Or is that a paradox? Since humans are the ones that program the gadgets, is it simply a matter of us being interdependent on each other, which is a good thing? Is progress progress no matter the cost? I notice that the gps on my phone keeps blinking out and I have become so dependent on it, making It frustrating when not working.
Further, I read an article that states eventually the personal assistants such as Alexa could be operated by real people answering our questions? Isn’t that making a circle? what is better, a human or a machine?
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7 responses to “do people depend on computers and other gadgets too much?”
I think the key factor in several of question is akin to the addiction question. At what point does something meant to assist us, become indispensable? Make us far less capable that we were before it came along?
Unable to operate “normally”? Weaker.
If you faced a truly malicious “enemy”, could they defeat you simply by denying you your gadgets and “conveniences”?
The interdependency issue is a difficult one. Because the ability to rely upon each other (trust) becomes harder and harder to do the farther we stray from classic Western values. Do you really want your devices programmed by someone who has an ideological agenda and only sees you as someone to be manipulated and controlled? Or who sees the violation of your Constitutional Rights and Freedoms as a possible necessary step? Or who fervently believes in a reversal of Blackstone’s Ratio? (It’s better for society for 10 guilty people to escape, than for 1 innocent person to suffer — the very basis of European Common Law upon which American jurisprudence has been based throughout all of the Nation’s decades of progress and prosperity).
Or who thinks that one gender should always be believed and the other always doubted?
Public trust has been eroded because of the growing number of people who actually feel righteously justified in powerfully inflicting their will over you in very anti-Western ways.
I’m not sure about the Alexa question. A “real person” answering our questions would not seem a natural result of the path we’re charging down at an accelerating pace. The trend is towards more and more complex A.I. — what some critics are calling “Humanity’s Last Invention”.
It’s nice that we don’t have to walk or run to our destinations any more, or do the dishes anymore. Or that we can cook a meal or chop down a tree or build a house in a fraction of the time.
Or that we can have the totality of our species’ scientific, literary and artistic works at our fingertips.
I’m not sure about us not having to exercise our memories (or bodies?) any more. Having all our “competency” on a gadget on our belt or in purse. To have electronic personal assistants turning themselves on, listening in and posting every thing we say to the internet.
Fewer and fewer jobs from which we garner far more than just “funds”.
Algorithms that decide what we can see and hear . . . and think.
We have such a proclivity to be subsumed by our “conveniences”.
If we don’t get that under control, and solve the “agenda-fied ideology filling the void left by religions” problem, the brightness of the future is considerably dimmed. We are already seeing young adults raised in a world of electronic gadgetry and convenience as far far less competent in the real world, often at twice the age of children just 5 decades ago.
Is this the trajectory of progress at any cost?
I don’t know about “people”, but I like that I can look up the Weather Channel and touch with friends and family on the internet. I have my favorite places I go. I depend on my vacuum to suck up dirt, and when it faltered, just a little bit, I purchased another vacuum to add to my collection of fully functioning vacuum cleaners. That is my oddity that I could talk to a therapist about. However, he may have me get rid of a vacuum, or two and I don’t want to.
Gadgets make life easier. Just in case the coffee maker fails, I have a French Press to make coffee. I never want to do without coffee. I like my coffee to taste a certain way and when Immortal Pirate wants fancy flavors, I have a good instant coffee for myself. I back up all conveniences with another way to do the same thing.
No matter how many gadgets I have, I can never impress upon Immortal Pirate that tea must be brewed with nearly boiling water and the tea bag has to be allowed to brew for a full 5 minutes. Otherwise, it is warm colored water without the healing properties of the tea leaves. Men cannot be programmed. You have to work with what you have.
@ladybarbara my brother tends to overdo tea(s). He’ll put some of this tea and some of that, pouring fully boiling water on it, letting it steep… only to strain it and sdd more water to it. He thinks his teas will undo the effects of all the alcohol he drinks… which is ludicrous.
The simplest gadget I can think of is one that helped to build the pyramids, the pendulum level, also known as the plum line level. It was accurate to 1/.0001 of a degree (one ten thousandth of a degree).
The earliest form of computer, also used to calculate measurements when building the pyramids was the abacus.
Sometimes. How many of us will die needlessly when the shit hits the fan? Knowledge is key. I’ve subscribed to a email from a website called survivopedia, which talks about how to survive. It’s very useful information… which i hope i never will have to use.
The world is the beast, and it goes around and around, consuming the lives of everyone on the planet. Nothing anyone does or experiences matters, because, again, as Rutger Hauer said, in Blade Runner (a line which he made up), ‘tears lost in the rain’.
The internet, and such, is not the problem. Indeed, my family and I have worked hard to bring it to people, and secure it, and expand it. Because by this means can we communicate to the whole world, when the time is right…
But, with this comes the capacity for killing. By words and ideas and the lack of vision.
If you have the greatest of wealth, fame, and praise… if you have the deepest of love… it is all but as tears lost in the rain, without eternal life.
So, death rules, and with it, everyone under it can only speak and communicate death, without even knowing it.
Consider all the world as a prison, now, where all are consigned to the sentence of death.
Because that is exactly what it is.
But, the clock is turning, and this will change.
Death is in almost everyone, and so this is the plague they communicate. Death is in some, more then others. They are of this world, so their voices are louder and get communicated more. So, this is the bane of mass communication.
But, this will change.