We face this paradoxical situation: life is improving quickly for the vast majority of people, but inequality is increasing faster than ever before.

All throughout history, life has changed slowly. Occasionally degrading quickly, during times of war and famine. But we now face the opposite: the rate at which technology is improving life is unprecedented. For the first time, our children’s lives will be unimaginably different from our own. And yet the same mechanism which enables our growth as a species also introduces a frightening force: rampant, highly-visible inequality.

No longer are kings and queens sheltered behind castle walls with only the occasional decadent display to demonstrate their affluence.

No longer are the lives of those worst off in society hidden in our peripheral view.

Stardom and suffering juxtaposed on the stage of the endless social feed. The technology which empowers us all simultaneously broadcasts our flaws and elevates our status.

A necessary evil, or perhaps a good thing with severe side effects: the answer “burn it all down” will never be good enough.