Fight the Future

This is a short essay about why I hate technology. It came from a discussion during one of Claudia's theory seminars. I had to get some of this stuff out there.

BARGAINING

Mankind has built barriers and set boundaries around itself for a reason. We have clearly forgotten why. It would seem these barriers are beginning to break down. Some would argue that the barriers are there to keep the many imprisoned in their primitive beliefs and close their minds to the idea of the possibilities in science. The argument between science and religion shall exist for as long as men and women dominate the planet, but the answer is not so clear cut as to who is right and who is wrong. Sometimes the argument extends beyond a mere ideological debate and tussle for control between the two opposing sides. I pose the idea that a new faction splinters this ages-old struggle between science and faith. I like to call it The Humanist Factor.
Did we draw lines in the sand so we could work towards crossing them, or to understand our own limits? Technology is growing ever more dominant in the modern world and we are becoming ever more reliant on it in our day to day lives. Progressions in virtual reality, artificial intelligence, automated machines, medical breakthroughs and the evolution of interactive entertainment are primary focuses of the new world we seem to be embracing. The public think positively about the benefits they will reap in the future. It has been sold to us as a potential catalyst for a harmonious utopian future of relaxed and easier living, but what of the consequences? What of the price that comes attached to the bargain we are making with science?

We have always encouraged the explorations beyond human means and the endless possibilities of new frontiers to reach and conquer. We landed on the moon. We dissected the atom. We created a communication tool that has spread across the world and into every home. We have achieved greatness in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Taken risks and invested time and money into discovering answers that could help benefit the world. Or even change the world. The vision of the future has been the pinnacle of 20th century optimism and hope. Our curiosity has accomplished amazing progressions so fast that perhaps we have yet to really consider the downside to all this.

Imagine a virtual entertainment system that puts you inside your favourite television show or blockbuster movie. Where you have a panoramic view of the entire fictional dimension the characters you love inhabit. The barrier between the viewer and the fictional world has always been the screen, whether it be a TV screen or a laptop monitor. There is a clear divide between realities. If that barrier were to be broken, where would people go then? Where does the clear line that separates truth from fiction exist if we can literally enter these worlds without apprehension or psychical effort? Reality ceases to be tangible. It then becomes that of a human integrated video game capable of preoccupying the minds of everyday people for days at a time. Who would want to leave this virtual construct? Who would want to return to the land of painful heart beats and under paid employments? The hook is escapism, only in this instance we are taking that term very literally. Could the mind survive such regular visits to the unreal? What happens to the body? Inside the virtual world we are Gods of our own making, in a sense we reject the reality of natural life given by the Earth and become slaves to the convenience of complacency. This is part of our bargain with embracing the future. In a sense, laziness will be not only encouraged, but inevitably demanded from us.

Now imagine automated work stations and a new industrial revolution where people become obsolete because a computer is created that never sleeps or takes a sick day. It manages complaint calls and never loses its temper, it sorts out your bills at the restaurant so mathematical skills become redundant as to how to split the payment, it does the labour in the factories and never wears a frown upside down at the tills in Tesco (we have already been given the self-serve tills. A day I remember first using one was the day I knew this was the beginning of the end). What does the working stiff do when he is replaced by a programmed student of perfection? That is the word I suppose that counts really. Perfection. Man is far from perfect yet we believe we can create something that is. An entity that will be controlled to make our lives easier, yet in the same instance what will it take away from us? Self-driving vehicles will also disaffect people and turn the imposed self-survival of daily living into complacency. While the machines and computers do all the work, what will we be doing? Entering our virtual domains no doubt. The material world will disintegrate as we disown the pain and purpose of living and breathing because downloading our fragile minds into a box or tube of wiring is so much easier then facing the troubles and trials that life brings us. And like the masses that already worship at the altars of daytime television we will slowly become addicted to this complacency until all we are then, is human meat hooked into wires and microchips that reprogram our emotions to a digital plane of little ones and zeros. We become complex binary codes simplified into something no more impressive then that of a human barcode.

