How beneficial is technology?

[alien pimp]

No have you and if so what is it saying... reading the subline made me feel guilty about buying an apple Ipad! I am going to down load that book and read it on the fecking thing then stick two fingers up at everything.

its saying that 'affluenza' is a new disease infecting those nations that can be defined as selfish capitalist nations - basically nations that are economically and socially similar to the US. This disease effects peoples mental wellbeing, so those that are chasing fulfillment through a life adhering to selfish capitalist notions will never be happy, and thus more likely to suffer from depression, mental illness, have drink/drug problems etc. I havent finished it yet, but it makes for pretty insightful (if very scary) reading. Kinda reminds of the oscar wilde quote about people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

nothing more true and that's the whole point of that society: to incessantly provide fake targets for you to chase while forgetting what's truly essential in life.
and they're doing so because you will work more and you will be a better slave creating more value for them chasing the shadows they're projecting for you. it's slavery where the whip was replaced with lies and seduction
as long as you will keep believing you have a say in this system and you are anything but a slave, cattle, you will follow the same path and become just as ill, if you aren't already (enough kids here who still have a chance to save themselves)

and the dudes chasing the shadows will use technology for the same purpose, deepening the illness and posting retarded tinfoil hat jokes every time someone makes you face the truth, exactly like in plato's cave, not accidentally brought up here so many times

[kidshuffle]

when something does go wrong we'll all be fucked, while all the tribes etc round the world will be fine
because they know how to work in harmony with the earth and they realise material possessions and technology are irrelevant and unnecessary

you guys will be all fucked over there; i'll be moving to the rocky mountains and using my scouting skills to survive

[parson]

[WatchYourStep]

No have you and if so what is it saying... reading the subline made me feel guilty about buying an apple Ipad! I am going to down load that book and read it on the fecking thing then stick two fingers up at everything.

its saying that 'affluenza' is a new disease infecting those nations that can be defined as selfish capitalist nations - basically nations that are economically and socially similar to the US. This disease effects peoples mental wellbeing, so those that are chasing fulfillment through a life adhering to selfish capitalist notions will never be happy, and thus more likely to suffer from depression, mental illness, have drink/drug problems etc. I havent finished it yet, but it makes for pretty insightful (if very scary) reading. Kinda reminds of the oscar wilde quote about people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

nothing more true and that's the whole point of that society: to incessantly provide fake targets for you to chase while forgetting what's truly essential in life.
and they're doing so because you will work more and you will be a better slave creating more value for them chasing the shadows they're projecting for you. it's slavery where the whip was replaced with lies and seduction
as long as you will keep believing you have a say in this system and you are anything but a slave, cattle, you will follow the same path and become just as ill, if you aren't already (enough kids here who still have a chance to save themselves)

and the dudes chasing the shadows will use technology for the same purpose, deepening the illness and posting retarded tinfoil hat jokes every time someone makes you face the truth, exactly like in plato's cave, not accidentally brought up here so many times

I hate it when people say "they".

[*grand*]

That Kidshuffle is a bad man, So is Parson... Let me tell you what the new slavery is... it's called debt. So long as you rely on money.. then you are effectively a slave.

We all are...

[alien pimp]

Let me tell you what the new slavery is... it's called debt.

and addiction. addiction to all the fake security and rewards and social validation the system offers for the real values we create. only junk! even the food is junk. we work for useless garbage and to maintain the sick, fake lifestyle we've been addicted to since day 1 of our life
we are like robots fed with lies more than energy. and when the lies make us sick and we can't work anymore, we are dispensable. follow the changes coming up in the social security systems soon

[telefang]

doesn't make any fucking difference
sure we can live until we're 80 now, but instead we have to work 8 hours a day instead of 2-3 hours like the hunter-gatherers did
oh and we also depend on slave labour from other countries to keep this shit up

[kay]

doesn't make any fucking difference
sure we can live until we're 80 now, but instead we have to work 8 hours a day instead of 2-3 hours like the hunter-gatherers did
oh and we also depend on slave labour from other countries to keep this shit up

I think you'll probably find that hunter-gatherers work(ed) a lot more than 8 hours a day.

[parson]

the need for work days is artificial.

[*grand*]

What do you guys suggest should take it's place?

[BLAHBLAHJAH]

Dilution of the population! Which, is what most technological booms originate from; intuition based on taking lives - increasing the efficiency whilst decreasing responsibility. Buttons kill millions!

Everyone is free. People that rant on about slavery and money probably just can't handle the idea that every mind truely lives and dies alone

[diagrams]

interesting 3 part documentary on this topic

[*grand*]

He came out of nowhere with that post.. who are ya?

