Like millions of other people, today I was getting to work in a comfortable metal box, which is set in motion by a controlled explosion of a thing that is tens of millions of years old (you used to call it gasoline).
I was able to avoid traffic jams with the help of huge devices that fly in space and transmit signals through the air to a supercomputer in my pocket, which is smaller than a bar of soap (you call it a phone). My personal supercomputer has access to all the information available to humanity, and I can search for it as fast as my hands allow me. And almost all of it is absolutely free!
And nobody gives a damn about it.
At work, I am developing software that can only be seen, but cannot be touched, and I press different buttons on the keyboard. For some reason, I also get paid for it.
In the supermarket, I looked at the bananas that were transported for me across thousands of kilometers, remaining fresh, delicious and so cheap that I didn't even pay attention to their price. I enjoy food without thinking that it may be poisoned, toxic or deadly. I don't have to hunt to get meat, but it's enough to come to the store and buy a delicious chicken, paying for it with a small piece of plastic. If I run out of money, there are whole industries competing with each other to lend it to me.
I understand that, like many others, I live among miracles. My trip to the supermarket could not have taken place without the work of thousands of people, ranging from engineers and farmers to cashiers and sellers. Some of these people have a dream job, most of them dream of another, but together we are a prosperous society that is thousands of steps ahead, compared to our ancestors who built shacks and grew vegetables in gardens.
Is our world perfect? Of course not. Many people are exploited, live in terrible conditions and die. Having walked through the slums of Africa, India and South America, I know what I'm talking about.
But we are developing, and everything is getting better. Take a look at the history of mankind and you will understand the trend. Draw a graph of women's rights, per capita income, or a person's standard of living over the last thousand years. Compare the life of a child now and 50 years ago, and you will understand how wonderful it is that they can just live without dying during childbirth or preparing for war at the age of ten.
There will be downturns in these charts, but the trend is that our world is constantly getting better and will get better and better in the near future. If you are able to read this, then you are living in an incredible time. But the funny thing is that most of us don't even understand it. Do you understand?
