Below are a few key aspects of our Hyper Modern Era that I have spent a lot of time thinking about. Things are not what they used to be. We have unique problems that are brand new to humanity.
For example, someone could try to use your computer to frame you for a crime. Is that likely? No. But it's actually, horrifyingly possible. For the other 99.9999999% of human existence, it was impossible. A box made of plastic and metal can be hacked and used to implicate you in some crime. A typical jury would probably see things this way: "This guy's computer says he did it, so he did it. Guilty." Feels like a good day to rent that movie "Minority Report".
If they really want to make computers more secure, they should make them so simplistic that viruses can't attach to anything. A praying mantis can safely eat a black widow spider. The spider has venom that can kill a human being, but with the mantis, it's a totally different story. There's a counter for everything.
Sometimes we changed for the better, but other times, things got worse and we became less human. My analysis is focused on a United States perspective, as I have lived here my entire life, and I have decided to write about what I know best.
"Mission Incomplete"
We use a lot of technology
and relatively few soldiers to wage expensive wars that never end. What would victory
actually look like according to our current philosophy? What is there to gain by dipping our toes into
conflicts half way around the world?
Hyper Modern warfare does not create worthwhile economic opportunity, the way World War II or other traditional wars did... instead, it only costs us resources as we fail to address the root causes of our international conflicts. Wars are meant to produce decisive, permanent results. One side has to be completely defeated to the point where they can not even dream of challenging the victor again. We are not currently using war this way.
Hyper Modern warfare does not create worthwhile economic opportunity, the way World War II or other traditional wars did... instead, it only costs us resources as we fail to address the root causes of our international conflicts. Wars are meant to produce decisive, permanent results. One side has to be completely defeated to the point where they can not even dream of challenging the victor again. We are not currently using war this way.
"An Endless
Ocean"
The
internet as we know it seems to stretch on into infinity, but is it really
making your life better overall? Maybe the answer is "yes", but it's definitely worth thinking about. People got a lot of important stuff done before the internet as we know it existed, especially from the 1940s until the early 2000s. This was the golden age of United States opportunity. You could do it all. You could make a good living as an unskilled laborer, and you could also strive for more intellectual economic pursuits if you wanted to. Colleges hadn't started pumping up their tuition rates to their current sky high level.
In that era, if you woke up on time and didn't get drunk on the job, you were going to be able to put together a pretty solid life. Now you have an extra utility bill to pay just so you can keep pace with the rest of the world. If you take a break from the internet for a week, in today's era, you'll have a hard time getting much done.
I can instantly look up the name of the actor who was in that movie... but so what? In an era where you can send an email anywhere in the world in an instant, it's actually still difficult to get the attention of the people you really want to reach.
If there is some old friend of yours that you never hear from, in this era, then they really do not care what you're up to these days. Communication has never been easier, and yet plenty of my good / best friends from over the years have disappeared from the picture just the same.
In that era, if you woke up on time and didn't get drunk on the job, you were going to be able to put together a pretty solid life. Now you have an extra utility bill to pay just so you can keep pace with the rest of the world. If you take a break from the internet for a week, in today's era, you'll have a hard time getting much done.
I can instantly look up the name of the actor who was in that movie... but so what? In an era where you can send an email anywhere in the world in an instant, it's actually still difficult to get the attention of the people you really want to reach.
If there is some old friend of yours that you never hear from, in this era, then they really do not care what you're up to these days. Communication has never been easier, and yet plenty of my good / best friends from over the years have disappeared from the picture just the same.
"In your free time"
We have robots and computer
programs and underpaid foreigners to do work for us, "freeing" us
from the burden of traditional employment. There are so many people in the United States, but
there is only so much work that needs to be done. We haven't yet arrived at that Star Trek level where money is meaningless and everyone gets what they need to live comfortably, so in the meantime, there's a lot of discontent.
A lot of things got done between the end of World War II and the early 2000s as America stood tall in the aftermath of the most important event in human history. But nowadays there's less for any given person to claim.
Go back even further for a moment. Imagine you were alive in America right after the Revolutionary War victory over England. The sky was the limit. Everything needed to be done. The map was mostly blank. You could have been the person to open the country's first tri-corner hat outlet. You really could have cleaned up. Now, even if everyone had the skills to develop that next great smartphone App... we don't need hundreds of millions of Apps.
Maybe one day the First World economy will just be everyone watching each other's YouTube channels.
Fun.
A lot of things got done between the end of World War II and the early 2000s as America stood tall in the aftermath of the most important event in human history. But nowadays there's less for any given person to claim.
Go back even further for a moment. Imagine you were alive in America right after the Revolutionary War victory over England. The sky was the limit. Everything needed to be done. The map was mostly blank. You could have been the person to open the country's first tri-corner hat outlet. You really could have cleaned up. Now, even if everyone had the skills to develop that next great smartphone App... we don't need hundreds of millions of Apps.
Maybe one day the First World economy will just be everyone watching each other's YouTube channels.
Fun.
"The Illusion of Satisfaction"
We have access to
a bottomless pit of free pornography that we can use to replace romantic
connection and indulge in every fantasy, no matter how specific or depraved. We alienate ourselves from the potential lovers around us and
dehumanize ourselves in the process. Amateurs with a streak of exhibitionism are willing to give you a free show, even though the professionals still want thousands of dollars per movie. Huh? I don't get it. Who is still paying people to have sex on camera? Why do they keep making more of the same exact thing when we already have way more than we could ever possibly use?
Even if you ignore the amateurs, there are enough free samples of the professionals to satisfy any reasonable person's appetite.
The "bottomless pit of free pornography" I am thinking of does not even take into account the endless gigs of pirated material that so many people access.
Meanwhile, people hide behind carefully curated profiles on their dating apps and dating websites, finding every conceivable reason to pass on people that they would actually like if they were to meet them spontaneously in real life.
Even if you ignore the amateurs, there are enough free samples of the professionals to satisfy any reasonable person's appetite.
The "bottomless pit of free pornography" I am thinking of does not even take into account the endless gigs of pirated material that so many people access.
Meanwhile, people hide behind carefully curated profiles on their dating apps and dating websites, finding every conceivable reason to pass on people that they would actually like if they were to meet them spontaneously in real life.
"Stop telling me things"
We have access to so
much information that we need to ignore well over 99% of it to get anything
meaningful done in any given moment. I believe this environment of information overload is a big reason why fewer people read for fun now. People are now used to diving into a pool of noise from the moment they wake up everyday, and they are not great at climbing out of that pool. And I get it. It's hard! There are so many options competing for your attention. Sometimes I drive out to a big empty field to read. It's a pretty great place to be.
No, I don't want to sign up for your email newsletter. No, I don't want to create a new account. No, I don't want to set a new security question. No, I don't want to be flooded with an endless wave of factoids that I will never do anything with.
No, I don't want to sign up for your email newsletter. No, I don't want to create a new account. No, I don't want to set a new security question. No, I don't want to be flooded with an endless wave of factoids that I will never do anything with.
No comments:
Post a Comment