Will we one day wake up in a tube like Neo in The Matrix to find that we are being kept alive by machines?Cars, phones, heaters, they're all great things we use every day, but at what point does our casual use turn into a dependence? When man was still in its technological infancy, the normal human being could fend for himself in whatever given environment he lived in. But as simple machines were created to make certain jobs easier, the enjoyable luxury of having them turned into a dependency over time. For example, millions of people rely the Internet to keep in touch, conduct research, and even buy stock. If the Internet alone went down just for a day, I have no doubt we'd be caught in the midst of chaos as people rush to find out why they can't check their face book status or why they can't access important information. Our farming is highly mechanized, our economy relies on high performance jet engine planes to transport individuals across the world, and the water of the world that is no longer drinkable is purified by enormous purification plants.
At home we constantly rely on air conditioners to heat or cool our homes, and the time where humans were naturally woken up by the sun or the sound of a rooster has been shoved aside for an age of rather annoying alarm clocks. And how often do you use a car to get around? I know for a fact that I barely get anywhere I need to be without a car, and I myself would be found quite stranded if I had no access to one. So is the age we live in an indication of our ever increasing dependence on machines to make life livable? Or can we achieve a balance between man and machine?
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I completely agree with you, Michael. I think of the movie WALL-E, actually, where all of the obese people have their eyes fixed on a screen all day. But it's definitely true that there are a lot of machines that we "can't live without," and the world would be in a disaster if the Internet show down for a day, like you said. In case a natural disaster suddenly causes us to lose everything (material), we need to be prepared to live like our primitive ancestors; we shouldn't be dysfunctional without "advanced" technology.
Just out of curiosity, what inspired this blog post?
Does anyone know how long the average person spends on the Internet? I browsed for a few minutes but couldn't find a recent study that directly answered this question.
That would be an interesting thing to find out - the average amount of time people spend on the internet and on the computer in general, as well as watching TV, playing computer and video games, checking apps on iTouches and cell phones...
My friend recently remodeled his house...and although it's no Smart House (does anyone remember that movie?) it's definitely technologically-advanced. A single remote (it looks more like an iPad, actually) controls the TV, music, the house's entire sound system, and more. Although I had fun playing music in various rooms of the house, the technology was a bit overwhelming. It may be because I'm not exactly technologically-savvy (I tend to somehow harm most machines with which I come into contract), but I definitely felt that the amount of technology in our everyday lives is beginning to get ridiculous. I fully support the advancement of technology to figure out solutions to society's many problems...but do we really need to sit in front of screens all of the time? I much prefer sitting down and having a conversation with someone than staring at the TV.
In the current conditions we live under, I find cutting down on the technology we use extremely hard. People on our society today are already at the point where we are machine dependant to survive. I don't think it will be reasonable to go backwards but I do think that we should slow down the amount of new technology and machinery we take in. Because no way can society function without cell phones or the internet but the things we use to get the services are quite sophisticated.
It is interesting, to say the least, that we cannot function without technology. But I think that we are able to exist without it, but we choose not to. I remember a trip I took where we spent 36 hours completely by ourselves in the wilderness. Everyone in the group spread out so we couldn't see anyone else and we were left alone with our thoughts. And we all survived. In fact, there was a lot of real creativity (drawings of the mountains, stories, poems, etc) that came out of those hours alone.
In response to Michael's original question, I don't think we'll ever end up completely unable to function without machines because there are still enough people who enjoy painting and drawing (instead of snapping pictures) or flipping the pages of a book (instead of reading it on an iPad). At the same time, there is some technology we will never escape, like telephones, and the variety of technologies we depend on is constantly increasing. I read an MLIA post where the internet crashed at a university and the administration informed the students when it would be up again via email. Clearly, the easy access to technology is limiting our use of common sense, but I sincerely hope it never gets as far as the visions Michael and Sarah proposed.
Oh yeah Sarah, this was inspired by The Matrix mainly, but WALL-E and the Terminator a bit also. I just don't want us to loose our ability to survive and think on our own.
I really hope that we do not have to rely on technology in the following years because I think that will be very sad. Today, I forgot my cell phone at home because I left it charging since I didn't charge it last night, and I realized I had forgotten it when I got to school this morning. I felt weird not having my phone with me because I usually check if I got any messages during passing periods, brunch, and lunch. In a way, I felt lost without it, but on the other hand, it felt nice not having it with me all day because I got to disconnect from it for about 7 hours and I wasn't relying on it. I honestly don't know how people got through their days in school without cell phonesin prior decades, but if they could do it so can we, or at least that's what I believe. If they got through the days then I think we can get through a few hours that we're in school. I honestly do hope that we do not become dependent on machines and technology in the future. I don't think that would be a good thing for our society.
I do believe that our society is now rellying on machines and I think this is very bad. Everyone rellies on machines for our daily lives. We need machinery to be able to feed ourselves! Back when we didn't have all this technology, people would rellyon themselves for food and cook it on a fire. If our society's people were back in the early times such as the Middle Ages, I believe many of us would die. It is a scary thought to think about, that whats keeping us going is not ourselves but the very things we have built.
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