and hoverboards.
Space travel and teleportation. As an adult, I think about mid air car accidents, gravity, the ludicrous danger of adventure weighed against the love of home, and finding meaning in the journey. Not that I don’t want all of those things, but just to illustrate that power and ability often come with good counterbalancing considerations.
Now what counterbalancing considerations could I make about current technologies? The closer to modern day one examines it, the more side effects
Social media and algorithms:
It is often said that a child could conclusively prove that social media is bad for him. Using only 5th grade knowledge he barely passed with. That same child, it is said, is still using social media to this day.
We are ancient, analogue, alchemical technology, in a modern, digital, interconnected world. Within the confines of a small 3x5 inch curved rectangle, we can go anywhere other than where we are, right now.
The familiar weight on the right thigh tells me I don’t have to worry. The world is at my fingertips. But somehow that makes me feel somewhat dissociated with the present moment.
- Does technology being effective, always make it good for us?
I will make my guess and it is no. Our bodies, brains, minds, and perhaps souls (who knows?) are complicated beyond our current, and probable future understanding. They can also be tampered with, to good and to bad effect, sometimes both, and often unexpectedly.
- Algorithms
are being told to maximise our interaction with these websites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and probably most largeish websites where groups of people congregate). The Algorithms don’t care about you, or me. They follow machine code in order to maximise a desired outcome, which is not necessarily aligned with our personal interest in a happy life.
- Even without Algorithms:
Social media would seem to be a bomb on the chemical neurological and psychological aspects of our primate brains. In David Gotschall’s book, “The storytelling animal” , he describes the power that is contained within the format of the story, which includes anything down to gossip. Our ability to do so, and to listen in on other people’s lives now is nuclear in comparison to word-of-mouth. It is the junk food of communication. Satisfying and addictive.
Before the internet:
Previous technology, TV’s, Video game consoles, etc had their flaws. I know some people spent arguably too much of their lives on their couch in front of a TV. But when I wasn’t in front of that TV, I wasn’t on a screen. I was in real life. (Except when I went on the computer to stream Anime, which certainly was an addiction of sorts). Ahhh whatever you get the point. TV’s and stationary electronics stayed in 1 place. They didn’t follow you around, and nothing else did.
Conclusion:
I don’t think the direction of current technology is making me happier. And I meet many people who feel the same. Maybe we should start doing something about it. We have a choice don’t we?