The Age of Acceleration: Coping with Tech, Climate, and Global Change

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I love technology. Looking at our historical track record of new technologies, I acknowledge that growing pains always surround the adoption of new technologies, but eventually we adapt and mostly learn to minimize the risks while maximizing the opportunities. I’d see my grandparents in their 70’s and 80’s struggle to learn how to make use of smart phones and password managers and online banking, etc. These advancements in convenience always seemed just beyond their grasp, and I remember the mix of affection and exasperation I felt for them as I’d try to advise them on the use of these technologies. I just couldn’t imagine being in a situation where I felt overwhelmed by new technology because I am the type of person to lean into the changes.

However, one of my tech-loving cousins recently sent me an article about something in the world of AI and robotics that left my head spinning. I was overwhelmed by a sudden sense of fear: am I, in my 40’s (much sooner than my septuagenarian grandparents), already at the point where technology has advanced beyond my ability to understand it? The fear was fleeting because I reassured myself that if I really wanted to understand it, I would do a deep dive into the subject and would eventually figure it out. What I have that my grandparents didn’t is years of learning experience giving me confidence in my adaptation skills (expectations, esteem).

However, that dizzying feeling of being outpaced by new technology was still a strong memory as I read Thomas L. Friedman’s 2016 work Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. Friedman’s big picture view of where we are in a historical context clarified a lot of recent experiences and what I’m reading in the news (and this also goes back to my thoughts about why certain groups are pushing for censorship). Friedman argues that we are in an age of accelerations of technology, climate change, and globalization. He says:

With so much changing so fast, it’s easier than ever today for people to feel a loss of “home” in the deepest sense [safety]. And they will resist. Addressing that anxiety is one of today’s great leadership challenges… In the meantime, if there is one overarching reason to be optimistic about the future… it is surely the fact that this mobile-broadband-supernova is creating so many flows and thus enabling so many more people to lift themselves out of poverty and participate in solving the world’s biggest problems. We are tapping into many more brains and bringing them into the global neural network to become “makers” [growth].

Friedman does point out that the intersection of globalization and technology has not only made it possible for a single maker to instigate powerful change but also for a single breaker to wreak immense havoc. Friedman’s expertise is in the Middle East and Africa where he spent years working as a journalist covering the region. He says, “The combination of failing states and failing agriculture [in the region] is producing millions of young people, particularly young men, who have never held a job [growth, esteem], never held power [autonomy], and never held a girl’s hand [social, esteem].” This means that essentially all of these young men’s Six Needs are suffering because many are also starving [physiological] and growing in chronically stressful environments [safety]. This makes them susceptible to being “preyed upon by jihadist-Islamist ideologues (with money),” who are finally able to help them meet almost all of their needs “if they go back to a seventh-century Islamist puritanical lifestyle.”

Friedman uses the jihadists as an example, but from my understanding, this is the reason for the success of most gangs striking terror into the heart of ordinary citizens—they are able to meet (most of) the needs of a class of people who are being failed by a wider society (however, the violence that they must use to take by force what they are not getting from the wider society means that their safety is always going to be in jeopardy).

Friedman’s suggestion for counteracting bad actor groups is to “think more seriously and urgently about how we can inspire more of what Dov Seidman calls ‘sustainable values’: honesty, humility, integrity, and mutual respect. These values generate trust, social bonds [social], and, above all, hope [autonomy].” This is important work, but in addition I think we have to focus on how we can help disadvantaged groups meet all Six Needs in order to make gangs/terrorist organizations look far less attractive.

Thank You for Being Late is somewhat lengthy (the hardcover print edition was over 400 pages), but I recommend it, especially if you’ve had a feeling of being unmoored in this age of accelerations. What acceleration (technology, globalization, climate change) has you most concerned? Are you doing anything in particular to help you cope with all of the change?