Book Smart vs. Real Smart

As a society, we know a lot about a lot of things.  When I think about how much more I know about how the universe works than I did even five years ago, I'm amazed.  When I think about how much more I know about how the universe works than my grandfather did... I can't even really wrap my head around that.  There are things I remember reading about in his old Popular Science magazines, wacky predictions no one took seriously, that are real right now.  Some of the stuff my grandfather used to chuckle about I take for granted every day.

So what?
   Why the blasphemous question?  What do I mean, 'so what?'  Isn't the advancement of science its own reward?  Don't we all benefit?  Aren't social revolutions enabled by the ubiquity of our technology?

Well, sure.  Technology and science have enabled many things, not the least of which is populist uprisings in countries where that sort of thing was once thought impossible. Egypt, I'm looking your way.  But... I'm not so certain the gee-whiz advancements of science and technology have made their way into our social consciousness.

Time was, forty years ago, the United States had sent men to the Moon over and over again, and science and technology was riding high.  Social advancement was on the rise too, with equality for minorities and women becoming not just a wish, but a mandate.  Society and social consciousness were on the fast track to change.  And, man, as far as technology was concerned, things kicked into high gear.  Tech and science exploded, giving us all the many attention-grabbing and focus-eroding devices we have today.

Social science?  After about ten years of true progress it all ground to a halt.  Sure, we now have a growing equality movement for gay people that didn't exist forty years ago, but we still have an income gap for women, and an increasingly impoverished middle class, and an all-but-extinct working class.  The Supreme Court seems to think that corporations are people and that money doesn't corrupt the political process.  We're working backwards.  What we gained by miles decades ago we're losing by inches now.  And all the technology and science doesn't seem to make a difference.

It's time to leave aside being book smart, at least for a while.  We need to be real smart.  People smart.  Compassionate.  Human.  Money isn't everything, it's not even really important.  Neither is the next wireless standard, or how many thousands of miles away we can be and still kill someone, or which app lets a corporation dig deeper into our personal information.  What matters is what we do with that technology to make the world a better place.  To help others.  To improve the lives of everyone, not just a lucky few.  It's time to stop being selfish and start putting the interests of others before our own.  It's only then that we'll truly earn the advancements of science and technology.