E02 - “While We Were Looking Over There”

Think about where we were technologically just 10 years ago, when everybody was really excited about our utopian tech-driven future.

Netflix used to mail you DVDs, now they spend $15 billion a year feeding their content algorithms. Google used to cutely offer you the “i’m feeling lucky” option, now they predict your searches before you finish typing them. Snapchat and Instagram didn’t exist yet, and Facebook was still a place where you could find someone under 45.

With modern smartphones, we have more technology in our pocket than what NASA had to send humans to the moon. We have more information at the tip of our fingers than all the libraries of the ancient world. We can make a few taps and gestures and food or drugs or people show up to where we are.

But think about it. To the ancient world, we’d seem like a society of depressed wizards.