Good morning, John, earlier this week I tweeted a question that I thought was interesting: "Do you think we will still be using phones in 200 years?" and by "phones" I mean cute little hand computers.

Side note - I maintain that we call these things "phones" because we saw that their implications were so psychologically overwhelming we needed to give them a name that was really familiar. Being a phone is one of the 500 things this does, like, calling it a phone is like calling it a flashlight. But, whatever, Steve Jobs was like "iPhone!" so we're stuck with "phone," it will always be called a phone.

I think this is a really interesting question because we've had these things for, like, fifteen years - so not very long! - and yet life seems kind of impossible without them. Like, here are the kinds of answers I got to this question:

Number one: "I sure hope not! I hope that I'm not using my phone in x number of years!" but do you? Do you really? I like this thing, I don't just use it because I'm addicted to it, it is a shockingly useful rectangle.

Some people thought that we were gonna return to a slower, more traditional way of life, I don't really see that happening personally. Some thought that in 200 years we'd exist in some kind of metaverse where we wouldn't need any physical objects at all. That also seems unlikely... to me- to me! Like, I don't know!

And some people thought that their functionality would be somehow implanted into our eyeballs or our skin or whatever, like I think that that might- that's possible, but I also... even with that, I think it would also be nice to have a sturdy little rectangle around.

But also a very common response to this question was "Hank, you think humans are gonna be around in 200 years?" implying - in a joking way - that, like, "you think we can make it through this?"

Now, I admit to being the most optimistic of the duo here, but I think that both of us, John, agree that humans are gonna exist in 200 years and probably with significantly more advanced technology than we have right now. Like th- that's the most likely outcome.

Look, I get it, we're not done with the pandemic part and yet we are transitioning somehow into the- the tremendous-geopolitical-instability-caused-by-a-dictator-with-a-bunch-of-nukes-invading-a-neighboring-country-and-starting-a-horrific-and-unnecessary-war part. And we get to do that under the cloud of a global climate changing faster than it maybe has ever changed in the history of the planet.

Doesn't feel good, I agree, we've got, like, the cultural upheaval of a communications technology revolution, lining up with the physical upheaval caused by an energy revolution that occurred over the last 200 years! And yes, humans do have the technology necessary - and the weapons built - to destroy ourselves many times over. Why? I don't know. I don't know! Why? Why?!

Also, I get that this is a joke, it's just a joke that I hear a lot and I'm starting to like less. Maybe it's through repetition, but mostly it's the sort of, like, giving-into-hopelessness vibe that, like, that's the sort of fun thing to do is just be like "ah! Hopelessness! Let's just give up, everybody!"

I'm not saying that we are actually giving up, I don't see anyone actually giving up, I'm just saying talking about it makes it seem like giving up might be the cool thing to do, when it's definitely not, like, it's a betrayal of the future. It's a betrayal of the past, too! It's also a betrayal of the present! Don't give up!

We are only past saving when we believe that we are past saving. And I don't see anyone acting that way, not even close. I see people working hard for themselves and their families and their countries and their planet. I see people disagreeing, but I don't see them anywhere close to giving up.

This is a hard moment, and obviously different scales of bad for different people, and I don't know what to do about it. I read commentary from experts, I listen to them interviewed on podcasts, and what I hear is "this is bad, we don't know how to fix it, and we don't know what the future holds." But I do know that 15 years ago, we thought this might be a phone.

When I graduated from college, I could not imagine this thing even existing. I had an mp3 player that could fit thirteen songs on it, and now I am having a hard time imagining a future TWO HUNDRED YEARS from now, where we don't have them!

We never know where we're headed. Times are rarely precedented. But no-one is acting like they're hopeless, and that gives me plenty of hope. John, I'll see you on Tuesday.