WITHOUT ONE ANOTHER

April 9th, 2022

Our agency is a function of our connection to other people. We take it for granted all the things we have at our disposal. We complain about the gadget that arrives barely a day after ordering, failing to realize how many people it took to bring the trinket into existence, and then get it before our disapproving eyes. But our successes too are likewise bound to others. Elon Musk did not personally construct the rockets and the cars associated with his companies - it was done by armies of people, employed and directed with good ideas. Civilization itself is nothing more than the network that exists between us. When that network is stable, we call it civilization, and when it lacks stability, we call it war.

Think of all the computer programers and software engineers who did not actually build the internet, nor the computers their programs run on. Again, it’s a network with countless layers stitched together.

Or contemplate how long it would take a single person to craft a single needle and thread if left on their own in the wilderness. A single needle and thread - something so common, so simple, and yet still a complex product of an incredible effort of industrialization and mechanization of skill and manufacturing.

In essence and in practicality, we are nothing without each other.