Tech & Humanity

Technology appears to be moving at a pace faster than we can recognize. New consumer items transition from design to prototype to market-ready within a fraction of the time previously needed to acquire the same. It is not just the speed at which these items are being created that is worrisome but the quality of the tech itself. It's not hard to repeat the same sentences used millennia before, it's easy to see that whichever allotted Era of time you are in, you will most likely believe it to be on the precipice of something otherworldly. The difference is that now we truly do have otherworldly ideas being turned into real life each and every day. So may I stop to ask you, where is this all going, and at what point do we lose what it means to be homo-sapiens and maybe more frightening, will we even know when the change comes?

New tech being developed is superseding our understanding of what is capable in reality. CRISPR gene editing bacterial software is allowing us to change the genetic DNA structure of living things. SpaceX is on the verge of rewriting space travel history as we see reduced costs in manufacturing, increased efficiency, and upgraded software at a fraction of the cost. Humans will land on a second planet in 50 years. TimeCrystals are a thing, that alone blows my tiny ape-sized brain. Quantum computing is becoming increasingly common for tech firms to take on. Biotechnology is a word that is literally used in real life everyday scenarios where growth and human optimization along with healthcare tiptoe across a tightrope of moral and legal issues. Who knows what's going on in Chinese, Russian, American, and British covert mystery projects. It's not hard to look at our past offences and summon up the idea of human testing.

Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. the tech majors control more than is known. They have power across the global digital infrastructure and use that power to benefit their corporations. The divide is only worsening, stretching beyond what we thought was possible. Tech will eventually close this gap, but that will be a long way away after we come to terms with our own selfish ability to harm ourselves and others. The true growth we need is not in the physical external realm associated with our phones and laptops and entertainment systems and shoes and such, but inside us, in each and every one of us.

We have a global pandemic, protests and riots setting ablaze the world around us, pollutants killing the planet, domesticated animals wasted by the million, land destroyed and water made toxic, all in the effort to produce more, to grow above the normal savage confines of human existence and rise above the rest, a hero of sorts, only this hero wears Prada and Gucci and the newest iPhone and thinks the world revolves around there fucking spinal cord. Cancer afflicts the masses, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, lung cancer and death from alcohol obliterate the rest. Attachment to life and fear of death along with more mental health disorders than you could fit in a 10,000-word dissertation have ruined us.

However, if you look for it, you will find it. A glimmer of hope, a ray of sunshine, a reason to have faith. Mother nature knows what's best. And she doesn't care so much for good or bad. Just with what is. And what is, well, what is, is just that, and if it wasn't, then it wouldn't be what it is, and then you wouldn't have to bother with any of it in the first place. So shut your mouth, smile, turn your gaze inwards and use your new phone to take stunning selfies of your new enlightenment.

I used to fear we would go too far and not know how to stop or even want to stop because of our intrigue, our deep curiosity for exploration, this incessant need to develop and grow. I don't fear that anymore. I believe now we are on the path we are on for a reason, I have faith. I hope you can too.