Being a Good Ancestor

Reflection

New Year’s Eve, 1879. This was when Carl Benz ran the first one cylinder engine which began the technological transition from carriage to car. Prior to this date, trains and horses were the primary forms of long distance land travel. Personal autonomous vehicles were an inventor’s fantasy, a figment of the wealthy imagination. Flash forward to 1908. Henry Ford introduced the Model T, one of the first cars accessible to the masses. In less than 30 years, ideas that were once thought to be impossible became commercially available. People published idealized visions of the future: flying refrigerators, alchemy, helicars… the list goes on. Nobody could have imagined that we would be able to find any piece of information through a couple simple keystrokes on a device that fits in the palm of your hand.

I was born in 1999, the year of the Blackberry. The world has changed a lot since 1879. The Internet is very real, and humanity is finally aware of its impact on the environment. I have lived on this Earth for 21 years. The Blackberry has since become obsolete, we made new discoveries about the workings of the universe, and we found new problems to tackle. Alternative energy became a huge sector for technological advancement, as companies have invested in more efficient ways of converting wind, solar, and hydropower into electricity. Some brilliant inventors even found ways to convert kinetic energy and stress into electricity. We also saw technological advancement in other areas: artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and stem cell research to name a few. Even after living on this Earth for only 21 years, it still noticed so many huge advancements.

Yesterday, I was thinking about how far we have come. So many of these advancements have been due to the mathematical genius of physicists and engineers. How many geniuses are born over the course of one’s life? Why are they so rare? What will geniuses do to alter the world over the course of my life? Obviously, everyone wants to put their mark on the world in order to make it a better place, but only a select few have the mental capabilities to create something entirely profound and original. Before doing this exercise, I thought about what other people will do in my lifetime to drastically change the world. Now, I have been thinking more about what I can do to change the world only a little bit.

Unfortunately, I am not a genius. I do not have the mathematical capability to develop my own A.I. or create a more efficient form of alternative energy. However, I do have the capacity to generate interest in these areas. Maybe the legacy I need to leave behind is not something concrete, but rather a new idea: something that will generate genuine interest in sustainability, not just an economic interest. This exercise along with prior blog posts have made me think about how I can articulate the beauty of life. Sustainability centers around the concept that all life is beautiful and worth protecting. Many geniuses were moved by this concept: to look beyond self interest and see how humanity and the planet can benefit from their actions. If more people were moved by this concept, who knows how far humanity could come in 100 years.

Sidenote:

Hey Professor Foley,

I sent you an email earlier this week about my grade for the TEDxPSU blog post, but I just want to make sure that this message comes through. I understand that you could not find my video for the TEDxPSU post. I believe that I posted the video as a separate blog titled “TEDxPSU Video Pitch”. It should be right underneath the post titled “TEDxPSU Speech”. Let me know if you have any trouble accessing or viewing the video.

Best,

Gavin