fact that most societies from prehistory tend to
experience collapse at the very apex of their progress. It’s amazing to me that
Pinker can ignore the history of earlier societies that used up all
their resources, and/or destroyed their environments, leaving very little for
their future generations; again, all in the name of progress. His overly rosy
view never seems to address that.
Most
scientists strive to see the world from the evidence of objective reality; no
matter how difficulty the information may be, it must be accepted if scientific
consensus deems it to be valid. To me, that’s the essence of science. Pinker’s
approach fails to address the fact that we have all this wonderful progress directly
because we have been unsustainably overexploiting the planet’s resources – in a
sense, stealing from the happiness from future generations. For that, I believe
humanity will inevitably pay the price in the very near future. I
wholeheartedly believe that the suffering of future generations lies on the
foundation of today’s progress. It feels absolutely selfish to me for that not
to be recognized, as we bask in the blue glow of today’s technology. I say, enjoy
it while it lasts, because this progress is merely the illusion based directly
on borrowed time. In this sense, we are truly the architects of our own demise.
