Stephanie Bennett's Blog

It's true isn't it! It's all so true! Yet just a hundred years ago, village life in the UK was so different. For all the things they lacked in modern medicine, helpful appliances, instantly available power, water, and communication, those people had one big advantage over life today. And what was that thing? Community.

I suppose it was the same in every country around the world. People lived in community. They all knew the other people in the village, they helped one another when there were problems, and they sat and chatted in the evening when darkness prevented further labour in the workshop, kitchen, or farm. Everybody felt part of the community, everyone had a role, everyone depended on the others doing their bit.

And when they met in the street or in the field they would always nod, stop awhile and check up on things. Or just pass a few minutes with a joke and a friendly chat. They were rarely in a hurry, most didn't have a watch. Midday meant the middle part of the day, not 12:00 o'clock sharp. They were a community.

Where did we go wrong? Is it impossible to have our modern conveniences and our mobile phones and still live as part of a community?

You've really set me thinking with this blog. More like this please!

It amazes me. People work at frantic jobs so they can make more money to buy the devices that make them accessible "anytime" to type "A" employers who live for their work (and think you should too).

I'm really dating myself here, but I can remember a time when calling someone at dinner was the ultimate of rude and calling them at home after 9 or 10 p.m. was unthinkable (unless you were phoning from the Emergency room).

Now, people call and don't even bother with "Did I catch you at a bad time?" No.

Someone called my house last night to speak to a guest who'd turned off her cell phone. Was it an emergency? No. Was at least important? No. The majority of the call revolved around my guest's "selfishness" in turning off her cell phone at 8 p.m. Go figure.

Millions of Americans have become obsessed with wealth and beauty . . . they have smooth skin and all the outward signs of affluence you can imagine . . . and they are empty.

What I consider a byproduct of this madness is the new "reality" shows on television. We've been listening to people's private conversations while they walk through the mall or sit in the next booth in a restaurant. That has somehow degenerated to the right to observe the private lives of others as they devour each other to climb to some higher echelon of wealth or status. It's sick really.

Steph is right. Somehow, our "servants" (timesaving gadgets) have become our masters. We need to start a revolution and just say "no."

terry

Actually... The end goal of technology is to bring man into the garden (of Eden) again... Without God. I, an avid user and developer of "cutting edge technology", have recently had to re-evaluate the role of technology in my life. And the technologies I'm willing to develop for others.

If you remember in Genesis 3:17-19:

17 To Adam he [G~d] said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

The end goal as I see it is to do all the "hard work" that God has sentanced us (men) to do for us, so that we can be free to wander in the garden again WITHOUT God... Think about all the developments in robotics, Artificial Intelegence, even software tools we use everyday , All of them started off as something to make our life easier, so that we could be a little more free. In essence to "REDEME US" from that curse.

In my opinion many technologies have ended up enslaving many of us (I know it sounds dramatic... but I can demonstrate some very serious examples... in fact... I will)

Example 1: How many people who have grown up with technology can do math without a calculator or computer?

I have a degree in engineering, and have worked for the largest defense contractor in the world. While I was there I worked with many brilliant people. Not a single one of them (NOT ONE) could demonstrate a simple Calculous 1 problem to me without the aid of a calculator. (These are equations they use everyday on the computer, that every first year engineering student is required to learn) When asked how they do the complex computations to do their work they all simply shruged thier shoulders and said...

That's why we have CAD... It does the math for us...

When asked if they ever check the math that comes out of the computer, they looked at me as if I were a mad man. "Why should we? it hasn't been wrong yet..."

I have also taught math at various levels (from primary scool to college level) and found the dependence on technology very disturbing. I know college students that cannot perform (simple, single digit) multiplication without a calculator... I thought everyone had to learn them in primary school... aparently I'm behind the times.

Example 2: Spell checking... (one I'm guilty of)

How many people who use a computer alot can spell on thier own? I know I stop worrying about it, and just type, counting on the spell checker to be able understand what I mean and correct me when I'm done... I know that this is a small one... but it is in my mind a bit symbolic of the dependance and how subliminal it really is

Example 3: The Jobs

As a computer programer, and mechanical engineer, I can say without a doubt, there are very few jobs that could not be done faster, more cheaply, and more reliably by a well programed robot. (I'm not talking 20 yrs down the road, I'm talking about now.) The only reason they are not in YOUR Chair now doing YOUR job is the prohibitive cost of adapting technology to YOUR field. And there are thousands of people working in third world countries, trying to develop ways to make the cost worth it now. Unless you happen to have one of the increasingly more rare jobs that involve creative thinking or development.

