Category of Technology Taking Over All Our Lives

If you've ever seen the movie Walle, you may find it to be a heartwarming movie about some robots, and love, and "antics". What it is supposed to suggest as a sub-message, is the danger of relying on technology. People are in floating chairs, only talk via screens, and basically have no human contact. It is an image many people get the message from, and see it as an exaggeration of what it suggests life could be like. However, I do not see it that way. When I think about what it would take to bring people to that point, I see that we are on the path to ending up there. Allow me to explain my logic.

I like to explain this thought by describing the toothbrush, and the technology surrounding it. The standard, original, typical toothbrush is a plastic handle with bristles. It varies in colour, and varying lengths of bristles, but otherwise is standard. They are all used the same way; held in your hand, brushed back and forth. There is of course, a newer alternative, known as the electric toothbrush. This one uses electric power to significantly improve the cleaning capability, as well as reducing the muscle power required. It is basically an example of technology making something, not only easier in simple ways, but totally more effective.

This means that to willingly choose to use a standard toothbrush, you are choosing to work harder in order to do a less thorough job. This is the first danger of technology. Suppose the next step is a precision laser that detects your teeth, and destroys every bit of bacteria or dirt or whatever. To not use this laser will mean you will choose to continue to use your arm muscles with the electric toothbrush to do a less impressive job. Let me clarify my point; what technology aims to do is offer alternatives to older methods that are so effective, they remove any need to ever do it the old-fashioned way.

So if we assume that technology is moving in a direction that seems to encourage we rely more heavily on technology and stop letting humans get in the way of efficiency, we face the problem of being overwhelmed. "Well," you might be saying, "I'm sure humanity would never let it go that far!" But I would argue that we don't really have a choice, and here is why. Let's apply the same idea about improving efficiency and ease to the technology of cars. So next we have hover cars, and cars that drive themselves, and cars that communicate with each other so there are never auto collisions ever again. These people who made the cars have no connection with the people who made the laser toothbrush. What this means is that, because people creating technology are not one "big picture effect" kind of group, the rush to make better technology is not monitored. Everyone is developing their own thing, and our lives will become easier and more reliant one task at a time. We won't see ourselves getting to the point of danger, we'll already find ourselves sunk into it, like quicksand.

What else suggests to me that we could end up like the fat layabouts in Walle, is the amount that people going against technology and the system were beaten around by it. In the movie it was playful, but suppose that we develop an amazing technology that allows cars to move at incedible speeds with no risk of collision, BUT no human is allowed to set foot on a road because every hit could be fatal. Or suppose our technology is so wonderful we can teleport objects through the sky, but because of this, it is too dangerous to have airplanes in the sky anymore. What if the technology is so useful, it MUST be used, but we have to sacrifice areas of our world to accomodate it. It may become the case where not using technology is not only less efficient, but actually dangerous to your safety.

I suppose the saving grace will be in humanity's inability to share, and the inequality of living conditions throughout the world. Even if our tech improves drastically, the poor are still poor, and the third world countries rarely get tech for free. That could slow down the process. It is also possible that groups would form to raise awareness about this, people trying to monitor the rapid growth of our reliance on technology in order to preserve humanity. Or perhaps before we reach a critical point, someone will discover some terrible virus that will eat through humanity, putting a halt to all concerns of brushing our teeth, and force us to focus on survival...