Change or Not to Change, That is the Question

When reading the article from Paul DiMaggio I was wondering, what am I going to write about. The line where he states that, "Technologies don't change us", I thought was very true. Change is a choice that people either make on their own or are forced to undertake. Life dose not evolve from technology, other than the technology of biology itself. We are not born, at least supposed to be born, with a smartphone attached at the hip. Culture is a fundamental sign of an intelligent and evolved species. Humans create what is pleasing to the eyes, ears, and the overall self. So far, technology has not been able to recreate the true artistic nature of humanity. Technology, including the internet is a creation born from humanity. The internet is humanity made digital.

To a point, I will disagree with DiMaggio and say that just about everything we can do in real life can be reproduced via the internet. It is true that seeing a movie on the big screen is a unique experience, one that is hard to reproduce elsewhere, but that may soon change. Faster internet and 4k televisions sure make a good competitor to a traditional movie house. I can now watch my movies on demand and even watch concerts from my home. Virtual reality is the next big thing for entertainment. I believe that Virtual reality may pose a threat to live and in person events. With virtual reality there may be no distinction from a computer rendered experience and the actual experience.

I like to think of technology and the internet as the expansion of the human imagination. With or without technology, humanity will always create. Sometimes the things humans create are good and wholesome and other times what we create is destructive and evil. Either way humans will still keep on creating.

Will technology be the end to our current and past culture, I don't think so. Technology expands our current thinking. We are still a curious people even with all our technology. As we expand into other areas of thought and ways to express old ideas we will still be curious about the old ways. I would like to see our future like that seen in the Star Trek universe. While zipping around the galaxy and shooting down alien star ships, the captains and crew have always enjoyed reading from a good book and partaking of a live concert on board their ships.

Technology may help flourish our culture even more. Technology has freed us from many simple and mundane tasks and automated other complex tasks. Technology has given us a chance to experience a significant amount of down time. For the first time in human history we do not have to worry where we get the necessities of life, everything is a point and click away. Even our food production can be automated through technology. The modern human has gained so much free time, even when they think they have none they still have plenty, it seems now that a new cultural event has been created. Free time, what we do in our free time paints a nice picture of what our culture is like. We need to compare what life was like 25, 50, 100 years ago to today. This difference I am sure would be shocking. (So, maybe technology does change us.)