WIRED founder Kevin Kelly explains why progress often looks like dystopia to the untrained eye.
Imagine that tomorrow, the world magically got 1% better. Nobody would notice. But if the world got 1% better every year, the “compounding” effect would be very noticeable — in the same way that compounding grows a bank account.
When technology solves a problem, it creates new problems. The solution is not less technology but better technology.
Kevin Kelly of WIRED magazine calls this incremental progress toward a better world “protopia.” Protopia is a direction, not a destiny.