Anyone feel this way?

[escapingsummer]

I am sure this has popped up in a post before but here I go. Anyone feel that we are moving into a Brave New World Society faster than we should be? Or that over reliance on technology has handicapped us as potential thinkers and scholars? I've people watched and have seen stupidity and a lack in common knowledge that I am becoming rather fearful

Comments

[anfalicious]

I think the fact that we are merging with our technology is a positive, and is the next step in our evolution. Certain cognitive abilities will be lost for sure, much like what literacy did to our memory. I, however, wouldn't give up literacy for a better memory. I think it's the same here. Sure, there is going to be a lot less "at hand" knowledge, but the simple fact is that most people will be connected most of the time. I think we're a long way from being utterly dependant to the point where we wont be able to survive without being connected

I see certain aspects as positive.

[escapingsummer]

I can see where merging with technology can be a positive. Albeit on the flip-side I see a few negatives with certain aspects. Merging with disease detectors/computer aided healing or something like that would give us a cutting edge immune system and an ability to do things we weren't able to before. What about moral issues though? If you can stream information from a central library through your brain what would be defined then as cheating? If you can instantly gratify yourself all of the time it brings up an even more of an ethics dilemma.

[frische_windin]

We are moving into a New World Society, but it will not be brave. Unfortunately technologies bring many sufferings for people, animals and environment in whole. They give simultaneously more comforts and more miseries.

"we will be a walking reference book" -
Yes, most likely we will be...
Just what for? Does anyone need so many information in the brain to be a man, a real human being? Human being is consciousness first of all, self-consciousness, and he/she has to realize his/her own nature.

[turil]

Change can seem scary, especially to those who aren't well-balanced and feeling stable as it is. But in order to grow, to evolve, to move forward into the future, there must be change, and within that unknown future lies both difficulties and wonder. That is the way it always is.

And for an idea of why technology is helping us become a better species, consider the Xeme.

[pack1ife]

I think you hit upon something crucial. What I think many people worry about, however, is that technological advances won't encourage change, but just further habits of laziness and the need for instant gratification.

[turil]

I don't believe in "laziness". I believe that some people get so overwhelmed by things they fell obligated to do and are too convinced that they are not supposed to be enjoying life all the time, that they just give up, and do what they are told (which is, according to television ads) eat tons of junk food, buy expensive new cars every few years, and work at some lame job so that they can save up money to go on vacations and buy geeky toys to help them escape from the fact that they hate their lives. :-)

[pack1ife]

To-may-to, to-mah-to.

[cweb]

I'm terrified for the future. I work in a high tech company, and I've noticed that a lot of the young people I work with , while great with tech stuff, are not so great with real life and common sense. No clue how to write a letter (spell check will only help so much), fill in forms, cook, work out anything without a calculator, read for pleasure (only about half of them, thank heavens). Some text while driving, because they actually believe they can multi-task. But they don't know much about history, and they are way too reliant on Wikipedia as a source of all knowledge.

[katie_alicyn]

If you haven't read it, I hardily recommend Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. Copy written back in 1985 about the lack of meaning created by television, it is completely relevant to this glut of information we have access to via the internet.

the more things change, the more they stay the same

[pack1ife]

Funnily enough, I always considered Amusing Oneself to Death as living, as opposed to working all the time.

But I am a product of the age I live in.

Okay, maybe heavily influenced by the Romantics, the Bloom group, and Renaissancians (??).

And maybe still a little bit of that good old savage instinct.