Yes, But...

You might or might not know this, but we spoil Dink-Dink a tiny bit from time to time. She’s treated much more akin to an actual princess than to the way our canine friends have been treated since time immemorial.

This is a happy, spoiled dog:

Attitudes about how dogs are treated have evolved a great deal during my own lifetime. I’ve seen more and more princesses who live most of their lives inside, sleep in the same bed as their “owners” (who really owns whom?), and take phenomenal preventative care with a carefully balanced diet, blood work at the vet, and general love and care.

I’ve seen fewer dogs chained to trees outside. I’ve worked closely with rescue organizations in order to help save dogs, volunteering to drive, or fostering, or adopting a senior Dachshund.

Technology and civilization have brought a greater opportunity for us to spoil our furry friends. That’s good, right?

Yes, but… if it wasn’t for those very forces, there wouldn’t be such a problem with overcrowding. Dogs have grown rapidly alongside our own population, and we’ve been the driving force behind that. Additionally, “backyard breeders” make an awful lot of money by viewing dogs as commodities, another condition we created with the advent of civilization.

This is one example of a “yes, but…” scenario I want to talk about today.

Here’s another.

Tens of thousands of years ago, most human beings walked and ran an awful lot. Everywhere we went, we went on foot, often carrying things with us for long distances.

People died when they were killed by natural predators, and if you got a cut on your arm, there was a good chance you’d be dead in a few days, since there was no concept of antibiotics or medicine. You might die of exposure, too, depending on the situation.

Enter civilization and technology. Fast forward to today, and very few people in the world today are eaten by a tiger, or die from a wound. Fewer people than ever die of exposure. Things are getting better, right? Way to go, civilization!

Yes, but… today, we no longer walk or run so much. We don’t carry things around. We mostly sit at desks, or maybe some of us do something a bit more physical with most of our day, but nearly all of us view “working out” as a completely separate activity from daily life.

We quarantine our “exercise time” so as not to interfere with our daily lives. We want to do very little most of the time, and we can now.

Unlike our ultra-athletic ancestors, we’re slow and soft, because we can get away with it. Our minds have all sorts of trauma from sitting and staring at screens instead of being out there in the woods or on the savannah. Our bodies seem to have atrophied, no longer capable of performing the same physical feats as our ancestors, with very few notable exceptions.

Today, elite athletes are incredibly rare, but in those days, they were a dime a dozen. Not everyone everywhere did as much physical activity as everyone else, but by and large, human beings were much, much more fit than today.

A much more simple and direct “yes, but…” scenario you’re probably already familiar with is the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance. All the way up until the early 20th century, humans lived without antibiotics.

Bacterial infections that had killed billions of humans over time. It was only natural that doctors, overjoyed by having a tool to fight this deadly pathogen, began prescribing antibiotics liberally. Hundreds of millions of lives were saved.

Unfortunately, over-prescription of this wonder drug has led bacteria to adapt and survive. By overusing antibiotics, we've essentially trained them to resist our most effective weapons.

Minor infections that were once easily treatable can now becoming life-threatening, and we're once again back to a pre-antibiotic era in some ways, constantly looking for innovative breakthroughs.

More deaths from antibiotic resistance than cancer may be possible by 2050. Yikes.

"Yes, but…" is the right take on all of these, and I hope it finds its way to more people’s vocabulary.

Every stride forward brings with it new challenges. There’s a dance between the incredible benefits of a new technology or civilization advance, and its unintended consequences, often felt generations later.

This calls for vigilance. Paying close attention to improvements in the human condition—never forgetting that there are often dangerous consequences we can’t yet see—is something we can all do.

Nothing is solved by merely talking or thinking about it, but nearly every solution begins with an awful lot of conversation. To that end, what are some notable “yes, but…” examples you can think of?