You may be thinking my thoughs are a bit extreme. Especially my third example. I am not some crackpot who sits in his basement watching terminator movies all day. I am an engineer, and I have worked with some very brilliant people, and seen some pretty amazing things, and what I said about machines doing jobs is true, the only reasone they are not doing it now, is economics. (be you teacher, lawyer, bus driver, doctor, etc.)

Example 4: Medicen

We all want to be in perfect health until the day we die. And we don't want to die... (I'll note that we had good health in the garden... and for women no pain in child bearing aparently...) Do i need to mention the unending list of pharmasuticals, beauty products, and life saving safety equipment?

So what does this have to do with my point? The end job/goal of this technology is to "free" us (or someone like our boss?) from the confines of work (or pain) so that we can "entertain" our selves. (Economically it is more complicated than that but I'll simplify for this)

Is that not the end goal of many of our socieites? to get "enough" stuff that we can do anything we want any time we want? I know here in America it is "The American Dream". And it sounds a lot like what the Garden of Eden was like before we got kicked out. And somehow, technology has become the brute force and magic carrot in getting us there faster.

btw... I mention the magic carrot, This is a philosophy I developed working in the technology industry to represent the magic acheivement somewhere in the distance that no one ever actually gets to. I think of the cartoon with the primary character sitting in a kart being pulled by a donkey. Character put a carrot on the end of a stick and put it just out of reach of the donkey... and that donkey just keeps walking forward hoping that the next step will bring him to the carrot... and sadly, he will never reach it...

I do not beleive that we need to become techno-phobes and run from technology, but I agree with Stephanie that we really need to evaluate technologies role in our lives, and how much it has seemed to enslave/captivated us. It is my personal opinion that people should not be allowed to use a technology they do not understand, or even more so, that they should not use technology to do work they could not do independently of that technology. (For example... I don't think an engineer should be allowed to use a CAD program until they can do it by hand first... then the CAD would be a tool to help them... not something they are dependent on.)

The problem is that more and more people are getting sucked into the idea of the magic carrot, or that if they work hard enough they can finally relax in that "garden", and they eventually become obsesed with it. And the harder they work the further they seem to get from it, and yet it always seems just one step away (Just one more gadget, a few more payments, 2 more classes, and some therapy, and I'll be set...). I think this is a subliminal thing, very few people ever stop to consider it, and wonder... Hey I've been chasing this carrot for 5 years now... why have I not gotten any closer to it? This technology envelopes every aspect of thier lives to make things "easier" or "more entertaining" while never actually satisfying. BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY CANNOT REPLACE GOD, BRING US CLOSER TO THE GARDEN, OR FREE US FROM THE CURSE.

I think the closer we become to letting technology take us to the "garden" (without God) the more disjointed, disfunctional, and generally screwed up our societies will become because we have then become more separate from the consequences of living a real world (Created by a Just / Holy / Merciful God) The philosophy will be more and more like this "Heck we can almost escape God's curse... what do I care about consequences from anything else?"

Sorry for the length of this post, I found this topic has many more pages that could be input here, but that is what I think about in reply / support of your post. (I never knew I had such an opinion on the topic till I started to write this post)

Excellent thoughts, Matt, and thanks for contributing to this blog entry. I feel so strongly about the issue that I have "bit the bullet" and am writing a novel about the very things you mentioned. I started it in 2001, but have not gotten very far. In spite of the wonders of word processing and wireless technology, the pace set by Technology's tools have only increased the busyness in my life. It a circle; the very reason I am writing the book.

Society's longing for the "magic carrot" of technology IS a human effort to free us from the curse. Jacques Ellul, a Frenchman who lived and wrote much socio-political theory in the last century, named this phenomenon, "La technique." It is essentially, the human drive toward efficiency, effeciency at any cost.

On another of my blog entries you will see how I envision the "MAGIC CARROT" of which you speak.

It is up to each individual to take charge of the place of technology in our lives AND in our immediate circle of influence.
Like you, I really appreciate and daily use the communications tools necessary to function in my various roles, but I cannot - will not -- give myself over to letting these inanimate "tools" rule me. Don't let me, okay? We need to look out for each other -- it's part of being human.

I close with a quote from a gentleman/professor whom I truly respect, Dr. Clifford Christians. He writes:

“Our human livelihood is rooted in the principle that we have inescapable claims on one another than cannot be renounced except at the cost of our humanity.” 

This is from an article of his called,"The Sacredness of Life."

Thanks for the exchange; it's terrific!
Stephanie