I was thinking about the “human condition”…
this being “thrust” into the world… where we have various
groups indoctrinating us…family, the state, the church, the media,
culturally…….
also, our existence is transitory, temporary…
and anything we do is also transitory, temporary…
we are faced with existential questions right at birth, “what am I to do?”
“what should I believe in”? “What values should I hold”?..
if one were to describe the modern world, part of that description
must have the word, technology, within that description…
human existence has always been intertwine with technology…
from our using rocks and sticks to hunt game to our modern use of
computers for example, the gamut of technology has run from
low tech like rocks and sticks to high tech… but the effect
has been the same…… technology regardless of its being low or high tech,
has changed our lives in some fashion… today, we cannot imagine life
without our technology… I ride on a train to work, I use my “smartphone”,
I am writing this on a computer being lit by electricity and cooled by a fan…
all sorts of technology going on within 5 feet of me…….
technology isn’t inherently good or bad, we discover its “good” or “bad”
by its uses… how much damage does a particular technology does will
show us its state of “goodness” or “evil”…….
for example, technology is being used to destroy the retail industry…
perhaps the single biggest industry that employs people…
as technology increases we drive people out of the retail industry…
for example, my company, a grocer company loves technology
and uses it to minimizes/limit the number of checkers the company
has to used……every single self checkout machine reduces the number
of checkers our store uses……… I am being made obsolete by
technology…………and why this drive to use technology to replace
workers? Profits… nothing more, nothing less……… thus we see
a possible use of technology that is “evil” because it reduces the number
of people working to increase profits of the company or business at large……
the overall goal of my company is to make profits, and thus by reducing
the number of workers, and still maintain the profit margins, we find
machines doing my job… and who benefits? certainly not me, and
I don’t believe the consumers who shop in my store benefit from
this increase in technology to eliminate jobs……
one of the things I see all the time is lonely people who shop
to engage with other people… Many old people come into my store
because it might be the only contact with other humans they might
have that day………we are social creatures and we must have
contact with other people… it is inherent within all human beings…
recall the worst punishment we give anybody is solitary confinement…
no contact with people…….so we see from this one example,
technology has separated us from each other… you don’t have contact
with people at the self checkout machine…….technology can then be
dehumanizing, it can negate people… technology can be nihilistic……
if it separates people from other people………that is a negative drawback
to technology……. we have seen in the modern world, technology that
separates from each other…drive your car to work or to a shopping center
and see all the single drivers, with no contact with each other…
they have their radio’s and cd players up loud to create some sort
of contact with other human beings… ever drive without a radio
or a cd system?
Now some technology does bring people together… this method I
am using right now, where people from all over the world can read
and comment on what I have written, this form of connection between
social creatures… we aren’t isolated if we can communicate with each other…
and the same is true of phones and we can text each other or e-mail each
other… we can keep in contact with other beings through technology……
communication technology unites us, whereas a lot of technology
divides us… atomizes us… separates us……….
if we are to become human, fully human, we must come
to grips with technology and its influences on our lives…
how does technology influences and change your life?
how does technology change who you are?
can you see yourself without technology?
what is the role of technology within the human condition?
Kropotkin