Is technology a drug?

[Biggles]

We can't get enough of it.

We feed it our kids and watch them grow on a forced diet of desensitization. Switch on the T.V. and someone will tell you 50'000 people died in India. Two seconds later you're watching a comedy. Technology can do that. It gives us simulated realities that make us oblivious to the real world. Heroin does the same thing. So do most class A drugs. Basically we're all addicts - addicted to the comfort and convenience that technology provides - addicted to the notion that progress is directly related to the size of your computer screen. Of course it is. We must be right. We come from the developed world. We are already developed. Sure. Then again, wealthy kids in America shoot each other. Poor kids in Soweto can't stop smiling.

So who's developed?

When I look in front of me, I see two paths - spiritual or material. Two worlds - developed or developing. You decide which is which. We're still in the wake of 'Millenium paranoia' - earthquakes, floods end of World scenarios, cult suicides, viral diseases that eat into our computer realities. This is our developed world.

Then, as Nelson Mandela says "We are free to be free"

What do you think?

 

[Rick]

hi,
drug addiction doesnt help me,it gives pleasure but it destroys in the end .technology comforts me.sure has disadvantages but nothing to destroy myself(I just remembered BOMBS,you can mention) i can manage,but drugs?no way!.
for me spirituality starts with science,technology is what drives us to things we could never understand,one step closer.

 

[Avatar]

agree with zion

Zion, you took words out of my mouth. I would have said exactly the same in all aspects you mentioned.

 

[wet1]

Very interesting topic, Biggles.

To draw such a link between tech and drugs. I've always been a tech pusher if you will, support for it that is. (Anybody got a spare tech I can score?)

It is deceptive in that the user becomes accustom to the things and comfort that can be provided by the end results. While I do not think that we will suffer for denial of more modern advances, knowing that some exist that I could not see or obtain use from at some future point does seem to present a delimma for me. If you withdrew my abililty so use electrical power I am not sure that I wouldn't go into withdrawals. No atrifical light, heat, hot water, plumbing, music, and (oh my gosh) no tv, no computers and internet. While I would not die from lack of these items, you sure could not convince me that would be the case right now.

So guess I am really dependant on these things for my daily fix. So I'm spoiled, call me an American.

 

[Biggles]

So would anybody agree that you can only take one of two paths.. the materialistic or the spiritual?

With this in mind, would those in the developing world see others as materialistic and not spiritual people? The so called infidel! Crazed on retail therapy instead of any kind of spiritual enlightenment.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

i agree biggles, everyone wants bigger and better! I crave for information.