Collectively we work wonders.

Look around you and what do you see?  If you're in the city, your panorama is probably dominated by human constructions.  If you're in a rural environment, the natural world of trees, plants and other aspects of an organic landscape might come to the fore, but I bet there's also plenty of man-made material around, including whatever electronic device you're using to read this post.  The human species has certainly made its mark on the planet, a lot of it positive but regrettably, a huge amount of it has been negative.

I'd like the spin of this post to be primarily positive.  I'm fed up with moaning!  When we look around at what humans have designed and produced, how much do we personally feel able to reproduce?  I can drive a car, but could I design and manufacture an automobile?  Probably not, or at least I've never tried.  That's not to say I have no knowledge and skills.  Indeed there are many things I can do, which many others can't do.  However, my skills are not unique, so likewise many others are capable of doing what I can do. The point is that we are surrounded by human achievement, old and new, which has only been possible by collective efforts.  What's more, there is a 'force multiplier' that comes into play when we work together, so 1+1+1 is much greater than 3.

Human achievement throughout the ages has been phenomenal.  We marvel at Egyptian pyramids, Roman ruins and ancient cathedrals.  Likewise we should be equally impressed with televisions, computers and jet aeroplanes.  We will, of course, recognise the way that in all these examples and countless more, human effort has been brought together to achieve collectively wonderous outcomes, which each individual would be incapable of doing alone.

Some of the consequences of our ingenuity were no doubt unintended and in some cases potentially disastrous, like nucleur weapons, climate change and massive environmental damage.  That said, I don't want this post to be negative so let's look to a positive future.  If mankind has achieved so much to date, why aren't similar achievements possible in the future?  Of course anything is possible.  The benefit of hindsight has highlighted what went wrong, so let's learn from experience and correct some of our past mistakes as well as work towards some really positive outcomes.

I'll end this post with a lovely quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."