Do you miss the movies of the 80s? My wife and I had our second date with the original “Terminator” playing in the background. Yeah, I know, what was I thinking, right? But still, I loved, and to a certain degree still enjoy, those types of movies, and there were a bunch of them. Movies where the machines humans had built rebelled against us. The concept was wonderful and opened up a whole new genre of films that culminated, it seems, with “The Matrix” series and Will Smith’s “iRobot”. The only real down-side to my fascination with these types of stories is the hair-raising effect of seeing some of the pieces required to make the story lines plausible falling into place in the very real world.
Part of what draws me to these movies is, first of all, a love of science fiction in general. Growing up with the original Star Trek series, being just kids when Star Wars first debuted, our generation was spoiled like never before with stories based on the near and distant future. We grew up with fantastic stories of lasers, computers, and hand-held communication devices, and the thought of living in a world where these things actually existed was almost—but not quite—beyond imagining. And yet today, these one-time fictional story elements surround us and we utilize those devices as casually as we once used a pay phone or encyclopedia back in the 70s.
Advances in technology seem to have fallen like rain over a relatively short span of time, and for the first time I’m starting to understand—REALLY understand—the plight of my grandfather as he struggled to make his first VCR work. Remember those machines? The first successful attempt to get pre-recorded movies into the home, they’ve since been replaced by DVDs, Blue-Ray, and now digital, downloadable format that comes free with an Amazon Prime membership! But for my grandfather, who grew up prior to the invention of the television (the wooden box with black and white screen that took up half the living room!) the cable connections required, infrared remote control, and programming of the blinking clock were just a bit too much.
The arc of technological progress is steep and fascinating but does make me question sometimes where we are headed. Back in the U.S. for a few months last year we had to pick up our car after it had been in storage for years. This was scheduled for the day after we’d arrived back in the country, so we didn’t yet have cell phones, but were forced to navigate our way back from Baltimore to Arlington, Virginia. Never thought for even a second I wouldn’t be able to drop into the first gas station along the way and pick up a paper map . . . and yet, this was most certainly not the case. Turned into quite the adventure, in fact! We did (eventually) get back to the hotel, but without a cell phone and the mapping function available therein, our ability to navigate had been severely handicapped.
Walking around Tokyo these days, everyone, it seems, is staring down at a tiny back-lit screen as they pass by, following directions, texting, or catching up on an episode of their favorite show. In fact, we look an awful lot like the red-lit robots in the movie iRobot, physically attached to our devices and clearly carrying out orders received through them. Is this something that will—like in the movies—someday be used against us? It seems even the technology available today could potentially allow us to be herded like sheep someplace we don’t necessarily want to go because most people will trust the app more than their gut feeling that something is wrong. What capabilities will be available to the nefarious amongst us in the future?
And what of the dwindling awareness of the world around us that seems to accompany our uninterrupted screen-gazing? We’ve all seen the cell phone blooper reel, right? People walking into traffic or other obstacles, falling into ponds, these things happen daily and now the Tokyo Government has begun to put up posters warning folks of the danger inherent in walking and staring at a cell phone. Horribly ineffective campaign, I’m afraid. Had they snapchatted the warning to peoples’ screens they’d have a better chance of being noticed and perhaps heeded, but a poster? On a real concrete wall?!? Forget about it! And don’t get me started on the rising number of traffic accidents caused by texting, emailing, messaging, and “sharing” while driving. But, you say, we’ll fix that soon with self-driving vehicles . . . please pardon my disbelief.
This raises a problem, I think, that we don’t often consider. The technologies we invent and rapidly learn to rely upon invariably create new problems for us at each step along the way. We’ve grown accustomed, then, to seeking a technological solution to the new problems as well. Each new technological solution seems to take us further and further from the physical world around us. We can now, at the touch of a button, communicate with someone on the other side of the planet, but staring at that little screen makes it virtually impossible to even notice the person sitting beside us on the subway.
I sometimes think about what effect this trend will have on us as humans. Will we someday be all but incapable of meeting new people, of holding a face-to-face conversation? Or will we, upon meeting, scan another’s identity online and trade witty, emoji-littered, misspelled half-thoughts over our devices as we share a park bench mere inches apart? You have to wonder if there is a tie here to plummeting birth rates in the more technologically advanced nations.
Once we’ve grown accustomed to and reliant upon our technological crutches what happens to us if they’re suddenly taken away? By way of example, consider the unthinkable, someone or some group managing to kill the internet? That mindless yet all-knowing “being” that affects everything we do all day every day (including the typing, posting, and viewing of this blog!) has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. By now, an entire generation has grown up under its benevolent, binary wing and is unable to even conceive of life before its existence. National defenses are tied to it, banking, and every manner of information transfer under the sun. What would happen if that suddenly just disappeared?
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast, which I’ve mentioned previously, has in several episodes teased around that very question, and it’s worth thinking about. He reminds us that human history alternates between periods of development and dark ages, the last such occurring after the fall of the Roman Empire. Does the sudden loss of the internet bring on the next human dark age?
If so, when it comes to computerless survival skills, what exactly are most of us still able to accomplish physically without the aid of the internet, computers, and electricity? Speaking for myself, the list seems to be shortening year-by-year, and I find that somewhat disturbing. Next get-together, ask folks if anybody knows how to start a fire without either matches or a lighter and watch hands reach for cell phones! All powerful Google will always be there to show us the way . . . or will it?
Boy, Sarah Connor REALLY has her work cut out for her . . .
M. G. Haynes