Every morning I walk two to three miles with one of my dearest friends, an accomplished historian and eclectic thinker. The fact that I choose to do my morning regimen with someone almost two decades my senior and with a hip replacement may say more than I would like to admit about my physical conditioning. Sometimes the cardiovascular stimulation comes more from the vigor of our conversations than the pace of our walk.
Today my friend ranted about technology. I say rant advisedly because he is always open and reflective. But still, it was a rant. He took on cell phones, text messaging, email overload, phones that shoot not only pictures but bullets, kids plugged into MP3 players, and all manner of other technological beast. Bear in mind that in his career he was an early adopter of computers and maintains a home network and an active email life. He's no Luddite. Doesn't answer his cell phone much though.
Our walk extended to the full three miles as I tried to stand in the middle ground between the views of my friend and those of my 27-year-old son--a generational bridge to be sure. It was my son who lured me into this blogging world and who has since barraged me with HTML codes, social bookmarking tags, and FTP sites. I introduced him to the computing world when he was young and he has since left me in the dust. Technology is both his career and his passion.
I'm just old enough and young enough to see both sides. My friend is right--technology can be dehumanizing, rude, obsessive, and destructive of community. My son is right--technology can be liberating, fulfilling, expansive, and a builder of community.
The answer is not in microchips, software encoding, digital music, or celluar transmissions. The answer is in the human heart and in the ability of society to repel the technological profiteers who show no capacity for understanding cause and effect, social relationships, or human consequences. Gadgets must not shape us. Instead we must make gadgets our slaves in building a world that cares for the well-being of all.
Beam me up, Scotty! But please have a warm bath, sharp cheddar cheese and crackers, and a good book waiting for me when I arrive.
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Yes, I'm the 76-yr. old walking mate to the blogger who bridges my generation to that of his "strong-minded" 27-yr. old son. I see, from my "weak-minded" condition, the primary issues as related to balance. Technocrats' worldviews focus largely on the absolute necessity to push technology to ever more giddy levels of power and manippulative proficiency. Why? Simply because if anything CAN be done, then every last thing MUST be done, regardless of the deleterious social and economic and spiritual consequences to humankind. Example: thermo-nuclear bombs. Or, as Mr. G. W. Bush would say, "nucular" bombs.
ReplyDeleteTechnology has blessed us immeasurably, to be sure, with capacities to envision and create a much more exciting and beneficent world. Examples abound of this in education and health-related fields. But technology has also left us with burgeoning symptoms of human/relatonal disfunction on every hand. We have "smart" bombs in the hands of ethical dwarfs. We have tens of thousands of young, impressionable minds in a 24/7 frenzy, playing video games like "Grand Theft Auto." If not that one, then an endless stream of other "games." One consequence: the numbing of their psyches to the possibilities of involvement in building a world of justice and equity.
Bomber pilots in the first Gulf War (1991) got their early (adolescent) training using the fruit of electronic technology--computer games. Mountains of nuclear waste emanate from technological wizardry. Technological achievement controlled by corporate America crowds out the ozone layer, and hastens global warming. Technology empowered the greed of Enron CFOs and CEOs to deprive thousands of their own employees of their life savings. Examples can be cited ad infinitum.
So, where's the technology to ameliorate these and a host of other destructive processes that threaten life and civility on this planet? What bright, "strong-minded" techies will stand and deliver the sort of humanizing, relationship-building technology that empowers human agents to see one another, face to face, and in good will, to choose to work together towards a world culture of friendship and trust?
If anyone has insights on those questions, please call me on my land phone. My cell phone is reserved for other more urgent needs.
I agree about some of the technology.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, I object to our country using shell casings made from depleted uranium and poisoning the population of the lands they bomb and the soldiers we send their to risk their lives in so many ways who are also exposed to such deadly residue. I especially object to their using such weapons when they deny the danger.
I object to people who talk on their cell phones while driving, exposing the rest of us to their inattention.
Otherwise, some technology can be entertaining and occasionally even helpful.