Why don’t I just jump out of my seat for “new tech”? Like any other tech-savvy dude?
Ok... Regardless of tech-savvy.
I have always enjoyed the wonderful complex stuff around us that make life not just easier, but also smarter, without making us unnecessarily lazy and dependent. I have always created stuff, hi-tech or not, I have the feel for it, understand it, can build it, create new variations that serve me better or are easier to make with my toolbox.
The stuff that makes our life in this way - easier, enjoyable, fun to use - without the part of "making us yet more lazy and dependent", this is the stuff I love most!
Making stuff useful is my mission, indeed.
Having said that,
IMHO... Hardly any of the contemporary gadgets we have (or feel we just have to buy) - like
- the phone, the computer, the TV, the car etc.
- the "smart" stuff that keeps us sitting on our behind (instead of pursuing anything more noble) or
- indulging in virtual reality gadgets (as opposed to exploring our consciousness)
None of this stuff actually makes us better humans.
But it makes us ever more dependent on technology, even though this "new tech" is actually old.
For someone who loves technology, I walk around with a rather old mobile phone, I ban automatic appliances, unless they make life simple, mundane tasks more fun, and stupid work that no one should ever be doing is made obsolete.
We do not want to render ourselves useless, with our amazing capacity for abstract thinking, creativity and our versatile minds. But we want to enhance our human thinking, and leave the mundane, boring, repetitive or redundant to machines and artificial intelligence.
Then, we can use our unlimited potential to create and manifest a world that is nothing less than the most Utopian version of our collective imagination - if we only can learn to be respectful of and to harmonize with Mother Nature, respect other people and beings and treat knowledge with utter responsibility.
While enjoying the brightness of our minds and beauty of technology, still I am very reluctant to much of the latest gadgets around - why? - Because there is nothing new under the sun, only still another version of the same.
Like the automobil: Same same but different. Same tech for at least 100 years…
Is this a joke?? We could years ago drop the poisonous fossil fuel and get cheap, clean energy and affordable, clean transportation for EVERYBODY.
Have you noticed too? When addicted and high on gadgets (read, yet again: lazy and dependent), creativity and resourcefulness go to sleep. Many items, if not most of our tech, degrade us in probably the worst way possible. Even without the extraterrestrial tech, we made years ago gigantic leaps in technology, but everything of any significance has been suppressed for being too good for humanity, to easy a solution, too hard (or impossible) to put a price tag on or too simple and applicable (so people become truly independent of scarce resources that the elites keep for themselves).
Why would anyone reduce the need for money? - It’s bad for business, right?
Unless you're a have-none, i.e. NOT one of the "elites" and would rather control your own life, not others' lives.
So I am not impressed.
Contemporary tech is old tech. And while most feel exhilarated by this “inching” (as in small improvements of what we already polished and accomplished for how-many-years ago), like the automobile or the mobile phone - I feel indifferent.
Why don't we tread forward already??
Partly because it requires time and resources. Necessity and creativity will then do the rest.
But mostly because the leading economy "gods" do not and cannot allow anything better. Some entities have the need to feed off of others.
But the curtain will fall off, hopefully sooner than later. Then it’s time to get excited!
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