Op-Ed

In 1925, the world was all shiny and new again. The “War to End All Wars” had receded from the forefront of minds, and life could hardly be better for many, as the Roaring Twenties were in full swing. The Jazz Age, baby!

But now we’re looking 2025 in the eye and the burning question of the day is, which would you choose? The sure thing of life in 1925, fully aware of what’s to come? Or the totally non-sure thing of 2125, knowing approximately less than zero – with a few possibly educated guesses thrown in – of what faces you?

Seeing as how fully one-half of the deal is unknown, this is clearly not an obvious choice situation, but it’s that 50 percent worth of speculation that fuels inquiring minds. Personally, I have no dog in this particular hunt. In fact, I’ll be assuming the posture of a carefree dog who’s just eaten and flopped on the porch, maybe, or maybe not, to render a verdict when my canine self might choose. For now, let’s take a venture into the known.

Back in 1925

By 1925, on the heels of a deadly influenza epidemic and with WWI in the rear view, the cork was out of the bottle, and let’s not let a little thing such as Prohibition, which ran from 1920-1933, interfere with our raging hot time. If you couldn’t locate a friendly speakeasy or a bottle of Legs Diamond’s blinder juice for your adult beverage needs, you weren’t giving it the ol’ college try, is the way I understand it, so maybe we need not fret over that quite so much. Instead, let’s put on our dancing shoes and give the Charleston a whirl.

Or not. Foolishness aside for the moment, let’s take a gander at some salient 1925 facts for a little background and scene setting.
In 1925, March 4 specifically, “Silent” Calvin Coolidge became the first US president to have his inauguration broadcast on the radio. By the end of the month, Ft. Wayne, IN, radio station WOWO first hit the airwaves, missing its singular opportunity to broadcast Cal’s inauguration. And, in what was incontestably the most important accomplishment of the year, at least to yours truly, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was published.

But two months later, along came “radiovision,” eventually to thoroughly wipe out any advances Gatsby had introduced to the human party, although it would take a few decades to fully complete its mission. Oh, yeah, “radiovision?” That would be Charles Frances Jenkins pulling off the first public demonstration of what would more commonly become known as television. The following month brought the Scopes trial, to determine the guilt or innocence of high school teacher, John T. Scopes, charged with violating Tennessee state law by teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. And at some point over the course of the year, New York City overtook London as the most populous city on the planet. Ta-dum.

1925 was a time when the electrification (hooray for electricity!) of the United States really got rolling, leading to such inventions as refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and washing machines, and in turn credit became more available and advertising bloomed. Mass production assembly lines were everywhere the eye could see. Meanwhile, women had just recently achieved – a half-century prior to being able to have a credit card in their own name sans some dude cosigning, only one of the multitude of cockamamie things we have done around here that strike yours truly as abominably ridiculous – the ability to vote.

To the land of unknown

Alright, enough of that for the moment – it’s high time we venture into the land of the unknown, the possibly known, and the unknowable. For now, let’s pretend we know something.

Springing ahead, here in the good ol’ US of A, the likelihood of the country having cleaved itself into two separate entities, or even thirds, by 2125 is not low. Problematic? Who knows, although the getting there part could get a little, let’s say, fraught. At the same time, museums and zoos will be critical if the living humans of the time have an interest in seeing or otherwise knowing about many aspects of nature that we take for granted in 2024, so much of the world’s natural habitat having been altered or perhaps even completely destroyed through a combination of factors, including, of course, climate change and the propensity of the human race to annihilate or at least artlessly alter pretty much anything that fails to yield economic benefits.

Let’s stop here to ask ourselves: Were Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos ahead of things? I’m going with a yes on that one, leastwise on the idea-of-it-all front and not so much on the fraud part. But that leads to this gain-of-function notion: Am I interested in living in a world where, before your little infant self can even physically see clearly, which they say happens around the age of one, a single, one-drop blood test would instantly generate the entire arc of your future health challenges mapped out ahead of you, up to and including what pops up to ultimately bring about your demise? Yes, yes, it’s understood we’re getting there as we speak. But let’s think of the implications for a sec. For one, insurance companies could go wild with access to this information – seems to me we all can figure out where that’ll wind up. For two … well, first we need to resolve number one.

Progress?

On the other hand, even on an anecdotal level, many of us can look around today and see that folks who may have succumbed to this or that malady a scant 25 years ago are nowadays, thanks to medical advances, not only surviving their particular affliction, but indeed living longer and enjoying reasonably fruitful lives. An intriguing fact (true or alternative?) that splattered across my windshield lately regarding scientists of the world perhaps explains some of this progress. Years ago, years that many of us recall more clearly than what we had for lunch yesterday, this little tidbit stated that around half the world’s scientific community was, back in the days of mutually assured destruction and whatnot, engaged in the development of weapons and weapons system, while these days many of that community have been freed up to work on such things as helping folks be healthier rather than annihilated. I wouldn’t mind seeing more proof of this, but for now it helps with moving things along on this page.

There’s a solid body of thought that antibiotics, whose development flourished in the years following 1925, will have been rendered essentially useless by 2125. Is this or is this not problematic? Let’s assume for a moment that the advancements alluded to a couple paragraphs back continue along an upward trajectory. In that case, at first blush, maybe that’s not as problematic as it might seem. However, let’s keep in mind that 100 years from now is not exactly the same as a slow, lazy summer in the future, but maybe more like the third base seat at the blackjack table.

A global language with one currency under a single, worldwide government?

Will 2125 find us all speaking in one global language? I’d bet my vast, inexhaustible, enormous store of riches that a hearty no is the answer to this. But how about a single, worldwide government running this show? It’s tough to throw my support behind this one, although it’s demanding consideration. Hedging a bit, I’d say it’s not by any means a probability, but it’s certainly a possibility, two or three sections of what once was the United States of America included.

Leading to this: Will the planet operate under one world currency? More than once, the thought has invaded my rebar-reinforced Dutch-German skull that cryptocurrency is a major crock – what makes that easy for me to say is that it may help to invest more than putting in 11 seconds (nearly equaling the amount of time I spent concerning myself with 10th grade geometry before spending the rest of the school year formulating my appeal to the teacher for a pardon at the conclusion of that unfair sentence) of looking into it before throwing up my hands. Assuming – which is not difficult to do – that I’m way, way off on this one, and that cryptocurrency in some form or another takes over our financial doin’s, well, yay. Although I’d think by then “they” might have concocted some other device for making money-related things happen that doesn’t operate so opaquely while simultaneously sucking up so much in the way of resources.

AI has yet to enter this conversation. And it’s not going to. Let’s be happy to allow it to stew over whatever it is it might think is going on here.

On a personal level, when the calendar turns to 2125, I’m pulling for at least one of two positive developments to have occurred: That either Judge Crater or D.B. Cooper has been located, which would constitute an advancement in social progress of the type I’m certain we can all get behind. Should both mysteries be solved, rest assured I’ll be ecstatic, wherever I am.

I was this close to prognosticating that in 2125, the New York Jets will win the Super Bowl, their second such title in 156 years, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Tell you the truth, if the all-mighty, all-powerful National Football League hasn’t, by 2125, been reduced to some version of flag football, which I suspect is highly likely, I’ll send New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft lunch money. Have you ever seen anything all-mighty, all-powerful last forever? Okay, then. I didn’t think so.

We’ve arrived at the end of our carnival ride for today. Which will it be? 1925? 2125? Me? Hmmmmmm. Made you look!