Technology
It's complicated.
I liken it to making bread. It's a useful metaphor for me.
The basics are simple - flour, water, salt. Air. Time. Fire.
Our curiosity uses each one of these as a fulcrum to explore this food.
Steam engines. Electricity. Printing press.
We mix the dough and let the gluten bind. Get stronger.
Fold it over and over.
Newspapers. Automobiles. Airplanes.
You stretch the gluten and check the window pane of it's sheer surface.
Stretch it until it tears.
Radiation. Computers. Internet.
Over and again we fold. Stretch. Check the window pane.
The limit is reached at some point. The web of gluten strands yields.
Artificial Intelligence.
Our impression of our humanness - everything we used was in the service of elevating us. Bettering us.
But maybe, every fold and stretch showed us how long this web would hold and eventually fissure.
Every tool showed a new fissure and we understood how to overcome it.
Today, we cannot seem to outstretch our latest tools. Our humanness may have reached a limit.
Does it teach our place in the natural order? Does it force us to “elevate” ourselves? Does it drive us to a place of frenzy and thoughtless despair? Does it make us choose between a moonshot and nihilism?
Maybe all of the above. May we embrace whatever it is that we are.
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