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Question: What do you think of this quotation!?
"In terms of what they are capable of, it seems to me, when you have the distance narrowing between humans and machines in the sense that if we are becoming more machine-like, it's easier to see the machine as more human-like!. I don't want to be overly dramatic about it, but I think more and more people wonder, is this living or are we just going through the motions!? What's happening!? Is everything being leached out of life!? Is the whole texture and values and everything kind of draining away!? Well, that would take many other lectures, but it's not so much the actual advance of the technology: If machines can be human, humans can be machines!. The truly scary point is the narrowing of the distance between the two!." ~ John Zerzan, Against TechnologyWww@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
"[I]s this living or are we just going through the motions!? What's happening!? Is everything being leached out of life!? Is the whole texture and values and everything kind of draining away!?"
Apparently, Zerzan’s trepidation is well-founded and not delusive!.
'Any idea about how many workers there are out here today who don't know what they are doing and thus leave the carriage of doing business to the protocol set by those few who know only a little, and the rest is left to this thing bureaucracy as to why some one thing is delayed or otherwise thought impossible to manifest!? Or -- already have we a dependency too heavily upon mechanics, upon technology, and in fact, the word "technology" itself has become the new word for the old word "science" or "mechanics," either thought a nebulous phenomenon, reserved for the comparatively select few without whose insistence of its own importance none has any the slightest chance of one's proceeding to the next stage of one's personal evolution!.
Witness the spectacle of thousands of accomplished IT workers who speak with greater lucidity to their trains of bytes they key daily than with the people the technologies are designed to serve!. And who can read the manuals they write on how to operate and manage 'their' technologies: in fact, the user in effect is remanded to subsidize the laziness of these designers, who tell you to do the very jobs they had to be trained to do, but which in addition should be to share their knowledge -- not mystify, not stupefy!.
One need only try sending a letter or make a phone call to any customer service outlet and behold either a queue of electronic messages presented or if a breathing worker receives the call, he or she has little insight as to how to resolve, to improvise, moreover, how simply to exchange with another human being!. If it is anywhere, it is everywhere, should be the refrain!.!.!. What recourse is there but that same inertia regarding this blind faith in machines, an all too familiar turn on deus ex machina!.
And in the career recruitment offices throughout the nation, there appears too many who are asleep at the desk in which effort to know the man, the woman who is the prospective candidate, is relegated to certain key words as to whether he or she is queued for interview; never mind if he or she will land the job or has the true-to-life experiences; thus already what the "market" wants is a machine, not a human being!. And any way, the word 'market', which the hounds pander to, is but another technological turn, a spin, in fact, which is but a pseudonym for someone in need of a commodity or provision or service, whose requirement needs fulfilling!. But we cannot bear to call these same, human beings!.
We do not have to reference the benefits in reliance on machines where simultaneously have so many examples of the exotic forms of the technology to which few if any have yet any access and understanding, because the numbers and curves are there already and in fact, the poor quality of human exchange bodes only an ever diminishing quality to that same inertia!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
The fact that he thinks it is "scary" belies his ineptness at dealing with the question!.
The imagination allows for this to be a noble aspiration!. The caveat is invented by the author of this quote to justify his/her insecurities!.
If humans are machines and machines potential humans - then fear not!.!.!.!. This is simply the way things are!.
Dealing with this, may require changes in beliefs!. However, those changes - if motivated by truth, will always redound to perfect joy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
We LET this happen!. It is not a certainty!. Technology is not the enemy!. Just look at us here on Answers, connecting and sharing in sometimes profound ways, and we do that with the use of computers, technology!.
We become automatons by choice or by default!. But this has happened all through history without the aid of technology!. Let's wake up and connect!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
The terrifying thing is that we are frightened of machines becoming more "human-like", but have no real understanding of the tragedy of humans becoming more "machine-like"!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Yes I think its a great quote - I agree -Www@QuestionHome@Com
The quotation is very perceptive with regard to human awareness becoming more mechanized, hence more accepting of cybernetic synthetic personae!.
His point is that the scary condition (which, it should be noted, dulls with repetition) is the lessening of the human, and even human spiritual, authenticity and realization!.
A countermeasure to this is dedicating one day each week to a cell-phone-free, computer-free, tv-free, experience, preferably with meditation, gardening, nature walks, waking naturally without alarm/music, in-person relaxed conversation, etc!. By such "balance" and "knowing self," one is more able to gauge from a realistic basis, how enwrapped one's awareness is during the other six days!.!.!.!.
"The Soulless One," Mark Prophet,
some of Gurdjieff's work ("The Teachers of Gurdjieff," Rafael Lefort, is helpful),
some of later Heidegger, and
certainly Husserl and Bergson, are worthwhile!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
If machines are becoming more like humans, it is because we are making them in our own image, because they are a product of our hopes and wishes!.
If we are becoming more like machines, it is because we are altering our own values!. Values are something that spring from the human mind!. If we decide that the product of a machine is just as valuable as that made by hand, or in many cases superior, I guess at some point we will at least test if the other attributes we have created machines with are as good or better as well!.!.soulessness, the inability to "complain", the "do what you're programmed to" attitude!.
That being said, humans already have a long history of treating one another that way, as well!.
Intentionally or not, we will test ideas, values, ethics and ways of getting work done, some trends will ebb and flow, others will remain more constant!.
Overall, I trust the process, even though I know that at any given time some group or value is being crushed in the cogs of societies wheel, and that includes me!. It is how humanity operates, and that also includes me, and it has gotten the species pretty far and resulted in tremendous biological success and astounding accomplishments in the arts and intellect!. So even though I shake my fist at many aspects of it, I see that it get results!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I disagree!.
Technology may one day mimic human behavior!.!.!. but it will never be true mimicry nor will it ever be conscious!.
We dont have to fear losing our humanity by creating human-like machines!.
We do have to fear losing our humanity via a separation from nature and truth and morality!.!.!. not via growing closer to technology!.
It isnt becoming technology that should be feared!.!.!. its losing our naturalness and spiritualism!.
Our tech doesnt do this to us!.!.!. our society and civilization do, however!. Psychology is spiritual!.!.!. it gives credence to personality and mind!. But it has taken a back seat to psychiatry!.!.!. the belief that neurons and chemistry IS what we are!. Our society is a society who wishes to remove soul from the equation!.!.!. because free-will means responsibility!. But no one has to take fault for their genetics, do they!? Our society has taken a step away from religion, and a step closer to moral subjectivity!. We are impure and corrupted, selfish creatures!.!.!.
This is what knowledge has done!.!.!. what we have done to ourselves!. It has nothing to do with the objectified use of technology!.!.!. we lack the sensitivity to use technology rightfully, ethically, etc!.Www@QuestionHome@Com