COLUMN: Technology sapping our world

Published: Monday, September 23, 2002

nsomniac from fear of the boogieman. I too have a monster under my bed: technology.

With progress moving forward without any end in sight, it's imperative to see how truly scary it is and question its worth.

Perhaps I'm a Puritan. Perhaps, in comparison, I'm obtuse. Call my views antiquated, but the furthering of technology purely for technology's sake is asinine and should be unequivocally questioned skeptically. Must things always be faster, stronger and more efficient in order to be deemed better? Efficiency is partnered with a sacrifice of quality.

Shoes could endure years of abuse rather than months. Batteries could last months not days. Clothes, decades. But by making these items cheaper, they can be made more quickly, thus, more efficiently.

"Adaptation," some might say, "is essential to survival." Humans are distinguished from the other species by the evolutionary ability to master tools. Technology has come to replace all human evolutionary progress.

Rather than evolve, humans invent. Can't run fast? Buy a car. Don't have claws or venom? Buy a gun. However, evolutionary anthropology has illustrated that not all adaptations are advantageous to a species. In fact, phenotypic variations of a species are often disadvantageous. If nature has learned that evolution is only favorable under certain conditions, why is it that humans technologically evolve without reservation?

Mechanical, electrical and technological "advances" are made without any motive save for making life easier. This credo is supercilious and absurd; life is easy enough today.

As we ignorantly create a dilapidated world of full of unfit hedonists and mechanistic mayhem, ask yourself, have all of the steps we've taken, all of the advancements we've made, been in the right direction? Is the quality life better than it was, say, 100 years ago? Do you feel like your grandparents experienced and accomplished more than you will?

Certainly we've made life easier, but the easiest life is not the best or the most fulfilling. While the life of the comatose man is clearly easier than the life of the coal miner, who in their right mind would volunteer to be iron-lung dependent? Being unconscious is effortless. If you're conscious and active, you can enjoy life. If you habitually allow machines and gadgets to act on your behalf, you're a fool.

Many people purport that one of the benefits of technology is that by making things more efficient we save time and money. But what is done with all of this saved time? The "positive" effects of these time-saving devices beg the question: Is it worth saving time if nothing productive is done with it?

How many people now help save drowning children in their spare time because the Xerox machine has replaced scribes? How many people have helped feed the world's starving children because cars and airplanes are a lot faster than Conestoga wagons. None! Technology has afforded man the privilege of being lazier and doing less for himself and others. It isn't that more needs to be done, it's that more good needs to be done.

What about e-mail? Instead of waiting several days for a letter, you can now send it via skuzzy cables as tiny electronic particles bound cross-country in a matter of seconds. But when viewed objectively, the e-mail versus posted mail seems rather trite. To make up for the lack of revenues the United States Postal Service has raised the price of the average stamp from 23 cents to 37 cents in less than 20 years because people chose to be cheap and impersonal rather compassionate and giving. A piece of tangible mail is always more nostalgic than staring at a TV monitor. Besides, e-mail is sent through computers and computers are powered by electricity. Someone still pays for the resources.

Urinal motion sensing flushers, beeping dashboard lights, automated teller machines. Tantamount to excuses for man to be lazy.

Technology is a wolf in sheep's clothing and until someone wakes up and says, "Hey! I like having to climb stairs rather than take the elevator. That's why I have legs," technology and science will allow entrepreneurs to market lies to the public. Comments like, "How did I ever live without this before?" indicate worthlessness.

If the wolf gets smarter and the sheep stay dumb, someone's in big, big trouble.