Moving Forward

There's a lot of feeling lately that our civilization is in crisis. For that matter, I feel it myself.

Too many people, though, have answers that involve moving backwards. For example, they say we, as a society, should stop helping those who have fallen on hard times except, possibly, through grudging 'voluntary' charity.

Or they say we don't need any more technological development. Should not explore, should not reach out. (Exploring and reaching out, for the sake of it, is a human trait to be nurtured, not abandoned).

I've believed my entire life that the solution to our problems lies not in going back to the past, not in abandoning anything, but in continuing to move forward and to learn. Technology and science are good things. We are a technological species, have been since the first member of genus homo worked out how to create and command fire.

We always will be, unless we evolve into something else. I believe that if we do, however, we will cease to be, in any meaningful sense, human.