Course-Correction Required — Technomania
There’s human — then there’s technology. The two have already diverged so far apart as to raise questions about the usefulness of the tech to humans. When we converse face-to-face — ever more rare, these days — we get a reasonably clear take on what’s said, what’s meant, via not just the words but the direct energy exchange. Add to that the nuances of speech, the vocal undertones, the words emphasized. Now, add the facial expressions, the body language — the message is robust.
Now, take data, delivered up via technology. Yeah, your mind just ran by you, lightning quick, all that’s both lacking there, along with the highly questionable manipulated algorithms. There are those trying to game the data, whether for fun or profit. As we add the pollution that money brings into the picture — everyone trying to sell you on something, or sell you something, outright. Where will it end?
With the profit motive totally rampant, not just in the tech world, but everywhere, all data is suspect, is likely polluted in one way or ten, overtly or covertly. And we trust this stuff? Why?! What are we doing, trusting such data such that it informs major decisions affecting almost every walk of life, from the government to science, from health to education — not to mention research?
Isn’t it past time that we step back from all of this, perhaps to consider our reliance on technology? All for our love of speed, with beating the next guy to the roll-out — what? What kind of price are we paying, here? Is it worth it? I say we can’t know until we’re 10 or 20 years down the road — & meanwhile, just think of the decisions being informed by this data. It’s awe-inspiring, alarming.
From where did this sense of rush become so very critical to seemingly everything? With everything in perpetual beta test mode on us, the people, in many areas R & D is basically deleted, the test phases absent in our giddy rush to market whatever it is, NOW. Thoughtful contemplation, testing of various possible outcomes, paradigms seems a thing of the past. Why?
TECHNOLOGY MANIPULATING HUMANITY
Technology is manipulating humanity — yeah, I know, duh. Our biology doesn’t operate at quantum computing speed, so what position are we in to evaluate the output of this technology? Can it even be done? And in the midst of this quandary, are we distancing humanity from itself? Are we, in effect, worshiping the machine(s)?
Obviously, I can’t cite any authority on this, but it is said that the eventual downfall of Atlantis had much to do with their technology getting way out of hand. We’re even mixing technology into our biology these days, & have been for decades. Good, uplifting, useful reasons are always given to secure approval to move forward with whatever it is — yet how often is that but a cloak for a more sinister eventual plan — one that was the main goal from the start?
We’re all being gamed. We’re going along with it due to our increasing tech addictions. More, better, faster, & cheaper — endlessly. It was fun for a while, but we still had close contact with the human element then, which has all but vanished, now. The self-feeding machine appears to be on auto-pilot, everywhere, with no end even contemplated, much less in sight.
DIAGNOSIS — TECHNOMANIA
What are we doing? Where are we going with this technomania? Who is there to diagnose the patient as sick when basically everyone is techno-involved? The human element has all but vanished, already. Now, even when people meet for a face-to-face meal, time is spent ignoring each other while checking in with the tech. WTF?
Not only are we growing distant from direct human contact with one another, we’re even growing distant from ourselves. Who spends time in real silence these days, with no tech toys turned on? For some of us, it’s not even 5 minutes in the day, so addicted are we that we sleep with our tech toys within reach.
We’re so deep into it, that we can’t even see how we’re literally losing ourselves in this mix. Relationships become more shallow, with the deeper connections shoved aside by the ever-present tech interruptions.
How is this good for humanity? Where are we going? Better said, where is this whole thing headed? Do we have a clue? Do we care? We’re in the process of turning our world over to information technology, folks, to AI — it will soon be in charge. Are we comfortable with that? Are we enough in contact with our real inner being to even know? Our attention spans have so shortened that we’re like infants that way.
WHAT’S THE HURRY?
Where are we in such a hurry to go? Why has processing speed taken over our whole sense of time? What the heck is the rush, here — & why? Perhaps a large chunk of why things are so crazy & chaotic at times has to do with our human inability to function at lightning tech speed. And what would be the benefit to us of being machine-like in this way?
What is the price of our affair with super-fast processing speed & the commercialism of everything invading, not just our homes, but all of our personal space, as well? The family, the home, was once considered sacred ground — do you still remember? Or is that something we’ll have to look to the history books to recall?
SENSE OF THE SACRED
Where is the room in our techno world for any sort of sense of the sacred? I don’t mean anything religious, here — just the sense that life, itself, as somehow sacred. We’re beyond talking about making machines conscious, with research well on the way, & prototypes in action in many fields.
We can’t even define the self — yet we’re making machines to be selfs? WTF? Where the heck are the brakes? Oh, nobody is looking for them, so they got lost, somewhere along the way. That’s how it seems.
We’re at risk of losing the whole meaning of life with this — in case you hadn’t noticed. In the name of convenience, of faster processing speed, more data, faster streaming speed — & the worship of the almighty dollar — we’re literally losing ourselves. How much farther down this road can we go before we’re gone — lost in the human-machine merge?
Honor, integrity, sincerity — impossible to machines. The words lose their meaning when applied to data, where the appropriate questions become who is funding the data collection, ranking, & sorting — for what purpose? What is their angle — what are they trying to promote — & why? Then there’s the task of sorting through the interlocking directorates, seeking the hidden hand behind the promises of this & that benefit, the high-sounding purposes of the projects.
