Unlimited information Is transforming society

A historical overview of human progress. Technology is blurring the lines between consumers and producers, amateurs and professionals, and laypeople and experts. And for professors Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, we are just starting to understand the implications. In this insightful piece, they take us through pivotal moments in our history to contextualise the moment we're living in right now. "When we look back on the past 200 years or so, the manipulation of matter and energy stands out as a central domain of both scientific and technical advances. Techno-scientific innovations have sometimes delivered on their promises and sometimes not. Of the biggest advances, three really did change our lives — probably for the better — whereas two were far less consequential than people thought they would be. And one of the overarching impacts we now recognize in hindsight was only weakly anticipated: that by moving matter and energy, we would end up moving information and ideas."