With technology having grown to be as widely-used and widely-recognized as it is now, its emergence was bound to have profound effects on human life.The Internet, for example, has given us access to news from around the world, new mediums of entertainment, social networking, etc. It has, to some extent, given human beings the power to transcend their current societies and create new societies online. With such a great power, is there a responsibility attached?
Marshall McLuhan taught us all that the emergence of new mediums would have to, by definition, render some previous method obsolete. What happens when the method being rendered obsolete is something that is foundational to human beings?
As an example let's briefly look at communication as a medium for a brief moment. Can you imagine a future where people speak without voices? Imagine a more efficient method of speech, perhaps if advancements in technology render speech in its current form obsolete, will we tend to see our naturally created faculty being rendered obsolete by a subsequent human creation? Over a period of time, just as bats have a reduced faculty of eyesight that has been caused by their environment, will human beings then lose the ability to speak in the ways we utilize speech presently?
Certainly civilization in its present form would seem strange if showed to someone from a vastly different time. There are electronic wheelchair machines which assist in the movement of people with a challenged physical faculty, and do so in a manner that would probably be considered more efficient than the organic method of walking or running. Why then do human beings choose to walk?
An assumption I'm willing to make is that if there were to exist, for example, a technology that would bathe and dress us in the mornings with increased efficiency, we would gladly utilize such. Furthermore and progressively I assume that other methods that increase efficiency would be adopted as well, eventually leading to a redefinition of all our natural organic faculties.
Such a world may be almost impossible to imagine, a world in which human beings have replaced all that nature has given them with better, created systems. My question to you is whether or not it is as impossible, for example, as the concept of the Internet would have seemed in the late 1800's.
Is technology evolution or "de-evolution" (more properly referred to as regression)?
In terms of the technology itself, it is obviously only evolution. Technology does not get slower. In terms of it's effects on us, I would also say it's evolution. Yes, we may be less active and what have you, but on the flip side technology allows us to develop better medicine, better nutrition, and other things which overall only ever make us grow bigger and live longer.
Is there a responsibility with the internet?
Yes there is. However, most snotty little children on this forum will argue with me about it, so I won't go into it. I will only say that anything illegal in real life should also be illegal online, because when you commit crimes online, the effects still trickle down to real life all the same.
Rendering fundamental human methods absolute?
That is a moot argument in my opinion because technology has yet to do that, and may never do that. You still breathe, eat, **** and sleep. Technology hasn't changed us one bit in that regard.
Can I imagine speaking without voices?
Yes I can. Having dated a deaf girl at one point in life, I've also practiced it quite a bit.
Will we lose our ability to speak if we don't have to?
We will not. Basic communication is not something where a new medium replaces an old one. If that were the case, then we would have an exclusive method of communication already. Something would be chosen above the rest. But we don't work that way. We still incorporate speech, body language, and everything else. So if we learned to use telepathy, for example, it would just be added to that repertoire. It would not overwrite anything completely.
Why do human beings choose to walk?
Because movement, as communication, is a basic function of life. There are certain things programmed into us that will never disappear, despite what Sci-Fi movies would have you believe. You cannot be too lazy to walk, or talk, or eat, or sleep, or have sex. Sometimes you aren't in the mood for it but overall, you cannot just remove it from your life completely. You can only choose to remove man-made constructs, such as work. Some people could go their whole lives without that.
Is it impossible to imagine a world where...?
You don't even have to finish that question. Nothing is impossible.
Sorry to nitpick, but learning is learning.
No problem. Didn't want to sound like a dick, but I'm a bit of a grammar nazi.
Actually, de-evolution, or de-evolve, is part of "common usage", so I think the word is acceptable after all, but not entirely correct.
This almost looks like the first step.
This almost looks like the first step.
That's cool. But I doubt normal people would use it. It's only for certain circumstances.
I'm positive natural walking won't dissapear... ever... tools to ease it yeah, probably.
or according to newton in 2060
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article...wton/article.do
or 3rd world war.
or out of no where lethel plague, over population.
u talk about 50,000 like its assured.
anyway, my opnion is that: we are pushing the end of our technology, and that's sad, couse we barely started....
Something that is very hard to answer though..
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