Entry #3 Media Quest

With everything on this earth, there is a balance. Some call it Yin and Yang, others say Light and Dark, Good and Bad, Feminine and Masculine, and so on. This is true regarding technology. Some say technology is destroying our humanity, others say it is evolving humans.

I invite you to take a moment to watch this thought-provoking video from Jason Silva, Technology Made Us Human before reading on.

Jason Silva's take on Keven Kelly's ideas that "technology is the real skin of our species" may get the wheels of your mind turning. We are human, so that which we create is a part of our humanity. If it was not natural, it would not be so. Right?

Jason goes on to say, "the moment fire was invented it freed up cognitive real estate necessary for the emergence of culture, religion and arts."  WOW! This got me thinking about myself and how technology has evolved MY mind. A great example of freeing cognitive real estate would be not having to remember phone numbers, birthdays or appointments anymore. Technology has made it easy for me to store a phone number on my smartphone and forget about it until I actually need it; leaving that real estate available for me to us for something else entirely (like creating a beautiful piece of art.)

Think about it, making life easier with technology makes us available to create virtually anything we can dream up. The down fall could be that humans do not harnessed that real estate to create, but rather to become disconnected. lazy and dependent.

In 1999, a thought-provoking Sci-Fi movie was released called the Matrix. This movie was on the opposite spectrum of Jason Silva's ideas in that humans becam slaves to the technology they invented. The main character played by Keanu Reeves, Neo, is a computer hacker who is "enlightened" about his true humanity. A group of human rebels began disconnecting their fellow humans who were being used as batteries to power computers/technology now in control of the earth.

Through this matrix between reality and the world each human created with their own mind, it was revealed some humans enjoyed being connected to the technology so they did not have to think for themselves. The other humans fought for their freedom and humanity. It was an epic war. As a matter of fact, three movies epic. If you haven't watched the series, rent it immediately!

Depending on who you speak to about technology, they will tell you they believe it is destroying humanity or evolving it. I believe it is a fine balance between the two. With technology, the possibilities of our human capacity is endless. Technology can be a tool to create or destroy depending on how you choose to use it.

I invite each of you to think about the technology you use in your life. How does it improve your life? What do you do with the time you save with technology? Do you sit on the couch and watch mindless tv or do you watch a documentary to learn something? Do you use technology to keep in touch with your friends and family who are far away; yet, unable to put the phone down to spend time with the people who are in front? We have a choice, which side are you on?