The World: 1900-2019

The changes that have occurred since the year 1900 are less qualitative and more quantitative. The limits of where we have discovered is one good example. Antarctica had been sighted as early as 1820, but an inland expedition would not occur until 1901. After two World Wars and the Cold War, humanity has become an intermundial species. Technology has progressed to the point where 500 people have left Earth's atmosphere. Twelve of them have stepped foot on another world-Luna. We have sent unmanned probes to Sol, various planets, moons, and asteroids in our System, and beyond. Voyager I is the farthest manmade object from Earth. After more than 42 years, it has left the Sol System and is now more than 22 billion km from Earth-slightly more than 147x the distance Earth is from Sol. In October 2018, the Parker Solar Probe became the fastest manmade object at 68.6km/sec., just over Mach 200.

As for everyday transportation, the fastest one could travel was via steam engine-either on a locomotive or steamship. The automobile was invented in 1885, but would still have been seen as a plaything for the wealthy until Ford's Model T in 1908. The most common mode of transportation was still on foot, meaning that most of one's livelihood was in the same city or towns surrounding where they were born and lived until their death. In terms of cross-city transportation, the trolley and subway systems were in the midst of replacing horsecars. Mechanizing transportation replaced muscle power with machine power. The limited stamina of an animal gave way to more reliable methods. By the 1950's, the modern suburb developed in the United States, with many using cars to get around. Therefore, suburbanites could work 50km away from their homes. European public transportation has developed to the point where it is common to spend the day or weekend in another country. Some Shinkansen “bullet trains” in Japan can reach 600 kph, meaning Japanese people could work 150km from their home and still have only a half-an-hour commute.

Not only can we travel so widespread, but so can our information. The telephone was first patented in 1876. At the time, this was the fastest medium of communication, with only around a second of delay between sender and receiver. To be fair, this was better than previous forms of communication. Telegraphs could take minutes to be coded, their electrical signals sent through the "grapevines", and decoded. Telephones use direct audioverbal communication. However, telephones could only allow a user to talk with only one other user at a time. Today, the Internet encircles most of the world, and allows for the light speed communication between any number of people (that is, if they aren't on a college campus). Not only that, but it's being applied to so much of our societal activity, including business and commerce, gaming, audiovisual communication, data storage, video platforms, entire libraries and databases, governmental participation, ride-sharing, and more.

What haven’t changed are those that developed and use the technology. With these advancements in transportation and communication, the spread of humanity's influence is faster, farther, and more interconnected. We can learn so much more about ourselves and the Existence we live in. What we choose to do with this knowledge is a different story. The advancements of the 19th Century gave so much to the world, but also caused so much suffering, from environmental damage and unequal resource distribution to widespread pandemics and mass genocides. In his book, The Meaning of it All, Nobel Prize in Physics recipient and Manhattan Project developer Richard Feynman reflects about the merits of science and its effect on the world. He recants words of wisdom given to him by someone at a Buddhist temple in Hawaii, “To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell.” In 2019, just as in 1900, the same complex bipedal apes have the technology. History doesn’t repeat itself; human nature never changes. The amount of influence we have over our environment has grown, but what we choose to do with it will remain the same.

Indeed, we as a species advanced technologically at an exponential rate over the past century. This will is likely to only increase in the future. However, what has yet to develop is our collective attitudes and behaviors toward each other and the rest of Existence.