Tech has created a situation where there is so much INPUT coming at us so quickly it is impossible to grasp what’s really going on. Moreover, its ability to shape, color and produce information has put the power in programmers’ hands of defining what is real and what isn’t. Even the old maxim, “are you going to believe what someone is telling you or are you going to believe your own eyes and ears” is challengeable because both sound and video can be doctored or created out of thin air. In short, CHAOS is the only word to describe what is happening around us. There are moments when we think we’ve got a handle on our lives but it’s an illusion. There is no way that an individual can assimilate and process all the information: good, bad, relevant or not…that’s constantly coming at us. So, unfortunately, we conduct our lives based on an artificial reality consisting, often, of what we’ve heard or seen most recently or what has dominated the Input stream and we have abrogated the course of our civilization to those who control the firehose of so-called information sprayed at us.
Remember that cute film “Short Circuit” in which a friendly robot (“Number 5”) is constantly running around seeking “Input”. At some point he’s gathered and assimilated sufficient Input that he’s become human. (“Number 5 is ALIVE”!!)
Because our human capacity, unlike Number 5, is limited, we have taken to relying on the Internet, that “big database in the sky” to serve as a sort of mental external disk drive, an extension of our Input storage ability. Evidence of this is in plain sight…”Google” is now a verb*. I too look up things that I should know and keep in my head but instead I rely on the “big database in the sky” to provide me with almost instant answers to any question I might have. Never mind that the information may be faulty or misleading. If it LOOKS good, or SOUNDS good, or SEEMS to come from an AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE, I’m likely to accept it and/or use it to draw a conclusion. (Sound the low register buzzer….)
* I don’t use Google as a search engine anymore. Rather, I use Duck Duck Go, but that hasn’t been turned into a verb yet!
I used to think that we could go back to a simpler life: simpler communication, more black and white and less gray, a better understanding of what’s important in life and what’s secondary, tertiary, etc. It ain’t gonna happen. The influence of tech on every facet of our being is here to stay. We’re so overwhelmed with Input we hardly even have the capacity anymore to turn it off, to choose a life course that’s, frankly, more human than android.
So what do we do? How do we go forth in this world of chaos and live traditional lives when Tech is making that almost impossible? We can’t all escape to the country, disconnect from the Cloud and the Grid and become self-sufficient.
We CAN, however, put the brakes on Tech and recapture our humanity while availing ourselves of some of the Good that tech provides.
How do we do that?
We start by throwing out…yes, THROWING OUT things like iWatches and FitBits! We STOP using the boob tube to keep us company while we make dinner or putter around the house. We READ again, books that are classic, that uplift, that help us cope with one another and the world around us in HUMAN ways, not digitally manipulated ones.
If all this sounds like gobbledygook that’s because the impact of CHAOS on our lives prevents us from seeing the forest for the trees (to use a traditional expression)!
What I’m suggesting is that we pause, take a breath, “Just Say NO” to Input, and ask ourselves what’s REALLY important and meaningful in our lives. Is it the latest installment of whatever we’re binge-watching on Netflix or finding a means and place to hang the scribbled “picture” that our child or grandchild has given us? Questions like these are endless, and we hardly ever ask them in this either/or fashion. We should!
And for the sake of our families, our communities, our nation, our humanity, we must “Just Say No” to this Leftist idiocy. Like the brave moms speaking out at school board meetings against Critical Race Theory and masks, wear the ostracization of the sheep like a badge of honor. Regrettably, we are already beginning to learn who our real friends are and some who have joined the sheep will no longer be. Be cordial, be sympathetic to those feeble-minded or brainwashed souls who are unwittingly buying into the “Great Reset” or just following the other lemmings to their destruction. Stand firm for the values we know to be those of winners and benevolent to society as a whole. And filter, filter, filter the onslaught of Input coming at you!