“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
How we relate to each other and to the wider world around us must change, we seem as individuals to be becoming more and more isolated not only from each other but from the world around us. In the developed world an increasing number of people live alone and the bonds binding the extended family are weakening. Children spend increasing amounts of their time, alone in their rooms glued to gaming machines whilst adults either watch the television or if they are out and about are increasingly isolated in their personal bubble courtesy of the ubiquitous MP3 player. Marriage rates have never been lower and divorce rates never higher. When we are not idling away time as described above we are spending more time than ever before working. If this is the gift of the technological age, I for one wish we could give it back.
It is hardly surprising that our ability and willingness to develop deep relationships with the natural world is sadly lacking when we seem to be continually diluting the relationships we have with each other. Who we are is defined by the quality and substance of the relationships we form in our lifetimes; we are not remembered for what we had but for the impact of our having existed. I believe that we are living in truly emotionally impoverished times and that this is a direct consequence of our over emphasis on material possessions. The consequences of this are being manifest in increasing levels of stress, unprecedented dependence on antidepressant drugs and growth in suicide rates.
Climate change and the other impacts of excessive population and consumer growth such as water deprivation, energy shortages, species extinction, ecosystem collapse and famine do not respect national borders, cultures or theological perspectives. Addressing these issues will require all of us to work to together as never before; we must begin to learn to meet and celebrate each other in both our sameness and difference. If we are unable to rise above our bigotry and tribal allegiances the competition for ever scarcer resources will lead to unthinkable levels of conflict and violence. The degree of collaboration, collective commitment and cooperation required to really make the necessary headway to avoid the worst, will call for the development of unshakeable international relationships.
As a species Man seems to have related to the Earth not as a partner but initially as a provider and now simply a source of raw materials. It is incredulous to consider that $billions are being spent on research into terraforming. The notion that the powers that be are seriously considering where to build another Earth when we have ruined this one is absolutely disgusting. In our development of technology we are attempting to circumvent the very process of creation and evolution. We seem to have ceased to want to evolve as a species and to be hell bent on shaping the world or worlds to fit us; this is not only futile but flies in the face of the very miraculous process that brought us into existence in the first place. We have been around but for the blink of an eye and will be gone even quicker if we do not wake up to the fact that we are part of a bigger ever changing process called Life. Mankind in it’s present form will become extinct one day and that is as it should be, the question is when and whether we actually have the time and potential to evolve into something else. I believe we should be focussing our efforts on developing ourselves into a species that is sensitive to and supportive of the Earth and that we should seek to find happiness and fulfilment in our relationships with each other and all the things around us rather than to continue to attempt to exert power and control.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Friday, 13 November 2009
The technological paradox
"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."
Albert Einstein
Would that Albert Einstein were still alive today, I feel sure that he would be a great help in unravelling the problems we have created for ourselves. Whilst the scientific approach has in a sense opened Pandora’s Box, technology has to date, represented its contents. Technological innovation was the father of the industrial revolution and capital gain its mother, their child I propose is ecological devastation. In its infancy let’s say the last 300 years the infant appeared to bring enhanced quality of life to all it touched but has this really been the case? What has happened to the social infrastructure, the family, is our quality of life better than it might have been without it? Don’t get me wrong, those halcyon days were not truly so but might we have taken a different developmental path, more supportive of social and ecological equality?
Certainly in developed nations, at the material level things have improved but I question if the qualitative experience of life actually has. We are a social animal but technology seems to have resulted in social fragmentation rather than integration. Now, more than ever, the outward signs of the haves and the have nots are all too clear. Technologies such as the Television, the Internet, mobile phones, MP3 players and computer gaming, whilst claiming increased connectivity on one level, actually isolate us from personal face to face interaction on another.
Technology has been the great enabler of our excess; through mechanisation, it has enabled the mass production of low cost consumables and intensive agricultural practices. The impact of technology on agriculture has been fundamental in both the support of population growth, the over exploitation of land, the migration from the countryside to cities and has resulted in the loss of our collective connection with, and sensitivity, to nature.
I see technology as paradoxical because on the one hand, physically, at least in the short term, it has made life easier but on the other, emotionally, I feel it has had a leaching effect. I find it astounding that millions of people around the world are choosing to live an imaginary life as an Avatar in cyber space rather than actually going out into the world and relating, not only to each other but to the world at large. This is Plato’s cave writ large and symptomatic of the scenario painted by the Matrix trilogy of films, it seems we are becoming a community of virtual ego’s just needing to be fed the right blend of fantasies to keep us compliant. I do not advocate abandoning technology but I do suggest we consider how we might use it to augment our lives rather than act as a substitute to reality and richness of them.
How important technology needs to be in the long term is debateable but it is clear to me, that we will need technology to contain and perhaps reverse some of the damage we have already done.
Albert Einstein
Would that Albert Einstein were still alive today, I feel sure that he would be a great help in unravelling the problems we have created for ourselves. Whilst the scientific approach has in a sense opened Pandora’s Box, technology has to date, represented its contents. Technological innovation was the father of the industrial revolution and capital gain its mother, their child I propose is ecological devastation. In its infancy let’s say the last 300 years the infant appeared to bring enhanced quality of life to all it touched but has this really been the case? What has happened to the social infrastructure, the family, is our quality of life better than it might have been without it? Don’t get me wrong, those halcyon days were not truly so but might we have taken a different developmental path, more supportive of social and ecological equality?
Certainly in developed nations, at the material level things have improved but I question if the qualitative experience of life actually has. We are a social animal but technology seems to have resulted in social fragmentation rather than integration. Now, more than ever, the outward signs of the haves and the have nots are all too clear. Technologies such as the Television, the Internet, mobile phones, MP3 players and computer gaming, whilst claiming increased connectivity on one level, actually isolate us from personal face to face interaction on another.
Technology has been the great enabler of our excess; through mechanisation, it has enabled the mass production of low cost consumables and intensive agricultural practices. The impact of technology on agriculture has been fundamental in both the support of population growth, the over exploitation of land, the migration from the countryside to cities and has resulted in the loss of our collective connection with, and sensitivity, to nature.
I see technology as paradoxical because on the one hand, physically, at least in the short term, it has made life easier but on the other, emotionally, I feel it has had a leaching effect. I find it astounding that millions of people around the world are choosing to live an imaginary life as an Avatar in cyber space rather than actually going out into the world and relating, not only to each other but to the world at large. This is Plato’s cave writ large and symptomatic of the scenario painted by the Matrix trilogy of films, it seems we are becoming a community of virtual ego’s just needing to be fed the right blend of fantasies to keep us compliant. I do not advocate abandoning technology but I do suggest we consider how we might use it to augment our lives rather than act as a substitute to reality and richness of them.
How important technology needs to be in the long term is debateable but it is clear to me, that we will need technology to contain and perhaps reverse some of the damage we have already done.
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