Reimagining Professions as Projects for Human Progress
Professions have traditionally been viewed as solutions to specific human challenges, but their role can be more profound. Each profession should strive not only to address issues as they appear but also to work toward eliminating the underlying problems that made the profession necessary. By doing so, society can progress, moving from one resolved issue to the next, and continually advancing toward deeper, more fundamental goals in human development.
Transforming the Purpose of Professions
A profession should aspire to make its expertise less needed over time by targeting the root of the issues it addresses. For instance, education should aim to facilitate a seamless transfer of knowledge to new generations. Rather than requiring each new generation to learn and memorize the same fundamental concepts from scratch, the education system should evolve so that all known knowledge is intuitively integrated into the learning process. In this way, people would not need to study intensively to understand established concepts but would naturally gain competence in all knowledge acquired up to that point. This should be the ultimate goal of education: to support human evolution by making knowledge acquisition intuitive and effortless. Professionals in education should focus on this vision, developing methods and systems that embed knowledge so effectively that future generations can direct their energy toward new discoveries.
Similarly, the healthcare profession should focus on prevention as much as on treatment. Instead of primarily addressing health problems after they arise, healthcare professionals could prioritize education on preventive care, encouraging healthy habits, lifestyle choices, and regular check-ups. By promoting preventive practices, the healthcare field can work toward a future where fewer people experience avoidable illnesses. Rather than fearing a loss of income, healthcare providers could take pride in advancing humanity by aiming for a society where health issues are minimized, making healthcare less reactive and more proactive.
Morality as a Social and Intellectual Project
Just as education and healthcare can be seen as projects, morality should also be treated as a social project that evolves. Rigidly adhering to the same moral frameworks without adapting them to new contexts limits our potential as a species. With humanity’s intellectual and ethical growth, morality, like any field, should evolve to become an intuitive part of life, rather than something that requires continuous formal instruction, legislative oversight, or control by government and regulations. The ultimate goal would be a society where ethical behavior becomes instinctive, embedded in cultural norms and personal understanding, not something dictated by external rules.
Promoting Knowledge Sharing through Open Source
The advancement of every profession is built on the accumulated knowledge of generations past. History has shown that humanity benefits enormously from the open sharing of ideas, inventions, and discoveries. Today, professionals should continue this legacy by open-sourcing their knowledge, making it accessible, digitized, and easily shareable. By freely contributing to the collective pool of information, we enable future generations to build on a stronger foundation, accelerating collective human progress.
Living with Purpose Beyond Material Gain
As finite beings, we should be conscious of the ultimate value of our pursuits. Money, while necessary, is only a means to support life’s true necessities; it is not an end in itself. Recognizing this allows us to focus less on material accumulation and more on meaningful contributions to humanity’s broader goals. By redirecting our energies toward genuine advancement, we can avoid trivial pursuits and concentrate on what truly improves human well-being.
The Ideal of Obsolescence
In an ideal future, each profession would ultimately aim to make itself obsolete by fully resolving the issues it was created to address. This process of fulfilling its purpose would allow humanity to focus on even more essential challenges, progressively creating a world where the fundamental needs of all people are met, and the trajectory of human evolution is accelerated.