Critique on Leader and Dreamer
When we talk about the future, this is a pretty heeled and challenging argument. Specifically, when we try to analyze what is worth expecting over a period of time, we often overestimate what we can do in one to five years, and end up underestimating what we can do in the next two to three decades.
For that, suppose I ask a young man in the 1900s About the future. What can he say about the future, perhaps 50 or 100 years from then? Was he prepared enough to imagine three years after that the first controlled aircraft aired in 1903 by the Wright brothers? And less than a century, 1969, the first man set foot on the moon? I suspect it would be very strange for him to state anything close to that fact, he didn’t even know what the internet was until half a century later.
On Our Stake
To rationalize, take a look at what yesterday could tell us. The World War has shed a lot of clarity on how to strategize in a much more dynamic and accelerating era. 1928 the world was shocked with the latest Enigma machine, and how this led to the creation of an antidote called the “Bombe” which instantly tore down the greatness of the enigma even though it was renewed in 1939.
We see that there is a range of battles being won over a very unique strategy, they call it decrypting. What’s interesting is, how can a pile of iron and plastic patches decrypt? What makes them so efficient compared to some mathematicians who have spent dozens of years at the academy and haven’t yet come up with a single solution for their country?
Further we project, what makes machine learning so terrifying with its capabilities to the extent that we imagine tomorrow’s civilization being taken over by artificial intelligence? they don’t know more than we initially knew. What enabled them to soar so quickly that humanity took so many millennia to arrive on this day? What do they do better than us?
In a more contemporary scope, we know that China feels so annoying with the practice of copying products en masse. But the moral story is how it came from a country that lost the war, and then stood as the second country with the largest economy in the world competing with the US? What is more heroic is how China has even transformed from a culture of copying to innovation?
Defying the Odds
Uniquely, the above exposition seems to complement each other’s variable values. I think the pattern is quite clear, where the signs of the past and projections of the future can be reflected from the perceptions we see today.
It is very dramatic when we realize that the dilemma about the inefficiency of scholars in world war, the fear of artificial intelligence taking over civilization, and the birth of an economic giant are present over something we consider immoral, uncreative, unsustainable, unethical, primitive, and so on, namely imitating.
To me this is troubling while it feels unique, that today’s imitation is avoided. Whereas history clearly illustrates the role of imitation strategy, especially the current situation is more dynamic and accelerative than before, where speed and accuracy in acting and resulting in better execution is needed more than ever.
Identity in Remembrance
Of course, when trying to acculturate reflections from the past with worries about the future, it certainly has quite real implications. May I suspect, perhaps the meaning of imitation nowadays experiences a distortion so that it seems that the tendency to be imitators and followers can no longer be distinguished. It often undermines the whole process by denying the dialectical phase of discourse, and hopes that memorization without understanding will lead to utopia.
The impact, not a few are trapped in mere fanaticism. Without mentioning any party, I consider fanaticism as a virus that penetrates the spirit, it seems to change the structure of DNA and produce a program that seems better but is actually destructive.
Fanaticism is not the way of humans, we are not created for it, this contradicts the tendency that we are beings with consciousness, and being radical isn’t a mistake, it’s not-radical that brought a bigger mistake. for it is pointless whether left or right, black or white, north or south, earth or mars if we don’t try to find the root of all this, trying to reveal the meaning. This is so critical and essential that humanity is in danger of losing its meaning.
On Leader
Yet it is clear that the world offers a number of ways to answer. If I may argue, imitation is not about duplication, everyone can look for ideas and even steal ideas from one another, but not with their execution. it is the same with everyone, that we all feel difficulties and we can all show each other our difficulties, even we sometimes use the perspective of others about their difficulties to understand our difficulties. But what distinguishes one from the other is what does he do with that understanding and knowledge? What is their execution? The thing is steal the idea and make a better execution.
This has given us a broader view while being specific, we may understand the strategy but we question its realization. Likewise with the billions of people who have the opportunity, the ability does not come naturally when it comes from habits, habits formed by the awareness to be better than before.
On Dreamer
Now we know rampant climate change has been inflated for years. What is worrying is that maybe we have arrived at a tipping point for climate change. Where it is irreversible and all efforts are in vain. Dreaming of a world like the garden of Eden is in fact too difficult to dream of and sometimes brings nightmares due to the burden of despair.
We are amazed by some big names like Elon Musk with his mission to Mars, which we consider him as an ambitious and rich entrepreneur working 20 hours a day for 2 decades, yet we still call him a lucky person. At times Xi Jin Ping gallantly declared his Belt Road Initiative, with all his infrastructure and human development projects. We know he did that because he was president for life, he was freed from the shackles of the five-year political cycle, so he was natural enough to dream such long-term thoughts.
Then what about me, you and the person you are thinking about? I thought I was being honest. Is yesterday still so real to live with? Is tomorrow too impossible to hope for? we are not trapped in a 5 year cycle, we seem free to think that the next 2 seconds is death while planning in the 3rd second to be reborn. or even plan masterpieces to survive mass extinction for the next 1000 years. What is blocking us?
Calibration at The Edge
I see a similar pattern between varieties of social scales. We may see from the behavior of individuals that are considered depressed, who see themselves failing to interpret their achievements in their annual resolutions and spend their thoughts and time regretting. This certainly has an impact on the scoring and evaluation system in the individual, where he may judge too quickly and even use a ruler for incompatible and irrelevant things.
Coupled with social stigma and religious doctrine, for example when humans are prophesied to have an age of up to 70 years, it is interesting for us to examine the impact of this expression which is believed en masse, for someone who may be half a century old. Is it impossible for him or her to plan things long-term, and be more constructive for themselves? When the whole world thought they were going to pass away and looked at them half as a tombstone, and the thought of death tends to bring destructive tensions to both oneself and the environment.
I am afraid that everyone feels that the end of time (doomsday) is so near that even young people lose the ability to think long term and live their minds for a longer period of time in order to persistently respond to the challenges of the times. Until once again we set certain standards for short periods of time and very quickly judge even with a broken ruler, to the extent that we underestimate what we can achieve in two to three decades Even centuries or even Millennials ahead?
I wish someone would dare enough to dream and say “I would live another 200 or 2000 years.” Since this body speaks visions, and this head prophesies of a reality that is headed for destruction, but life is too consistent to be inconsistent, don’t be too serious to be sure.
Steve Benedict Mulyaputra
22 February 2021
