Dear reader from the future,
The public square is so loud about issues with the highest human engagement (like angst and its relatives) where the highest profit is. And the algorithm knows when to offer “the good stuff,” strategically ordering content to ensure that we get hooked on what we consume, oblivious about how long we’ve already been using the platform (or used by it).
Do we still have control over ourselves? Or have we lost our will to not grab our phone and check our social media accounts first thing in the morning?
How about you reader from the future? What do you do right after waking up?
Today, I woke up to the voices of the angry mob, raising their voices against all the political drama happening in the Philippines. A country that is supposed to be united is now crumbling from the inside. And people are upset and are torn to pick a side. Why do we have to choose a side?
It’s easy to be distracted by all this noise and focus on a narrow view. But you know what? Yesterday, while listening to a diplomat discuss world powers and what happens when a new world order emerges, I began to have a bird’s-eye view. I learned that the turmoil my country is experiencing is connected to greater conflicts between world powers.
I also learned that we shouldn’t resist change, such as the ubiquity of phones and artificial intelligence and the rise of China.
Is war inevitable? Would we survive if it ever happened? Would you still be able to read this letter? Maybe I wouldn’t be here by then, and this blog would probably be dead. I wonder if the world order has changed by the time you have read this, and what we consider a new world order is simply the world order to you.
Your letter writer from the past,
Jessa
jessa 