Our technological capacities are staggering. We have the potential to collect, analyze, and communicate the intricacies of our ecological systems to everyone, everywhere, instantaneously. Farm technology and advances in agricultural science allow producers to understand their land on every ecological, economical, and molecular level. Inputs and outputs are understood, monitored, and tracked in real time by highly sophisticated equipment directed by GPS technology. If there is a problem, the farmer will know. Moreover, that farmer will communicate. They will communicate with scientists, with industries, and together, they will solve the problem. And then, the solution will be communicated to everyone, everywhere, instantaneously. And that, I believe, is a good thing.
But agriculture, as important as it is, is still only a facet of the diamond. What can be applied to agriculture can be applied elsewhere. Understanding and communication, it is generally agreed upon, are signs of intelligence. They are essential components of empathy and compassion. The more you understand, the more you empathize, the harder it becomes to live in ignorance, to breed denial, and to shrug your shoulders in apathy. Most technology, especially the Internet, tends to facilitate understanding and communication. And so long as our technology is used for understanding and communication, and so long as we continue to evolve with our technology, and so long as technology becomes more integrated into our everyday lives, it will become a willful act to be ignorant. Even better, evolutionarily speaking, in such a world, ignorance would not survive.