Technology

The biggest difficulty with a constantly advancing level of technology is affording it.

This Christmas I bought my girlfriend's kids a new video game system and 6 new games.

And a new supercharger for my Cobra. All new pieces of "technology" that did not exist on Jan 1 2011

Before I talk philosophy let me respond to you comment about the nuclear actions of WW2. I am glad the bomb was dropped. Why? The will of the japanese people. Had America simply invaded Japan, the Japanese would never have surrendered until they were completely beaten. Even then, it might have nessecitated an American occupation of Japan and that would have just been terrible by itself, especially for today's world. How many lives would have been lost in an invasion? How many Japanese would have taken their own lives rather than be defeated? How many Japanese would rather have attacked a full tank column with a rock then be dishonored? Japan at that point had many civilians who didn't want the war, but just as many civilians and soldiers who wanted nothing other than a samurai inspired life of dominion or death. Even after the first bomb was dropped, they still didn't want to give in. It took taking a city of such pride and sanctity as Nagasaki to shake them out of it. So if America had invaded, what if the entire country had been ruined. How many cities would have been destroyed then?

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Before I type about pure concept of technology let's take a look at history.

A long time ago, or a cosmologically short time ago (whatever), people lived in villages (other people lived in cities and are not subject to the rest of the statement) and really did not care for what lied outside of their village. They hunted, gathered, mocked eachother, played with eachother, whispered behind their neighbors backs, and ate great big feasts with love for everybody in the village even bill who is totally running his sheep through mary's fields and needs to be punched by the village elder later.

Their lives were relatively short, if you were lucky you did not catch a cold and lived to forty. If you were less lucky you might make it to thirty before dying of old age (or so I have heard). If anything like bad weather occured you could rely on irrigation techniques or pray to the spirits and gods. If there was a blaze there was little to be done about it and entire livlihoods could be lost this way, but I suppose you gain an appreciation for learning how to start over and relying on Bill's help because he loves you all the same despite disagreeing about his sheep.

But fairly importantly, one the major things they lacked was communication. Assuming the strategic concerns are known by all, let's consider that community. It has a close knit family of a community. Most everybody realizes their arguements and vendettas with eachother are secondary to their communal love. But then again, their community is stunted in its spiritual growth by the fact that there are only fifty of them. Let's face it, creativity isn't going to make up for the fact that you don't really feel close to twenty of them, completely dislike ten, and the rest have heard your obsessions for the past ten years and stopped playing along so now you keep it to yourself and focus on the accepted community interests. And even those interests fail to develop beyond a certain line. Whole interests go un used. As a result, your slightly bitter and feeling half asleep even as you revel at feasts and enjoy having children. Satisfying though such a life may be, they never got the chance to enjoy greater things INCLUDING HENTAI. They never got meet such a myriad of people or concepts as we enjoy. Personally, that alone makes me think of technology is great.

But, on the flip side of that, for many (most, I wouldn't trust that someone has completely escaped this unless they were the Dalai Lamaor something similar) people their lives have become shallow in other ways that they can't seem to find a way to escape. Some relish in this shallow nature (and complain about getting a car but not an iphone 4s so they hate their parents) and for the most part I despise those people (not that it matters). Some ignore the shallow bits their lives have become trapped by and get on with living (I would say the majority). Others chafe every time they are forced to think of how their friends never really got close enough to them that they could hug without somebody feeling weird, or how every time they try to explore intimate issues it devolves into your mom jokes, or how wanting to hunt made you less of a woman in the eyes of your fellow third graders so you feel stupid doing anything that shows strength now, or some other rarely occuring aspect of your life that you never got to explore because the people around you refuse to even consider something deep and unexpected. Why? They have been spoiled by the sheer amount of stuff their brains sifts through and the sheer amount of alternatives to whatever their life is right now. Make all the effort you want, in some way having so many possibilites is gonna dull you down and for most people it is by quite a lot or in some critical fashion. The blame? Technology.

Another thing different between here and there? Survival skills, not just knowing how to give someone the aid they require or living in the wilderness. How about going three blocks down the street without your phone or ID and not having a panic attack. What about walking around town or exploring the park by yourself and simply having the creativity to not feel depressed or completely un stimulated.

