Technology is in the palm of our hands, so how are we wrapped around its finger?
Advancements in technology can be widely regarded as a positive thing. Every new achievement in technology brings the potential to improve lives, cure diseases or even find ways to bridge together the impossible and reality. However, it seems the novelty of increasingly complex technology too often becomes a blindfold rather than an eye-opener.
It seems every day brings some new feat or achievement in the world of technology. There is always something better than the last thing. This creates a never-ending paradox of craving the next best thing, but each passing day brings something better than the last. It is the social equivalent of being a hamster on an exercise wheel, except the hamster has to pay for the wheel.
One of the recent innovations that have started becoming more popular are the virtual reality goggles. I can understand the appeal of such a device. They are relatively small, mostly inexpensive and provide a great amount of entertainment. But, to me, these goggles give me an uneasy feeling in the bottom of my stomach. I find the idea of sitting in a room, with a hunk of hardware strapped to my face and experiencing pieces of life through a monitor to be rather unsettling.
Obviously, I know that virtual reality is not to a point where a person can go full-blown Matrix, but the entire concept of such enticing technology makes me think of one name: Guy Montag.
For those who are unaware, Guy Montag is the name of the main character in Ray Bradbury’s 1953 dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451.”
The novel depicts a world in which all books, and by extension conflicting philosophical, historical and societal beliefs, are outlawed. “Firemen” are now government contracted book burners. The only form of entertainment available are the multiple huge television monitors that interact with people on a personal level. Those who do not live the same shallow life as everyone else are lambasted, exiled, arrested or even killed.
A main point in the book is that, over the course of a few decades, technology made life so fast-paced for everybody that the information in books became degraded, discredited and eventually outlawed to support a simple, uniform way of living. Having no differences means having no disagreements, so as to establish and maintain peace in a very backward way.
Many people in the book are living a “happy” life — a life filled with endless hours of interacting with the massive televisions, and sleeping.
There really isn’t anything more to life than experiencing their (almost) virtually created reality. There is no emotion toward life experiences because there really are no life experiences.
The concept behind “Fahrenheit 451” seemed completely absurd in 1953, but today it only seems like a click away. People seem generally more concerned about the state of their technological devices than the fact that the president of the country is a reality TV star. People seem more worried about being able to afford the next iPhone than the fact that some water in Flint, Michigan, was legally identified as “toxic waste” by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Maybe I should just look at my phone, and mind my own business. Or, maybe that’s the problem with the world in the first place.
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected]