Touch
It touches everything you care about ⎮
So I want you to take a stand here.
This is a constantly and rapidly evolving relationship
that has defined our past, defines our present, and will forever define our future.
It touches everything you care about.
From the personal through public policy.
From the professional all the way to broad speaking philosophy.
And over the past twenty years or so has barreled its way unchecked right into the private.
You are deeply embedded in this whether you like it or not.
Don’t sit in silence.
And don’t stand still.
Was it fashioned to be productive, but someone along the line turned destructive?
Was it at one point a tool that somehow, became part of us?
Something once a slave, now shockingly, master of us?
Is this about progression?
Evolution
A collective ache for better lives?
Is this about competition?
Linked with survival.
Or for no other reason but to compete?
Is this about efficiency?
All speed
A relentless scramble for more stuff shiny shit and profit?
Is it a desparate cry for comfort?
Are we lazy?
Or just scared?
Did we always feel inadequate?
Never enough?
Our human minds
And bodies
too flawed?
Our nails not sharp enough
Our bellies not full enough
Our reach not long enough
Our communities not big enough
Our brains not complex enough. Or quick enough.
Our faces not beautiful enough
Our life not long enough.
Did we repeatedly find ourselves wanting
Always out of options
And forever out of time?
Was natural selection not refined enough
For us?
Maybe were just bored
Maybe just lost?
Perhaps we got distracted.
And this is just who we are?
Were we lonely?
And are we still?
Were we blind?
Was anonymity not liberating enough for us?
Is this about power?
Do we feel weak?
Is this about control?
And is it of or for | the docile, frightened, and meek?
Look around. Do you see or sense anything odd?
Is technology the new religion?
And if so | who’s the god?
Do we wish to be served?
Or subservient?
Where is the benefit? And for that what did we trade?
Is this our reality?
Or a petrified run from it?
And if we’re running tell me what from?
Or is this a chase for perfection?
Do you want everything straightened out?
Or is this a chase for immortality?
Do you not want to die?
Or do you secretly daydream of both.
Do you desite to live forever, under a filtered up and flawless, permanently cloudless sky?
Was freedom not cool enough for us?
What exactly are we tinkering with here?
Did we not like what we see?
And have we spent an eternity ||
chasing an illusion ||
propped up and wrapped up and built by ||
technology.
You guys tell me.
Notes
Spoken word piece written for masters students doing a course focussed on technology and innovation. Used as a set up for their first project – a written piece – a philosophical standpoint on technology.
Image
Anon graffiti. Skatepark. Scratched into a piece of tin coping. March 2020.