What about going to christmas and being able to walk up and feel genuinely pleased about meeting someone you hate because hey, its christmas and all sins are forgiven.

Okay. Enough with the historical comparison. Is technology bad? NO OF COURSE NOT! Are you kidding me? The technology we use WE CHOOSE TO USE. We choose to be affected by it and we choose to when we use it. We choose what technology we are going to develop and despite our constant imminent destruction by nuclear disaster and AI armies how is that any different from our imminent destruction by the spears we used to get food so many years ago? And when the day finally comes that the button is pressed and the zombies rise up as our potential cybernetic overlords seek to enslave us? What is gonna save us? Technology. Because technology is more than the lights and buttons around us, or the hospitals that revive us, or the fire men making sure that my book collection was not ruined. It is the collection of all of our innovation and ability to progress. Its CPR, its Krav Maga, its psychology, its a coffee maker, its the bow that taught me combat meditation, its every single technique, jury rigging, and invention that we used to overcome an obstacle. It is the human will made manifest. If technology does kill us, it will be for the same reasons any other species died. It would be the same for me to die because I forgot to eat while playing video games as it would be for me dying because a tiger ate my face. Our ability to adapt to our enviornment, if technology is our enviornment then all we need to do is adapt and there will be no evil from it.

I think the answer lies in your statement. You just posted something that reflects upon the need for discretion in our use of technology and that is something that smart and alert people are doing everywhere. It is that same reflection that proves we have the ability, though many fail to use it, to adapt to technology.

As far as people being un aware of the privledged nature of their existence? That needs to change. But the privledge should still exist. I mentioned earlier having the privledge of not having your face eaten by a tiger, that doesn't mean I would wish it on people that take it for granted. I would say that as a society we have adapted poorly to the abundance of technological gratification, but isn't that the way with society? The majority adapt poorly, then people like you come along and question the status quo, looking for a better way to exist. Steadily, you find ways to live better and the majority picks it up. I think in this case, self awareness is the key that should be picked up on.

Also, I try to avoid using things without knowing how they work as a measure of mitigating my appreciation of them and my privledge to use them. (relavent side note)

As for the inventions for the better that made your life worse. You realize that, and I would reckon that you choose to avoid them now that you have, or at least find a method of compensation for them.

As for technology that cancels out the old ones? OF COURSE! That's the progress of technology. But I believe you are specifically referring to green technologies to cancel out or pollution, or technologies to assist with radiation poisoning, or something similar. To that I say: yes, technology can be harmful. Often unintentionally, and sometimes in ways that are terrible. But consider imagination, that core aspect of our humanity, it is the same way. We can hurt ourselves terribly just by imagining something. Imagination is still a great gift, and I believe it is the same with technology.

As for people being distracted and destroyed by electronic gratification? It is a source of constant frustration for me that deeply upsets me. But so does a parent's belief that they are not obligated to their children but rather their children are obligated to them, and that has nothing to do with technology. It is, however, the same sort of upsetting mistake in that in both cases people are taking what exists and being carelessly destructive with it. I am not mad at technology for people destroying themselves with electronic gratification just I am not mad at the water for people drowning in it.

To answer your last question. I believe we do need to take technology as far as we can (barring experiments lie "I wonder what would happen if I killed everybody") but we also need to avoid becoming obsessed with technology just as we need to avoid becoming obsessed with flashing light in our eyes for the sake of stiumulations (which I believe falls under the category of instant gratification)

To answer your second to last question, yes people are certainly going to far with technology and doing terrible things to themselves. But not because of technology, because that is how they are and without electronic gratification they would certainly find something else to destroy themselves with. Just look at the feudal era, completely nothing to compel them yet they find reasons to kill eachother and become obsessed with dominion. It is the way society functions, people like you just have to deal with whatever those around them are going mad over and try to help them transcend.

I apologize for length, I feel obligated to be thorough.

Annoyingly enough for you my position is two sided. On the one hand I would like to say that technology is good, but on the other I would like to abstain from saying whether it is good or evil on the basis that is more fun to do so.