| Back in the 1990s, Kevin Kelly was the executive editor of a young publication called WIRED. In those days, the magazine took a more techno-utopian view of the world, and its pages heralded a future bursting with promise. So when, in 1995, Kelly came across a book in praise of the Luddites, the radical 19th-century textile workers who rose up against technology, he viewed it as a personal affront. And he sensed an opportunity for an ideological sparring match. The book's author, Kirkpatrick Sale, was convinced that technology would cause civilization to implode. Kelly decided to challenge him to a bet. Would he wager $1,000 that society would collapse by 2020? Sale took him up on the spot. As Steven Levy writes this week on Backchannel, Sale defined collapse as the convergence of three conditions: An economic disaster, a social rebellion, and environmental catastrophe. On December 31, the bet came due. A riot mob had not yet stormed the US capitol. President Donald Trump still had an active Twitter account. But even before this past week's mind-scrambling news, the outcome wasn't obvious. In 2020 the pandemic ripped massive holes in the fabric of society, and the US weathered a record number of billion-dollar natural disasters. Is civilization in genuine peril? Sandra Upson | Features Editor, WIRED |
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