Some thoughts during Thanksgiving...

Nov 23, 2018

By Arvind Pereira

This Thanksgiving, while giving thanks to everyone for all that we've been given so far, it might also be worth considering another important question:

What can we do to try to move closer together to make this world a better place for our future generations?

Photo by Payton Ferris on Unsplash

Just wanted to share a couple of videos to help provide some context to 3 points I think might help us better work toward answering that question. (Only 5 minutes of your time, I promise):

a) Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot (just 3 minutes):

b) Video from Harrison Metal's website on our cognitive differences:

(Only the first 2 minutes of the 2nd video are sufficient to get the point I'm trying to make.)

Here are the 3 points I wanted to make:

  1. The earth is so small compared to the universe. Human timelines are so small as compared to that of life on Earth, let alone that of the entire universe. Instead of staying divided, we need to unite as human beings so we can make this world a better place.

  2. Our perception of reality in this world is often colored by our lenses of experience. We cannot hope to change the world for the better without first recognizing that we're wearing these goggles of experience that distort our cognition, and look for a more accurate representation of what's actually happening in the world.

  3. Our diversity of views and experiences is a strength, not a weakness. But only if we're willing to have conversations with open minds.

Most of the problems facing the world are really complex, and if we don't even have an accurate view of the state of the world, we cannot hope to find common ground that is necessary to solve these complex problems well. It is imperative for the sake of our future generations that we are able to unite instead of get further divided by ideologies that do not help solve the problems we face as humanity.

I hope those 2 videos help stimulate some thinking into a more united way of looking at the world's problems, instead of the increasingly polarized world view that seems to be getting ever more popular today. It is deeply disturbing to me that we're moving in that direction, and that the kinds of algorithms and technology that we help build as engineers might be contributing even more to this - we need to find ways to improve this precious pale blue dot!