Monday, November 22, 2010

Are Humans Becoming Dumber?

Milan Bubic  
[Editors Note] Before you go about reading this article it is prudent you keep one thing in mind, I genuinely believe that we as humans are losing crucial brain matter in our inevitable path towards decreasing our brain potential.  If you do not agree or are offended by this in any way, I would strongly suggest you refrain from reading this article any further and offer my sincere apologies to you in advance.

In the last century or so, the human race has witnessed great progress through leaps in technological development. Take into consideration how we progressed from pen and paper, to type-writer, to computer and finally to telephone texting. Just imagine what scientific breakthroughs are responsible for building on the concept of a primitive box that “plays pictures” to a ridiculously wide paper thin sixty-inch televisions.  It is obvious that we crave and thrive on such breakthroughs.  Have such advancements, a testament to our great achievements, made us so dependent on technology that it is slowly turning our grey matter into mush, and us into sluggish, half-witted fools?

Since the existence of life on earth, all types of delightful and enchanting creatures have come and gone. Monstrous dinosaurs roamed the earth 65 million years ago and only 10 thousand years has passed since the last Wooly Mammoths of the Ice Age grazed on prehistoric shrubs and foliage. Earth has been home to some very interesting species that are now extinct, which raises the question, where do we fit into all this? Scientists, doctors and the like agree that the human race as a whole has evolved from being like every other creature on earth to at some point in time, becoming self-aware, conscious beings.  This simply means that we have evolved a higher understanding of our surroundings and have established ourselves as the dominant species while simultaneously establishing a complex civilization. Despite all these achievements and our cultural evolution, according to Stefanie Olsen of CNET News, we as humans have gradually become more dependent on technology and in turn, slowly strayed from the path of intellectual godhood.

Let us for a moment however, disregard the huge technological advances and take into consideration the daily rituals of the common person of today. He wakes up to an alarm set on his I-pod, heats up precooked sausages in a microwave, and toasts bread in a toaster. The kind of person who drives a car or rides a bus to get to work and one who writes his reports on his computer and who uses their cellular mobile at lunch to plan his day. Now for argument sake, if we were to suddenly remove the fridge (containing the sausages), the microwave (used to cook them), the toaster (for toasting the bread) as well as the car or bus (used for transportation). spell-check, the computer and the cell phone, what would we get? You would in turn be left with a very lost individual who wouldn't have any knowledge of how to go on about his day. Granted it is very unlikely that all these things just happen to disappear, but there is no denying that we have become dependent on such a lifestyle. We as humans have become so needy and reliant on technology that without it we are all but paralyzed, unimaginative entities with a bleak future. Most of the human population can no longer comprehend a life without a television or a computer, let alone a car or cell phone. For so long now, we have been consumed by technology that little children cannot grasp the idea of what it would be like live one day without video games. If this doesn't shock you in any way, then I fear you may have been compromised as well. To support this argument, as strange as it sounds, I will reference a movie I have recently watched, “Grown Ups”.  This film does a fantastic job of depicting the modernized children of today.  It clearly shows how they are dependent on their house-sitter and they are only calm when they are given either what they want or play some type of video game. They live in a society where “nonparticipation” in the outdoors is the norm. Mind you, these children are a very obnoxious and obviously spoiled-rotten, but the film does a noteworthy and honest job of illustrating the technological standard and its hold on the business of daily living within modern society.

In spite of human’s increased dependence on technology, let us examine now the flip side of this particular dependence.  There is a place in our society for increased use of technology, especially in the medical field. For example, the latest advances allow us to increase our ability to detect diseases, treat and operate on the human body.  Fortunately this has lead to a better quality of life and increase the human life span significantly. Imagine a world without cat scans, laser surgery and even something as basic as insulin injections for diabetes.  Radiation therapies that shrink and obliterate malignant cancers, laser eye surgery that restores normal vision, and defibrillators that reinstate a normal sinus rhythm are just a few examples that illustrate the use of medical technology to save, improve and prolong human life.

It is imperative to note here that lives are saved not purely by the advanced technology itself, yet by humans who invent this technology, and know how and when to use it best.  What we have here then is two paradigms going hand in hand; one is useless without the other.  The saying goes, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life”.  Basically, without the proper knowledge, the fishing rod is useless.

Where do we go from here?  How do we achieve a balance between technological development that is enriching and development that is robbing us of our human dignity?  The internet is a great tool that has reshaped our life and touches almost every facet of our lives, yet there are more and more individuals who are paralyzed by its power.  One can spend hours upon hours on the internet, surfing endless useless avenues.  Facebook and other such inventions have deprived the youth of our society from normal human interactions, real relationships, intimate contact, non verbal cues and skewed personal space norms.  Frank Lloyd Wright said “If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger”.  We must not let this happen.

Albert Einstein once said “All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual”.  We must draw on this wisdom, and learn how to balance technology in our lives.  A child must be exposed to the newest technology in order to understand it, to master it and to continue its development for the greater good. 

I believe that such balance should begin in ones’ home sand then be reinforced in schools and eventually at work.  Little Johnny can play for thirty minutes on his X-box, after he has finished his homework and has come back from hockey practice.  Our schools must instill the importance of reading real books, storytelling, writing with a pencil and paper before computers are introduced.  The workplace has to be a gathering of a great team first, which use computer technology as a tool to bring their ideas into fruition. 

Technology and nature are intrinsically opposites.  Arguments can be made that technology is contrary to nature because it destroys ecological habitats, its factories pave over wetlands, its rare metals dug from the ground, and it can extinguish species:  an act that cannot be undone.  Damage done is final. 

Technology is contrary to humans in that it erodes human character, it separates us from nature which in turn diminishes our natural self.  We become consumers instead of receivers. We absorb rather than dream or create.

Contrary to technology itself, it is no longer regulated by nature or humans and can no longer control itself.  The Fermi Paradox suggests that none or very few civilizations have escaped the self destructive capacity of technology itself.  Contradiction is at the root of this debate, for the more we advance the closer we come to self destruction.

Contrary to “God” technology can be associated with an evil force.  The most catastrophic injuries to our species have come at the hand of technology:  atomic bombs, toxins in water, mind altering drugs, technological warfare, persistent radiation etc.  Technology amplifies violence, and such destructive warfare is designed with the sole purpose of killing as many humans as possible. At one point the ease of destruction becomes de-humanized. The mere push of one button could end over a million lives.  Pure evil at its prime.
In the end, technological development is a classic struggle between good and evil, paradise and hell.  As B.F. Skinner quotes, “The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.”   We have to be responsible for where technological development will take us in the future if we are to remain in it.  Development, scientific advancement, knowledge, all are neutral, it is rather how we use these that define us as human.  “The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.” Sydney J. Harris.  Balance is crucial if we are to maintain our greatest gift…which is to be human.

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