America’s Future: Enlightenment or Dystopia?

The technological revolution will present a myriad of opportunities to advance humanity’s collective interests in ways that have never before been possible.

What we do with these opportunities will depend on the choices we make.

Social media is among the first of these opportunities. It represents the first wave of the technological revolution and provides an obvious path toward greater enlightenment.

Leveraging social media to create a path toward greater enlightenment will require a conscious and collective choice. It will require that we value intelligence over ignorance and learning over entertainment. It will also require that we prioritize the public interest over corporate profits.

The History of Enlightenment

Prior to the 18th century, most of western civilization’s collective knowledge came from the world’s churches and monarchies. It wasn’t until the 18th century that knowledge became more widely accessible, through the writings of scientists and philosophers like Newton, Voltaire, and Kant, in what became known as The Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment ushered in a new era of consciousness in which knowledge, access to information and a free exchange of ideas flourished. Scientific academies, literary salons, and coffee houses…