Humans may finally be bridging the technical lag between the
internet revolution and mid twenty-first century culture; this might account
for the huge disparities such as unemployment and it might start a trend toward
a decrease in human population or manifest in other ways as yet unforeseen. One thing is certain, technology has revolutionized
civilization in the past and will continue to change the way human beings live
in the present and near future.
Whilst watching the manic speed of traffic early one morning
before daylight I realized how very different we were from our ancestors who
lived before the invention of the automobile.
Considering the average rate of transportation outside of a train was
probably 5-25 mph, since most people were on foot most of the time unless they
had a horse or lived in a major urban area like Manhattan, Boston, Paris or
London things necessarily moved quite slowly.
Then as now most people lived outside of the city but what has
dramatically changed man is the automobile, it has allowed what was once rural,
subtopic or suburban regions to thrive like a city while maintaining a higher
residential to commercial density than a city.
Fewer people can get to more places quicker reducing the need to employ
more people at specialized localized tasks.
The internet has done globally what the automobile has done
locally, allowing commerce to instantaneously shrink the market and therefore
the workforce required to maintain it. Computer
databases with smart features enable vast quantities of clerical personnel to
be eliminated from payrolls. We are
getting closer to the development of computer management systems that manage themselves…
I know an amazing colleague who prides herself in memorizing every file she
encounters. Doubtless these unique
skills were nearly flawless 20 years ago but as the years accumulate, unlike
computer software; her memory begins to fail… We seem to be pressing the issue
in this science fiction morality play with its epic man versus machine theme as
if it were inevitability…
Eager to rid my mind of this Keynesian Supply/Demand theory
that hovers relentlessly above my better reasoning I nonetheless find a
startling attraction to the way in which it appears to parallel human cultural
evolution. I cannot help but wonder if,
as we move to more automated, computer driven processes the need for human
reproduction will drive a distinct drop in human population on a global scale
but starting in the most developed, technologically advanced regions of the
globe. Up to the present human
population has continued to expand as if we are all preparing to populate rural
farms that would require a vastness of hands…
As the cost of commodities such as food and housing continue to
skyrocket around the globe humans will find it prohibitive to add more mouths
to an already inadequate budget for survival, or will they?
Over the past 20 years as American corporations have
outsourced services to Asian countries technology has been developed that could
soon replace the outsourced jobs. For
example, interactive customer service programs we have glimpsed in the form of
voice command features on our smart phones, smart cars, smart households, etc.,
would eliminate the need for foreign outsourced customer service agents since
the computer program would work virtually free. While I personally feel that it unethical to
replace humans with machines in most instances my weariness will undoubtedly be
overlooked by huge profit driven corporations looking to make a firm foundation
in the first quarter of the twenty-first century world economy.
More efficient fuel sources, Faster vehicles, and a host of
now theoretical physics possibilities might one day hurtle the 21st
century forward by many millennia literally overnight. I like to think that human beings will set a
precedent and begin to closely analyze the effects of our rapidly morphing technology
on human culture, heretofore we have let the rocket speed urgency of modernity
distract us from paying homage to this all important variable. We cannot any longer ignore it! Progress does represent a price to humanity
and at the outset the goal of modernity was to free mankind from the machine
not to transform him into it!
FIN
Written by David Vollin
Administrator: FOR THE BROTHAS VIRTUAL, CULTURAL
INTELLECTUAL SALON
Follow it at: www.forthebrothas.blogspot.com
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