Ally Rooney

Look closely. Between these two moments, our species has performed miracles. We have mapped the blueprint of life within our own DNA. We have built “brains” of silicon that can outthink their creators. We have pushed back the darkness of disease. Infant mortality has plummeted, and millions of children who would have been lost to the earth in 1972 are today alive, dreaming, and contributing to the global chorus. We have sent robotic emissaries to the edge of the interstellar dark and peered back at the beginning of time itself through mirrors of gold. Technologically, we are a different species. We are more connected, more informed, and more capable than any ancestor could have imagined in their wildest fever dreams. And yet, look again. From this distance, the borders remain invisible. You cannot see the “holy” ground over which we spill the blood of our children. You cannot see the walls we build to keep our neighbors out or the ideological trenches we dig to bury our common humanity. Despite our leap from vacuum tubes to artificial intelligence, we remain haunted by the same ancient tribalisms. We use 21st century technology to prosecute Bronze Age grudges. We have changed the climate of our world, but we have yet to change the climate of our hearts. We are still a toddler civilization, playing with matches in a library of irreplaceable wonders. The contrast is our great paradox. We have the power of gods, but we still possess the temperaments of the territorial primates from which we rose. We have learned to fly between worlds, but we are still struggling to learn how to walk together on this one.