The 25 Year Bet

Kevin Kelly is apart of the Wired company as an executive editor who was determined to interview Patrick Sale about his ideology. 

Patrick Sale is an author who wrote a book that told the story of workers fighting against machinery of the Industrial Revolution. Kelly hated Sales book as it insulted Kelly’s personal beliefs. Sale believed that it striped away labor from workers whereas Kelly saw it as an easier way to do work. 

The bet made is that Sale believes society would collapse in 2020 and Kelly challenged him to bet on it. As stated in the text, twenty five years later the economy has been at an all time high. The mere dollar is nowhere near the value it held 25 years ago.

 The state of environmental disaster has increased, but nobody seems to care as much as they should. Sea levels have risen, fires galore, and diseases spreading, the environment has done nothing but take a deep dive downwards. The rich and poor debate was had to determine as many foreign countries have improved dramatically in the past 25 years. However the United States hasn’t improved in the way it should have. If they were to determine the fall of a society, they should have taken the idea of politics into consideration.

They should’ve also taken into consideration the obvious answer of media and technology. The difference in political opinions has become a very detrimental part of society in the past 25 years. The importance of freedom and unity comes from politics and it seems to yank people apart from being a common society. As technology became more accessible and universal, it completely changed the way we communicate as we would have 25 years ago.

 I think in 25 years there will hopefully be a vast number of medical advances that change the way we get treatment. I also think there will be a future where the cost of living for all will decrease vastly or it could go up even more. 

To learn more about this topic, I’ve included a video that further discusses the affect technology has on society.