When Will It Be Enough?

Life moves pretty fast, but we don’t seem to be gaining on anything

here is a famous intellectual exercise that attempts to show how time appears to speed up as we age. It involves a large funnel and a marble. At the beginning of our lives, the marble is at the very top, slowly spinning around the outside like a roulette wheel. It takes forever to go all the way around at first, but as time goes on, the marble begins to move further down the funnel, making each rotation tighter and therefore faster, until it’s going so fast, it’s almost a blur, at which point, the marble suddenly drops into darkness. That’s life as we know it.

Simultaneously, technology and innovation are constantly speeding up over time, and the distance from innovation to innovation keeps getting shorter. Faster, smaller, brighter, lighter. Lately, it feels like technology is outpacing humanity, which I’m sure is what it felt like when the car was invented and suddenly wagon wheel makers found themselves out of work; folks zipping around in motorized horse carriages.

For all the talk, major disruptions due to innovation are rare and take longer than we realize. When you’re in the midst of it, there’s no way to know whether what you’re experiencing is a true paradigm shift or merely a passing trend. Consider the initial rise of the internet: it transformed communication and commerce in ways that seemed revolutionary, but its full impact took decades to unfold. The same could be said for the introduction of electricity, the telephone, and the airplane.

The perception of accelerating change can feel overwhelming, creating a sense that we are constantly on the brink of something monumental. Yet, true innovation that fundamentally alters the fabric of society often happens gradually, with many small steps leading up to a significant breakthrough. This incremental progress can be hard to notice in real time but becomes evident in hindsight.

As technology advances, it also brings about new challenges and uncertainties. Ethical dilemmas, privacy concerns, and the potential for job displacement are just a few of the issues that accompany rapid technological growth. These concerns are not new; they echo the anxieties of previous generations faced with their own technological revolutions.

However, there is an underlying resilience in humanity's ability to adapt. Each wave of innovation has ultimately led to new opportunities, industries, and ways of living that were previously unimaginable. The key lies in our capacity to learn, evolve, and embrace the changes while mitigating the potential downsides.

In the end, life’s relentless pace and technology’s unyielding march forward are constants we must navigate. Like the marble in the funnel, our journey may feel increasingly rapid as we age, but it is also filled with moments of beauty, learning, and growth. By staying curious and adaptable, we can make the most of the ride, ensuring that when the marble finally drops, we’ve experienced a life rich with purpose and connection.

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