Am I Excited About the Future?

Technology did not conquer Mexico.

Cortés was a gambler. His Mexican expedition was leveraged up to the gills, mortgaging his Cuban estate and borrowing from whoever he could. Hearing stories of a "floating city" of unimaginable fortune, he scuttled his ships off the coast of Veracruz and marched inland. Him and his men would either get rich, or go to God. There would be no turning back.

He met stiff resistance crossing into Tlaxcala lands. Gunpowder was finite, and the Spanish tercio could only hold for so long against wave after wave of eagle warriors. His later reports say otherwise, but Cortes and his men were nearly wiped out at Tzompantepec. So he improvised.

Cortés knew the Tlaxcalteca were enemies of the Aztecs, worn down by their ritual "flower wars," so he gambled on an alliance. The two armies could march on Tenochtitlan together. For a moment, the fighting stopped.

It must have been an exciting time and place to be alive. Here are these aliens in shining armor, riding four-legged beasts that can smash through infantry. You've been humiliated by the Aztecs for so long. This could change everything.

How must have Xicotencatl the Younger felt? Turning the force that killed thousands of his men on the imperial core? Could they be trusted? Could he trust his elders and rivals, who so easily rolled over for Cortés? Did they know what they were giving up? He would not see the fall of Tenochtitlan—Cortés had him hanged the night before.

Technology will not conquer the world we live in.

Its inroads will fail. It will meet fierce native resistance. It may be pushed to the very brink of survival. But it will gamble. It will understand power. And hopefully, it will be exciting to watch.