Our Love-Hate Relationship With Technology
From the ancient Egyptians and their wonderful inventions such as the Giza pyramids to the not so modern Americans and their world changing inventions such as cars, mobile phones and the internet. Technology has been an important fabric in civilization across the ages and it is one of the most direct manifestation of how the world has progressed.
Technology's role isn't one sided as we think of it. As much as we shape technology, it also shapes us too. And we have come to develop this dualistic love-hate relationship with it in which not only is it a panacea to our problems but it is also a nightmare of our destruction (not in a literal sense!).
It might sound a bit corny or weird but it seems we've become interdependent with technology. This doesn't necessarily mean it is sentient but with the current progress it is making, it won't take that long for it to develop to a level of sentient-ness. I bet its first profound realisation will be there's a class of beings call humans who rely on them for survival!
Progress And Regress
Progress and regress are two seemingly alternating states that we experience although they sometimes can happen simultaneously. With civilizations, the alternating state of progress and regress is something constant.
According to known history, there was a time the Asian civilization flourished then it fell, the Middle East with some parts of Africa took over and then they also fell, Europe took over after that and then it also fell. America then took the torch but it hasn't fell yet.
What's interesting about the coming and going of these civilizations is that technology was at background but it didn't fell. Like a cat with nine lives, it continued to survive and grew stronger with each new civilization. It could be that technology is not natural in a strict sense so this law of progress and regress didn't apply to it.
On the human level however, there is also an interesting discovery. I can't tell for the past ages and you can correct me if I'm wrong but I've come to notice in the modern era that as technology progresses, the average human regresses from a general perspective. Be it naturally, academically or psychologically.
My point in saying that is because technology has gone from helping us do things to doing things for us. This is a world of doing and if we seem to have nothing to do, we regress.
Now, this regression doesn't mean going back to old ways. What it means here is like going back to sleep from an awakened state. When you do things, there's activity and the possibility to be aware. It is not so when you don't do things.
Coming to the simultaneous part of progress and regress, We could say while tech is progressing, the average human is regressing. When we take a step back, zoom out and glimpse at the future, we're almost certain that whether we do or don't do, tech will continue to progress since it has been doing so for all these years.
On the other hand, it will make all the difference whether we do or don't do in deciding if the average human will continue to regress or not as tech progress further.
Of course, all of this is not easily apparent but it is happening nonetheless, in the background like always.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.
This is 2023 it’s not weird anymore.
I’m not sure I’ll agree to this, tech maybe progressing but it doesn’t mean we are regressing, I’ll like to think we are progressing into other ways of doing things. Maybe some people are actually regressing as they lay idle doing nothing while tech does everything for them, for me, ill like to think tech gives me liberation to do other things instead of laying around doing absolutely nothing. But that’s just me I can’t speak for everyone. You get
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Indeed, I totally get the point you're making and I agree. Tech progressing is also an opportunity for humanity to progress provided it is recognised and taken advantage of because it helps us break some of the natural limitations we have. However, in a world of magical ease and comfort, this opportunity tends to be overlooked generally in which growth and evolution shifts from being active to passive and we stop been the main player in our game.
Thanks for the feature on the hodlcommunity :)
Yay! 🤗
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Your reflections are very interesting. It is not clear to me why you say that humanity regresses, I think you should argue that point a little more in order to better understand the contrast you raise. Regarding technology, I think we should not lose sight of the fact that the idea of "progress" is a human construction. Technology itself does not progress, but does so because societies give it meaning and part of that meaning has to do with the ideas that those cultures have of what progress is. I think technology is reaching a tipping point and humanity is going to have to figure out how to deal with it. Weaponry already reached that point a few decades ago (I'm referring to the time when humanity has the weaponry necessary to self-destruct) and so did our ability to modify the natural environment. Greetings!
Thanks for the feedback. I will keep that in mind to elaborate more when making a point that is not seemingly clear and could have multiple meanings.
Right. Seeing it that way, technology is an object of our imagination. So it doesn't progress from a strict sense rather our imagination of it is what progresses based on the culture and/or environment.
Greetings to you too and thanks for stopping by!
One example of 'regression' is perhaps over-specialization. Knowledge is so vast, that the only way to be an expert today is to specialize in some very small area of knowledge. But then you lose 'wisdom', you lose the grand scheme of things, the top-of-the-mountain view. It's like being a new kind of ignorant. And unless we figure out a way to significantly extend our lifespans or brain capacities, it's only gonna get worse.
Yes, I don't know if you've heard the quote about specialisation is for insects? I think humans aren't built to be specialist, it's too one sided and they won't be able to thrive well in the vast experiences that life has to offer.
Exactly! Wisdom is lost and this new kind of ignorance is taken as the norm to live our lives and solve our problems. We have serious issues waiting for us in the future.
Thanks for stopping by!
It is no doubt that technology has created some sort of dependency syndrome in our subconscious, it seems these days we can't do without it but on the other hand the fall and rise of empires and civilisation can not be really tied to the existence of technology.
from my own opinion and based on facts gathered, I believe the rise and fall of nations and state you mentioned is as a result of their system of government and emergence of super powers, no state can claim dominance on the rest of the world forever. Change is constant. From your illustration it kind of feels like you are humanizing technology, as if it has a mind of its own. I consider technology to be a tool, if a state decides to make use of it and it resulted to its own destruction, such act has nothing to do with the emergence of technology.
Interesting take on the subject! The rise and fall of nations can't definitely be pinned on technology because I believe it's a multiple causation, one of it being the one you outlined above.
It's great that you consider technology as a tool. I took a subjective perspective towards it in this post because it is the lens in which many people see it. In regards to it having a mind of its own, we can only say it has not developed that yet.
Thanks for stopping by :)
Sure, we have really given ourselves off to technology, according to scientists, technologies were built to help man but today it seems they do everything for man already,
Imagine a high reputational AI like the chatGPT which is like a second human, well this is just the beginning because there is more developed technologies in the nearest future, we only pray that technologies don't make us forget that we are alive. Nice write man i came in from #dreemport
Yes! I think ChatGPT is dangerously fascinating in a sense that it could do better and faster many of the things humans do intellectually. I pray too that we keep the human spark alive in the future.
Thank you!
Thanks for stopping by from #dreemport :)
You're welcome brother!