The Mad Rush Into the Future....
While I believe that technology is the answer to human kinds dilemma's it is not the be all end all. In fact if you have children you may very well want to take note of what I am saying here. This is in part a revisit of my advise before in being very careful for what sort of investments you weight your portfolio with. There very well may be tremendous gains in certain areas and in certain businesses but that does not mean that they constitute a "good' investment.
Take for example Facebook, Apple, Google, Snap Chat, Microsoft and a host of other technocratic giants. The bigger problem I see in all of these is that there is no long term studies done to determine the effect that all these companies are having on our world or our future generations.
You see there are a pile of wireless signals that radiate all around us on a daily basis. We don't really know the impact that these are having on the populations of the world at the moment. We think they are good because they improve communication and they allow us ease of conducting business on most levels. That does not mean that they are good.
With each passing day there is more and more ways to do less. To be less active. To be less aware of our surroundings and to be less aware of our fellow humans.
One might conclude that everything since the 1990's is good.
Not so fast.
Are we so certain that we are creating a better world or a world fraught with future problems that our children will have to deal with.
As I too sit behind my computer screen typing this post how much time is lost that I could have been spending with my children, doing some outdoor activity or helping out in my own community.
When I was younger as many of you can relate to one had to go out and experience the world. There was no internet and there was no computers or powerful cellular phones that we have now. There were no video games and there was no social media. News traveled slowly and in most cases you got it at 6 pm watching the local news. It was always negative but for the most part you didn't spend a lot of time concerning yourself with it. It was in the background.
Now there seems to be new inventions on a daily basis or faster. Exponentially we are progressing at the speed of sound it seems hell bent of progressing at the speed of light.
As Jeff Goldbloom so eloquently put it in Jurassic Park, "ya but your scientists were so busy determining whether they could they didn't stop to think about whether they should".
That is the major problem I have at the moment.
We seem hell bent on rushing into things before we totally understand the effects it might have on us as a species or the environment. All we seem to be able to think of is "what new features will the new iphone have". Instead of, "should I be investing in this technology at all"?
This is not an easy question and be it far from me to tell you what to do but it seems that there are enough studies showing that we are doing a lot of harm to the younger generations social make up and increasing mental health problems that were not there before 2001.
The fool simply plows mindlessly ahead but the smart man questions "why" and more importantly "is this a good thing".
Time will tell but my own feeling is that much of what we concern ourselves with in relation to this new technology is for entertainment rather than enlightenment. This is a problem. You see I was watched this technology consume and corrupt my own daughter. She is so addicted to social media that it is painful to watch.
Has it had an effect on her life?
Profoundly. One might say well why didn't you limit her exposure to it?
A good question.
However how do you limit exposure when the internet and social media are everywhere now. From fast food joints to government buildings to hot spots of all sorts.
I have long said that we are planting social seeds that might end up destroying all we ever held dear. A degradation of the social fabric that binds us all together as a species.
While I think that some technology is good. The vast majority that advertises, sells, monitors our every movement and wastes our time is not.
Years from now we will look back at this point as the time that turned us for the worst before it got better. A time of unbridled greed and mindless rushing.
The future is indeed bright for medicine, farming and education. Don't get lost in products and technology that are only serving one thing. Profits. Cheers!
Take for example Facebook, Apple, Google, Snap Chat, Microsoft and a host of other technocratic giants. The bigger problem I see in all of these is that there is no long term studies done to determine the effect that all these companies are having on our world or our future generations.
You see there are a pile of wireless signals that radiate all around us on a daily basis. We don't really know the impact that these are having on the populations of the world at the moment. We think they are good because they improve communication and they allow us ease of conducting business on most levels. That does not mean that they are good.
With each passing day there is more and more ways to do less. To be less active. To be less aware of our surroundings and to be less aware of our fellow humans.
One might conclude that everything since the 1990's is good.
Not so fast.
Are we so certain that we are creating a better world or a world fraught with future problems that our children will have to deal with.
As I too sit behind my computer screen typing this post how much time is lost that I could have been spending with my children, doing some outdoor activity or helping out in my own community.
When I was younger as many of you can relate to one had to go out and experience the world. There was no internet and there was no computers or powerful cellular phones that we have now. There were no video games and there was no social media. News traveled slowly and in most cases you got it at 6 pm watching the local news. It was always negative but for the most part you didn't spend a lot of time concerning yourself with it. It was in the background.
Now there seems to be new inventions on a daily basis or faster. Exponentially we are progressing at the speed of sound it seems hell bent of progressing at the speed of light.
As Jeff Goldbloom so eloquently put it in Jurassic Park, "ya but your scientists were so busy determining whether they could they didn't stop to think about whether they should".
That is the major problem I have at the moment.
We seem hell bent on rushing into things before we totally understand the effects it might have on us as a species or the environment. All we seem to be able to think of is "what new features will the new iphone have". Instead of, "should I be investing in this technology at all"?
This is not an easy question and be it far from me to tell you what to do but it seems that there are enough studies showing that we are doing a lot of harm to the younger generations social make up and increasing mental health problems that were not there before 2001.
The fool simply plows mindlessly ahead but the smart man questions "why" and more importantly "is this a good thing".
Time will tell but my own feeling is that much of what we concern ourselves with in relation to this new technology is for entertainment rather than enlightenment. This is a problem. You see I was watched this technology consume and corrupt my own daughter. She is so addicted to social media that it is painful to watch.
Has it had an effect on her life?
Profoundly. One might say well why didn't you limit her exposure to it?
A good question.
However how do you limit exposure when the internet and social media are everywhere now. From fast food joints to government buildings to hot spots of all sorts.
I have long said that we are planting social seeds that might end up destroying all we ever held dear. A degradation of the social fabric that binds us all together as a species.
While I think that some technology is good. The vast majority that advertises, sells, monitors our every movement and wastes our time is not.
Years from now we will look back at this point as the time that turned us for the worst before it got better. A time of unbridled greed and mindless rushing.
The future is indeed bright for medicine, farming and education. Don't get lost in products and technology that are only serving one thing. Profits. Cheers!
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