Technology is like a knife: tool, hazard, and weapon

Advancing technology and convenience magnifies our power

-for better and worse.

The advancement of technology needs to be separated from its cost to us as humans. Technology that is too advanced is quite possibly a problem that presents itself as a solution.

So much high technology now claims to be accessible to most people, and intuitive to the point of being mindlessly easy to operate. In some cases, this can be disastrous: irresponsible or excessive use of computers and phones can lead to very damaging consequences for us.

For it to be truly useful, though, technology must be measured on whether it improves our lives in some significant and productive way, rather than satisfying our more primitive drive and anxieties such as our love of novelty, or having possessions for possession's sake, showing high status, or fear of being left out.

Photographs and photography are a good example. We are not designed as human beings to control our anxieties too well. As a result we end up photographing our lives and significant events to the point of removing ourselves from participating in those events.

We already have an internal camera, with memory as the film; the memorability of an event really depends on the depth of our emotional connection to it. This is reduced if we are too busy trying to commit the event to the memory of the camera rather than experiencing the event with our own human memory. Experience is far richer than a picture memory of something.

To thrive means to understand that life requires us to put some effort into it, to experience a degree of difficulty in making something happen. It also means being aware of the motivations behind our development, and use or misuse, of technology.

A modern person will show as much anger at his smartphone running out of battery, as his ancient ancestor would on finding that the campfire went out.

The advancement of technology will never be matched by a similar pace of abandoning our primitive drives. While we might acquire technology hoping that it advances us in some noble or agreeable way, we are quick to forget that we are prone to let our powerful ancient drives hijack both our motives and our deployment of the technology.

Thus, the internet set out to be a source of shared information and knowledge, but ends up being used to fuel our needs for amusement at the expense of focusing on genuine progress, or at worst, to spread depravity and hatred. Technology magnifies our power, for better and worse, and it does the same for our productivity.

 Arguably, the effort of making a fire in order to cook something is no longer necessary when we can now microwave our food. However, if we compared the contentment of people who had to make fires to cook compared to those who just used the microwave oven. I am willing to bet that there would be little difference between the two, and quite possibly, greater contentment on the part of the fire-builders.

So have we truly advanced ourselves by introducing artificial ease, or have we merely made our points of frustration ofter and more meaningless as time goes by?

A modern person will show as much anger at his smartphone running out of battery, as his ancient ancestor would on finding that the campfire went out. We look upon the fire as something primitive, to be enjoyed in |modern life as a sign of luxury and leisure. Yet our evolutionary state would have us feel more fulfilled because of the fire. Still, like all technology, fire amplifies our ability to do something, and as such, even fire can both useful and dangerous.