TECHNO-SUICIDE OF HUMANITY
We’ve been quite woven into such a set of webs that the Internet, itself, seems superficial. We seem to be sleep-walking our way into new levels of insanity, looking up to technology to point the way forward in every arena you can name. Really?! We’re witnessing the techno-suicide of our own human race, taking our planet down with us amid gross levels of unconcern over the human & environmental impacts of our current way of living.
Just a voice in the wilderness, sharing some musings from one who doesn’t use a cell phone nor have wifi enabled in the home, nor cable or even a TV or radio much less smart appliances.
Yeah, primitive sounding, huh? Yet, when you back away from any or all of this for even just a period of fasting — say 30 days — you experience a major perspective shift. You can’t know until you do this, yourself — there’s no way to prepare for what it’s like. It’s unimaginable.
Don’t we know everything can eventually be hacked, that Big Brother is listening, is data-collecting?
We’re losing what it means to be human, friends — morphing into machines. We’ve almost all got serious-level addictions going on — seemingly unnoticed, except by the very aware few. If we’d all back sufficiently away to have half a dozen connected thoughts without techno presence or interference, we’d be more able to take a hard look at this.
TOO INVOLVED TO EVALUATE
We’ve gotten ourselves into a state where we’re not able to reasonably evaluate what’s going on. We’re too involved. We’re unable to view any of this impartially, as long as we’re among the tech addicts. Maybe we’ve already gone too far down this particular rabbit hole to ever find our way back to solid ground.
Addicts are in no position to make rational, unbiased evaluations involving their addiction, much less make reasonable, grounded decisions around them. Much as I’d love to have bulleted suggestions for unbiased evaluation, much less resolution of any of this, I don’t have them. Perhaps there’s a bit of diagnosis of the situation here, but the road to evaluation & solution isn’t clear.
Who can see six months down the road, much less six years?
If this isn’t good for us as adults — what is it doing to our children? Are they even being allowed to have a childhood in this techno-mix we’re calling life? How are we even defining life, these days? Can machines live? We’re charting ahead, giving them consciousness — or trying to — at what cost? It seems we’re even redefining life, itself, doesn’t it? Is this good?
QUESTIONABLE VALUE SYSTEMS
We’re blending our value systems in with the machines. Do you see this? Is it okay with you? If so, why? If not, why not? Friends, I hope you can see how we’re losing ourselves.
What do we value? And why? What motivates us in all of this — what are we seeking? Can you see how it’s very short-term? Is this blending of everything with technology going to deliver that — or anything of real & lasting value? What happens in the event of a major CME crashing the grid for a significant time of repair?
If any of this makes you question yourself, where you’re headed, then make some time for yourself — sans any tech — to consider, to contemplate what all of this means to you, there in your own life & that of your loved ones. If we continue to allow ourselves to be rushed to keep-up with the machines, we’re all but lost, since it’s not humanly possible.
BEYOND TECH ADDICTION
It’s gone beyond tech addiction, actually — we actually worship the machines, unable to contemplate life without them. We no longer know what real life, real human living, is all about. We’ve lost our moorings to our innate humanity. We’re so tech dependent, we’re basically already partially merged with the world of machines. We look up to them, revere them in many ways.
We don’t even leave them home to take a vacation. Imagine your grand-parents or great-grandparents taking along a phone to go on vacation. It wouldn’t have even been considered, for it would intrude on their privacy, their ability to be there with each other, fully present. Today, we’re not even fully present to & with ourselves — absent the tech.
All I can do is to suggest we have a look at the impact of tech on our own personal way of life — how all-pervasive it is. We can’t even go to some restaurants unless they have a wifi hotspot — OMG. Have we lost our minds? How did we not see this encroaching over the years? It seems we have a techno blindness of some sort.
THE HIDDEN HAND(S)
As we question the reliability, the validity of our data, our search results — let us begin to question what’s behind this whole techno-merge. Let’s ask the same questions we’re asking about our data, but of what’s behind this whole take-over. Let’s get past the obvious players like Google, Twitter, social media, to what’s behind it all.
Perhaps it’s an organic outgrowth, with no hidden hands. But do consider — does that seem logical, or even reasonable. Yes, who stands to profit — not just financially — & how? What are the stakes, here, & who are the stake-holders?
What is their long game? Let us not trust what we’re being told about any of this, but seek-out the fine print, the behind-the-scenes movers & shakers — what do they stand to gain as humanity slowly diddles our soul away, online?
Does it make us easier to control? Does it enable them to hide ever deeper behind the scenes, behind all the technology? Where is all of this headed, humanity? Let’s back-off to whatever extent we can & consider the implications of it all. In humanity’s search for meaning, what part should our technology play — if any at all?
Let’s find ourselves before it’s too late, & the merge is complete.
HACK OR MASSIVE SOLAR FLARE
One last footnote — all technology is vulnerable to being hacked. It doesn’t even take a hacker — what about a Carrington Event? All we lost to it was telegraphs & electricity — yet we weren’t so dependent on it back then. One massive solar flare could take out our whole ridiculously vulnerable above-ground electrical grid. What then?
Nor are we so independent, so resourceful as we were, back then. We’re not the pioneers we once were, charting our own course. We’re ridiculously dependent on our tech, our conveniences. Even our vehicles would go down, thanks to their computerized tech. Perhaps even just from the self-sufficiency angle, it’s time for a major review/overhaul of what’s going on & where we’re headed. Is this really & truly what we all want?
What personal choices do we want to make? That’s what will chart our course to the future of our choice.
~♥~
2:13 am, Wednesday 2017/10/18, 1st, Mayan day 11 Wind / Ik
