Humanity vs. Technology

This essay -- HUMANITY VS. TECHNOLOGY (Have We Already Surrendered?) -- is a fascinating excursion into our culture and how it is changing before our eyes (really, as fast as our fingers can type) thanks to the technologies from companies such as Apple, Google, and many others...

"On the eve of Waterloo, Wellington cautioned his officers about “running around like wet hens.” A cool simile, and still apt, after 190 years, when applied to our media as we enter this brave new year. Tech is in such uproar that few can factor it into their thinking. In 2005, we saw unprecedented, multileveled upheavals in mass communications. At one end of the spectrum, the Los Angeles Times dropped in circulation, downsized its editorial staff, and gave up charging for its online edition. At a far extreme, enterprisingly twisted boy jailbait sold webcam voyeur sex, quite without any recourse to adults except as customers and Internet providers. Change shakes windows and rattles doors. Something is happening here that is probably exponential, but does anyone have a clue as to what it is?"

"...Our love of stuff diminishes. Once we had CDs in jewel cases, and rolled joints on album sleeves. Now the music we own is an abstraction, a file on an iPod. The stuff we do acquire is frequently more electronic hardware to expand the modification of our minds. I’ve even observed – although the research is highly unscientific – that online readers are uncomfortable with long essays, and initially scan webtext with an am-I-interested speed-read. TV has already raised two generations with attention-span disorders. So are we natural-born lazy slobs or merely adapting?"

In the end, the net effect of all this, assuming Mick Farren [to be] correct, is a type of Rayleigh scattering (to hijack a term from a completely different discipline). Stated differently, the cream always rises to the top.