It is a peculiar characteristic of our era that we can both learn and forget so quickly. The technological advancements of the information age allow us to be instantly aware of cutting-edge developments from around the globe, yet the deluge that results makes many of these barely a blip upon our consciousness, assuming they do not slip past us entirely unperceived.
Into just these circumstances enters History 101, a new Netflix miniseries that reflects upon (even as it is very much a part of) the present moment. Showcasing glossy bite-sized segments on current hot-button topics – from robots to the rise of China, and fast food to feminism – each episode offers a visually stimulating fast-forward summary of some of the social and scientific developments that have shaped the world as we know it.
While informatics-stressing and fairly even-handed up close, the series as a whole does exude a techno-wary air of much fashionable eco-activism. This slant, already suggested by the topic selections, becomes even more evident in the subtitles – “Nuclear Power: Are we playing with fire?” “Genetics: Are we leaping before we look?”
That said, the series also supplies plenty of relatable, pleasantly visualized data chunks for viewers who may be less ideologically sympathetic.
In the episode on nuclear power, for instance, the size of the atom is graphically (if still incomprehensibly) suggested by imagining each individual atom as the size of a marble: at this scale, we are told, the atoms in a single human fist would measure the size of planet earth.
The rate of China’s recent economic expansion is also conveyed in (quite literally) concrete terms: between the years 2011 and 2013, apparently, China poured more cement than did the United States across the entire 20th century.
In the episode on robotics, the rapid rate of increasing technological innovation described by Moore’s Law – the observation that computer processing power doubles roughly every two years – is compared to the acceleration of a car. If it starts at five miles per hour and doubles every minute, then after only 27 minutes it will be driving faster than the speed of light (nearly 700 million miles per hour).
If this is the rate at which the technology is developing all around us, then little wonder that some of us have trouble keeping up. Less the marvel, too, that a program like History 101 might seem necessary to keep us abreast of all that, in terms of the broad scope of human history, has happened roughly yesterday.
Should the acceleration continue, we might expect many more such programs. Which leads one to ask, only half-jokingly, how long before even now becomes history even as it happens? How long before some sequel to this series, call it History 127, sets out upon that arduous historical task of relating the ancient history of making that very same sequel?
But life is not all acceleration and inevitable progress. Things do come along and slow us down, as many of us still sitting at home may be all too keenly aware.
Both movements might be beneficial: may God bless our faster future tech, we might pray, and remind us to stop and smell the roses.
History 101 might offer us some engaging reminders of where we are and how we got here. Yet with everything else (and all those roses) clamouring for our attention, this one just might (and perhaps just as well) slip past unseen.
(Originally published in The B.C. Catholic)