The Comforts of Technology
How technological advances make our lives more comfortable, easier and lazier
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“Many of the dangers we face indeed arise from science and technology—but, more fundamentally, because we have become powerful without becoming commensurately wise. The world-altering powers that technology has delivered into our hands now require a degree of consideration and foresight that has never before been asked of us.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Science is marching towards new technologies which invariably make our lives more comfortable, easier, and lazier. This has accelerated greatly under the recent pandemic and has almost completely removed our need to get outside. The only reason you would want to leave the comforts of your house is to get some fresh air. And even then, you can just open the windows.
Thanks to the internet you can now shop, join group meditations, and conduct business virtually. Not to mention the entertainment value that the internet has been so faithfully inundating us with for the past twenty or so years. Large sections of our society are slowly turning into what the Japanese call the hikikomori — social outcasts that upload their lives to the digital world. We are becoming enslaved by the same thing we invented to liberate us.
And all of this is happening so fast that we don’t even have time to reflect on how this unstoppable march is affecting our lives. What exactly is technology doing to us?
Cambridge Dictionary defines technology as the practical, especially industrial, use of scientific discoveries. It is there to satisfy a certain need or necessity, but as with all actions, the consequences of technology, have consequences of their own. The so-called second-order consequences are almost impossible to accurately predict.
Consider the following: the internet has interconnected the world and made talking to other people easier, but it has also led to misinformation and loneliness. Cars have made traveling easy but also contributed to CO2 emissions and deaths. Nuclear physics has led to nuclear energy, but also to nuclear bombs. Ultimately, technology is a tool used for good or bad, prosperity or destruction.
And as with any tool, there is a certain degree of responsibility on the one wielding it. If you want to use an axe to cut some timber, you are expected to know that there are real dangers that come with it and you have to be trusted that you know what you are doing. Can we say the same for technologies affecting whole segments of society? Do we, in our technologically-induced stupor, trust those pushing for new technologies that will supposedly make our lives even more comfortable? What exactly is the end of comfort?
Is it possible that we heading toward a scientific dictatorship as Huxley predicted? A state in which people will be so comfortable under a dictatorship that they won’t even realize it — an ultimate revolution. Or are we heading towards abundant energy, increased productivity, and thus improved standards of living? A state in which people will be comfortable without surrendering that which makes them human in the first place — agency, freedom, and self-actualization.
The choice is ours, as science and technology are nothing but tools. They can be a force for good, but only if they do not conflict with human nature.
That’s all for now. Until next time 🔋!
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