Every year Jon Lebkowsky and Bruce Sterling have an open discussion on the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link about the state of the world. This year they are joined by Malka Older, a "writer, aid worker, and sociologist."

Older:

If a lot of Big Tech is starting to lose its conjuring power, thereis one technology that manages to be both hype and, to some, fakenews: the vaccine(s). Grateful as I am for the incredible effortthat went into accomplishing the vaccines so quickly, my concernfor the coming year and beyond is how the story is being rewritteninto a fable that our technological prowess omnia vincit. It mightbe hard to imagine now that the history of the pandemic could beturned into a triumphant narrative of human control over nature, butlost battles have been transformed into glorious conquest before.Already some are losing sight of the failures in organization, inhumanity, in preparedness that have made the vaccine glow like agrail.

This is unlikely to be the only challenge we see in the comingdecade, or the coming year, that can be solved more easily, quickly,and cheaply through changing human behavior and which we prefer toattack using money and technology. The climate crisis leaps to mind.I hope that we can engrave some of the lessons of this past yearinto our collective consciousness, but I have little confidence thatthey will function any better than the Japanese stones warning "DoNot Build Below This Point" that became so celebrated after thetsunami hit.

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Here's The Well's "State of the World 2021" - Boing Boing