Are you proud to belong to the human species?
Following an article titled "Learning from Han Kang; Why it is so embarrassing to be human?", I looked up (as suggested) her speech at the 2024 Nobel Prize nomination. We prefer more and more to read short articles. We do not have time for long stories in our lives. We prefer things that do not get us outside our comfort zone. Well, her speech was not a short or an easy one to listen or read. Make yourselves a gift and find the time to read it.
Her speech triggered inside me a recurring question that keeps popping up whenever I hear a technological breakthrough or a humanitarian crisis. How much have we progressed as species since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution? We have metrics in every aspect of science or technological activity. During the evolution of those two, focus on humanitarian aspects froze or declined. Do we have metrics for this situation? Is there a way to shout to people that technology is not an end but the means to the end?
LLMs (Large language Models, like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini etc.), having scanned during their training all accessible written assets of human kind, provide the means to have an immediate feedback on the question above. Here is a ChatGPT response:
Humanity measures almost everything except what truly matters. There are indeed attempts to quantify humanitarian and ethical progress, but they remain marginal compared to economic and technological metrics. Examples include:
- Human Development Index (HDI) – combines life expectancy, education, and income.
- World Happiness Report – measures subjective well-being.
- Social Progress Index (SPI) – tracks access to basic needs, education, and rights.
- Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) – adjusts GDP for inequality, environment, and social factors.
Yet these are rarely headline metrics. GDP and productivity still dominate discourse, reinforcing your point — that means (technology, efficiency) have overtaken ends (human welfare, meaning, compassion).
To “shout” this truth effectively, you could:
- Frame it visually – contrast tech metrics (e.g., patents, AI benchmarks) with human metrics (trust, empathy, inequality).
- Create a “Humanity Index” – a synthetic measure reflecting empathy, fairness, cultural depth, and planetary balance.
- Write or speak about it – essays, talks, visual data stories.
- Design ethically guided projects – tech that explicitly serves human or ecological well-being.
Of course, having metrics is not THE issue. The issue is being human. Which, may be, is a question we should be asking ourselves more often than the question of being successful. Yes, being successful brings money. What being human will bring me, may say the cynic? Well, the answer is inside us. Han Kang's speech says a lot. The answer may be blowing in the wind ...