What of the soul? Spirituality is not religion. Spirituality is something deep within a person that exists in the heart and mind. It could be classed as a feeling, or a way of being. Some people believe in a soul but not in God. Some people believe in neither. But let us hypothesise that the soul is a real thing. Does it exist in the mind? If so what happens to it when we jack in? Does it corrupt like a downloaded file off of the Internet? And what of our children thirty years from now? How will they cope without their new Ipod upgrade which by then can fit into your ear, acting as both a phone, computer and entertainment system rolled into one? Lunchtimes will no longer require playgrounds because kids can simply plug themselves into a socket, close their eyes and surf the web over their closed eyelids. Children will become more and more disconnected from what it means to strive and experience real emotion. Techno-literates and Futurists (the optimists of the techno-age) see only the good. That evolutions in Internet and communication technology will bring people closer together. Knowledge will be accessible to everyone and anyone. But wisdom is not gained from simply knowing. It is gained from actual life experience. People do not grow from simply knowing, they must interact, learn and exorcise that knowledge in the real world in order to understand it. What would John Lennon think these days? Now we no longer envision the world linking hands and singing “We are the World.” Now we can envision an online community of growing numbers where we can practice democratic freedoms without censorship or control. But make no mistake, corporations run everything. Not governments. Where the money is, is where the power is. Where else does the funding come from to invest so much research into these new process’ and products? This is all about consumerism. Science may have good intention, but the road to hell is always paved with those, and we know how that can end. Witness Hiroshima. Witness NASA’s Challenger disaster. Witness biological warfare. Witness man’s inability to control his own future. As soon as something is invented and proved to work, it is patented, mass produced and sold at a costly sum until other companies follow in the footsteps and create cheaper models that bring prices crashing down. Then people consume the new technologies, eating up every last crumb of a fad fashion of the time just to say they have the latest piece of junk hardware that contains the most out-of-this-world graphics and vision quality. Corporations are not out to benefit mankind. They are out to benefit themselves, and we all know this. Technology is not simply about breaking down boundaries, its about breaking our banks to get our money so it may be invested in other assorted materials. I consider it a rape of our souls. If you believe in a soul that is.

For those of you who don’t, let’s look at a different aspect. Consider western governments consistent encouragement that pushes us towards “a brighter tomorrow.” Anyone who has seen an apocalyptic sci-fi movie will know phrases like that are always promptly followed by a big downfall soon to come. Orwellian distopian futures are not simply sci-fi cynics looking to get kicks out of dissing everyone’s favourite new religion. It’s just as possible we could go down that road. Flying cars for everyone? First we have to avoid economical breakdown, natural disasters possibly caused by increased global warming and everyday crime that sucks the money out from tax payers arses like no man’s business. If we want state-of-the-art flying cars and public pornography hologram suites then it will come by way of hugely increased taxes. Nothing is for free. If the government thinks it will be beneficial for all then they will add it to the already rising costs of daily living. What’s the everyman gonna do when a computer takes his job? How will he afford to pay for his new solar power heated toilet seat? What then? And speaking of crime, forget drug running, soon we will have a whole new evolution in criminal techno-theft and smuggling. The criminal element has already latched onto the lucrative idea of using technology for financial gain. Imagine when we have all kinds of pirated products falling off the back of lorries and into the hands of the laid-off, pissed-off everyman. Will a new faction rise up against Techno-literates and Futurists then? It will probably be too late. Could you imagine computer prejudice one day becoming a crime? Maybe I am getting a little too fantastical for some people’s tastes, but I am merely following in the footsteps of the “better tomorrow” optimists, only I want to see the other, much darker side to it all. The process of technological change has already begun to shape our world substantially.

Government research into stem cells and cloning has stirred controversy on more than one occasion and I understand why. Whether you believe in God or not, for human beings to cosmetically manufacture life in the attempts at pushing our limits as mortal creatures is clearly a symbol for how man’s ego has grown since the early 20th century. It is more than playing God. It is playing with the fabric of moral law and mother nature‘s design. And mother nature certainly exists. Hurricane Katrina proved that. The Tsunami in Thailand was no day at the beach either. Anyone remember those storms in 2006 that whipped our British summer into a flood fest? I do. Mother Nature was pissed off. If you believe in a force beyond human means then surely that could be taken as a warning? Don’t fuck with the natural order of things. Don’t try to break free of the confines of our own mortality. It was designed that way for a reason. We are born, we live, we die. Cloning, cryogenically freezing or downloading conscious thought into a computer are ideas beyond the realm of exploration and are simply about man’s need to extend his natural existence unnaturally because he is afraid of death. Afraid of the unknown. This is not about conquering frontiers, this is about fear of extinction. Fear of destruction. Our own self-destruction.

“Man is the most dangerous animal of all.” - The Most Dangerous Game

Most dangerous indeed. Human nature is self-destructive. With all the positives that come with new technologies and research into sciences of the body and mind, how can we possibly handle the overwhelming design of such dangerous avenues when primitive man used a simple rock to smash in the head of another man? In our hands we cannot wield anything without causing our own destruction or the destruction of others. We feed off chaos in order to continue surviving, or else, where does this compulsion to dream of a utopian future come from? It is our light at the end of the tunnel. But the light is just a train passing through. The tunnel is dark, and long, and possibly never ending. There is no future except for the ones we are living now. The only thing that counts are the human lives that exist in the here and the now and the blood that binds us all together. Human morality must continue to exist. The Humanist Factor is what separates us, whether it is our souls or our collective morality, from the machines built from plastic, metals, wiring fused together to create artificial existence to brainwash and tangibly disconnect us from each other.

I for one do not wish to be around when the mite of armies resides in the hands of a self-manned computer without conscious or compassion. Then again, we do already have George Bush. J
Keep The Humanist Factor intact. It might eventually be all we have left to hold onto. Fight the future and thanks for reading.