Lexpert Magazine

LEXPERT MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018 59 BY GEORGE TAKACH TECHNOLOGY Historians who look back at the hundred years from 1950 to 2050 will call it humankind's finest Golden Age Our Innovation Civilization ALL PEOPLE LIVE in a soci- ety, but fewer live in a civiliza- tion. e difference between a society and a civilization is the degree of innovation found in each. Since 1950, the West has been a civilization and not just a society. Today, I would roughly equate the West with the 35 countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Develop- ment, of which Canada has been a member since the OECD was founded in 1961. I would also argue that the civilization represented by the OECD countries is the most successful known to humankind. Put simply, there has never been a better time to be alive, largely be- cause of the innovations that have been brought forth in the past 70 years. ese have been innovations in science and tech- nology, for sure, but there have also been important advances in social, political and cultural institutions and practices. All told, when historians a thousand years from now look back on the hundred years from 1950 to 2050, they will call it the finest Golden Age ever experienced by humankind. INNOVATION CIVILIZATIONS OVER THE CENTURIES ere have been other highly innovative eras over the past 5,000 years, so when I make the claim that ours is the finest I fully understand what a tall order that is. Given how revolutionary some of the great inno- vations of the past were, reasonable people may disagree with my claim. For example, consider the very first com- munities, for which grains and livestock were domesticated and urban settlements first appeared. To move from hunter-gath- erer societies to urban communities was a massive shi, facilitated by growing cereals and mastering agriculture. is activity be- gan to produce a sufficient surplus of nutri- ents to sustain civilization-enhancing ac- tivities such as administration, irrigation, medicine, finance, trade, architecture, the arts and other cultural activities. is is essentially the story of Uruk, an ancient city of Sumer, in Mesopota- mia, 5,000 years ago. Uruk's other major innovation was writing. You cannot have civilization without the ability to record facts, figures and thoughts, and writing permits the collection of data, accelerates the diffusion of knowledge, and cements the propagation of wisdom. Other civilizations have added to the cumulative stock of innovation that we still use and profit from today. e ancient Phoenicians gave us the alphabet that we still use predominantly in the West. More than 1,000 years ago, the Song dynasty of China was the first to use banknotes and a compass (with true north). e mighty Roman Empire laid the foundations for civil engineering, with Roman aquaducts still standing today. Our principles of mathematics have been greatly enriched by concepts first artic- ulated by the Muslim and Aztec mathematicians hundreds of years ago. And even the "dark" Middle Ages contributed vast innovation in the architecture and design of Gothic cathedrals. SHORTCOMINGS OF EARLIER INNOVATION CIVILIZATIONS While these and other civiliza- tions contributed materially to humankind, they all also le much to be desired. By today's Western standards they each contained fundamental flaws. One central defect, from our modern perspective, is that the innovations of the day largely benefited a small portion of a highly stratified society. Up until the mid- to-19th century, some 80% of the popu- lation of most nations were either slaves, serfs, indentured servants, or other under- classes. And even in ancient democratic Athens, the franchise was the exclusive pre- serve of a very small group of landowning men. Even in Western countries, women were not permitted to vote until well into the 20th century. Moreover, life was precarious for the underclasses in earlier civilizations. Oen the agricultural surplus was insufficient to provide a minimum number of required calories each day. Famine was a constant possibility, and hunger and malnutrition was a perpetual state of being for many. e Irish potato famine, which reduced Ireland's population by 25% by causing the deaths of one million people and driv- ing another million to other countries, occurred less than 200 years ago. And if malnutrition didn't kill, disease regularly did. In 1348, at the height of the Italian PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK | COLUMNS |

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