The small silver lining is that there are arguably more people who have access to literature, and who like to read, write, and do math, because generally those things have become more accessible to the wider world.
But when the going gets really tough, those people may try to band together and secede[^1].
One thing I have to add though, as somebody who loves to write, is that I couldn't do it without our modern digital tools. Because I'm not a native speaker, I tend to bungle prepositions and semantics, and it's only with great effort and many Google searches and ChatGPTs and grammar checkers that I dare to afflict[^2] the world with my words.
[^1]: I found this idea in "Homo Deus," blame Dr. Harari!
[^2]: "Afflict": To the point, I used thesaurus.com here to find a suitable synonym of "torment".
Digitization is definitely enormously empowering in principle. You could indeed imagine that it might enable a sub-culture of super-literate people. But in practice after 50 years of tech hyperventilation the only nuance we've added to Phoenician script is... emoji.
Amazing things will come, but not as fast as we might like them. The digital space is gigantic but we are exploring it at a snail's pace. The reason is not very different from the barriers linked to writing and math: people need to train their brains to code and it doesn't come cheap or easy.
Imagine if 8 billion people would actually be able to code. Would there be room for "big tech"? The digital conversation might be very different.
Right now we are roughly (in digital age chronology) circa 3000 BC, the dawn of organized digital agriculture. A few digital priests have invented cuneiform and in cahoots with the prevailing power structures are using it to tax and oppress the digitally illiterate masses.
But when the going gets really tough, those people may try to band together and secede[^1].
One thing I have to add though, as somebody who loves to write, is that I couldn't do it without our modern digital tools. Because I'm not a native speaker, I tend to bungle prepositions and semantics, and it's only with great effort and many Google searches and ChatGPTs and grammar checkers that I dare to afflict[^2] the world with my words.
[^1]: I found this idea in "Homo Deus," blame Dr. Harari!
[^2]: "Afflict": To the point, I used thesaurus.com here to find a suitable synonym of "torment".