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by Kingsley L. Dennis
Spanish version the myth of the machine, the next move is ours: for the gates of the technocratic prison will open automatically, despite their rusty ancient hinges,
as soon as we
choose to walk out.'
From philosophers (Jacques Ellul) to historians (Lewis Mumford), to humanist psychologists (Erich Fromm), the spectre and spectacle of the megamachine was ominously upon the horizon.
It was feared that individual liberty within mass society would slip away from the control of the individual; the fear of losing individualism and privacy against a faceless machinic environment.
The first wave of so-called progressive technology that arrived was an abundance of technique, management, and consumption.
Society itself was in
danger - still is in danger - of becoming the Machine. A grand
overarching architecture based upon advancing technologies and
governed by an elite technocracy.
Recently, Harari announced that the immediate future holds little hope for a new underclass of 'irrelevant' and 'useless' people.
In previous centuries, says Harari, people revolted against exploitation, oppression, tyranny, etc; now, they fear becoming irrelevant.
He has stated that:
Huge numbers of individuals will find themselves living in a society that doesn't need them anymore - or so the prognosis goes.
Yet this narrative is not set in stone.
With our present and emerging technologies, a revitalized hope can be brought to bear upon the citizens of this planet.
Certain groups and agencies are speaking about a Fourth Industrial Revolution and yet their visions are based upon,
They do not present a human-centric future but one where a new industrial, automated future makes an allowance for the human being but only as periphery to the primary race of great technological change.
This de-centering of the human being from the core of life is a grand mistake and misplacement.
The future shall be
human, or it shall not be. A humanized technology is what is
required for taking humanity further into the 21st
century. Otherwise, a great misbalance may occur between human
relations and the world we find ourselves within.
This unseen and almost ungovernable dependency is alienating, disquieting, and apathetic to the human condition.
Any future technologized human civilization needs to redefine the ordering and organizing potentials of technology into facilitators, assistors, and a secondary management architecture (rather than as the primary management system).
In other words, the technological architecture is to be fully decentralized and assisting humans from the background, upon request; and within industry to facilitate human working conditions.
A humanized technology can only be a unifier and never a divider or segregator.
When we think of such concepts we are reminded of cold, dry mechanization and scientific management principles.
Until now, technology has
not been sufficiently aligned to the needs of the changing human
condition upon this planet. We need a new relationship to our
devices, our digital networks and digital assistants, before we end
up being compelled to adapt to this machinic environment rather than
it adapting to a human one.
The highly dense electromagnetic environment, the masts and antennas, the cameras and surveillance systems, the monitoring satellites, etc., etc.
In 1987 the English poet Heathcote Williams published his epic poem 'Autogeddon' about the impact of the automobile.
In it he wrote:
The same can be said for the world of today if we replace 'car' with 'technological infrastructure.'
Only the object of
containment has changed; yet the subject of the containment has
remained the same. If humanity is to transform itself from being 'a
kind of ambulatory fuel cell' within the megamachine, then we need a
recalibration of what technology means for human life.
This needs to be programmed into the 'intellect' of our technologies. The attraction of automated convenience does not necessarily speak to our quality of life.
Furthermore, convenience does not speak of contact and communion. In these years ahead we shall be redefining what it means to be a human being.
We shall also be asking ourselves on what the social contract is - and we will need to deal with the new digital elephant in the room.
Our social contract will have to become expanded to include our technological assistants and even perhaps the new denizens of A.I. (Artificial Intellect).
What it means to be
human, and the human social contract, will most likely need to be
redefined within the coming years of civilizational re-adaptation.
A renegotiation will be required so that the promises that technology holds for the human race can be brought to fruition rather than lingering within the infantile stage of centralization, control, censorship, conquest, and craving compulsions.
A humanized technology plays a supporting role rather than a dominating one and does not seek to place human civilization within a cage of instrumental power.
In the coming years, humanity will no doubt seek a form of transcendence to go beyond certain social rituals and practices that are becoming redundant due to the welcomed arrival of specific forms of automation.
The relief from particular forms of manual labor, as well as other types of monotonous work, can bring the average person out of a vicious cycle of dependency and allow new freedoms and creative explorations.
New avenues of economic management can establish different roles for workers and release them from past drudgery.
Young children can learn programming and coding skills so that they become their own architects of the future. A new generation of programmers that have ethics as a principal moral code that then becomes coded into the intellect of the machines.
Yet this all assumes a move away from top-down corporatization and governmental censorship over technology, its patents, exploration, and utilization.
Technology is a mirror to the human condition.
It reflects us back to ourselves:
If certain incumbent belief systems and ways of thinking are not transcended, then there is the danger that technologies will come to reflect the infancy of human thinking.
We shall need to elevate our capacity for envisioning and truly wanting the values of compassion, collaboration, connection, and conscious awareness if we wish our technologies to assist us in transitioning to an upshifted future.
If humanity becomes more aligned with a human-centric, value-driven future, then our technologies will reflect this.
There is not one without the other.
The rest will follow...
Wisdom and joy can become an integral part of our technological engagement if we can get the balance right.
Our digitally assisted explorations into the farthest depths of space and sea; investigations of climate and environment; and engineering marvels and architectural splendors, can steer us forward into new insights.
The human being alongside technological assistance can envision and construct a world currently beyond our imaginations.
We are at a most critical and important time for the future of the human species - we are entering into a merger with another form of intellect.
And in this, we need to ensure that the form, manner, and style of intelligence across the planet remains primarily organic based.
Planet Earth is in coherence with organic life, and it would be unnatural to demote organic intelligence in favor of an artificial form of intellect. That is why this essay speaks of the hope of a humanized technological future.
The primary concern has to be for the well-being of organic life on the planet, as well as for the planet itself.
Present and future economic investments, alongside human efforts, time, and focus should be aimed at developing and establishing a technological environment that assists in liberating humanity from the chores and tasks of previous dependencies.
This liberation can then trigger a new explosion in creative industries, imaginative explorations, and innovative pursuits hitherto not made possible for economically indentured societies.
This could lead to a cultural renewal appropriate for laying the groundwork for a 21st century planetwide yet decentralized human civilization, a human civilization that is free from the shackles of,
Yet this liberation also requires a liberty of mind, body, and consciousness.
These are fashions and consumer conveniences that we have been led into believing will better our days.
Yet we can move beyond this ritualistic and immature thinking into a new era of technological comprehension, collaboration, and closeness.
In short,
There is hope for a future of humanized technology, yet the consciousness shifts need to be occurring now so that the groundwork can be laid with appropriate values, ethics, and equitable vision.
These are amongst the
upshifts that can be promoted and shared for the world of today so
that they may illuminate the world of tomorrow.
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