[magma]

Technology will eventually be mankind's everything, including its saviour, but at the moment (and for the immediate future, probably the rest of all our lives) it's a mix of gift and curse. Technology allows us to live longer than ever before (through practical knowledge of medicine, diet and general 'lifestyle'), but it also means we live our lives ever further from the environment that we evolved to inhabit... leaving the womb, our "pre-programming" is not really prepared for a life where the majority of time is spent indoors, under artificial light, not noticing sunrise and sunfall, eating processed food and being bombarded with more 'information' in a month than a human living on the land would receive in a lifetime.

I think that leads to a lot of the psychological problems in society today... all ways of life benefit some and are illsuited to others, I believe we have a way of life that is decent for most (by that, I mean the Western way of life - no reference to economic policy abroad keeping us in this way of life, a separate thread!) and becomes generally better for more people day by day.

In the medium term, I think we can hope to see ever longer average lives, hopefully more curable diseases, spare parts... but also interesting shifts in society due to information technology that could undermine massive sections. Online opinion is already threatening the might of the media corp, which is probably a good thing, but people are also doing more and more of their socialising online, in niche societies which is still unchartered waters... it may be positive - no alienation from never meeting people like you, but it may be leading to all sorts of negatives as well. Humans are social creatures; it's how we evolved... socialisation is everything to us, whether we like to admit it or not... we have to tread carefully for the moment, I think.... but we won't. We've been charging in for decades and we'll keep accelerating... it's all terribly exciting.

In the fullness of time (no Yes Prime Minister), I think technology will alter what it means to be human. The human body is a rather difficult thing. We don't really own it. Our DNA and RNA owns the body, its 'function' is to reproduce them... to keep the genes going forever more. I'm not sure we should become too hung up on our bodies. The important thing about us is our brain. The most complex thing, to our knowledge, that the universe has ever spawned. Because we have such amazing brains, we have 'selfs' and it's the 'self' that we owe paradise to, not the body which emtombs it and allows it to die from old age, disease or mistreatment. How you'd make that work from a population point of view, I have no idea, but I imagine it wouldn't happen if those questions hadn't been answered.


Edit: This is just a reply to the OP, I haven't seen what's gone on between yet in case I've just repeated something or insulted somebody.

[*grand*]

I like that magma fella.... I really do....

That was quite Grand man... pat on the back for you.

Grand

[kay]

Technology will eventually be mankind's everything, including its saviour, but at the moment (and for the immediate future, probably the rest of all our lives) it's a mix of gift and curse. Technology allows us to live longer than ever before (through practical knowledge of medicine, diet and general 'lifestyle'), but it also means we live our lives ever further from the environment that we evolved to inhabit... leaving the womb, our "pre-programming" is not really prepared for a life where the majority of time is spent indoors, under artificial light, not noticing sunrise and sunfall, eating processed food and being bombarded with more 'information' in a month than a human living on the land would receive in a lifetime.

I think that leads to a lot of the psychological problems in society today... all ways of life benefit some and are illsuited to others, I believe we have a way of life that is decent for most (by that, I mean the Western way of life - no reference to economic policy abroad keeping us in this way of life, a separate thread!) and becomes generally better for more people day by day.

In the medium term, I think we can hope to see ever longer average lives, hopefully more curable diseases, spare parts... but also interesting shifts in society due to information technology that could undermine massive sections. Online opinion is already threatening the might of the media corp, which is probably a good thing, but people are also doing more and more of their socialising online, in niche societies which is still unchartered waters... it may be positive - no alienation from never meeting people like you, but it may be leading to all sorts of negatives as well. Humans are social creatures; it's how we evolved... socialisation is everything to us, whether we like to admit it or not... we have to tread carefully for the moment, I think.... but we won't. We've been charging in for decades and we'll keep accelerating... it's all terribly exciting.

In the fullness of time (no Yes Prime Minister), I think technology will alter what it means to be human. The human body is a rather difficult thing. We don't really own it. Our DNA and RNA owns the body, its 'function' is to reproduce them... to keep the genes going forever more. I'm not sure we should become too hung up on our bodies. The important thing about us is our brain. The most complex thing, to our knowledge, that the universe has ever spawned. Because we have such amazing brains, we have 'selfs' and it's the 'self' that we owe paradise to, not the body which emtombs it and allows it to die from old age, disease or mistreatment. How you'd make that work from a population point of view, I have no idea, but I imagine it wouldn't happen if those questions hadn't been answered.


Edit: This is just a reply to the OP, I haven't seen what's gone on between yet in case I've just repeated something or insulted somebody.

I think that was probably one of the most appropriate posts so far

[parson]

that was kind of a recital of convential wisdom though. and that conventional wisdom is outdated. we think our brain is so fucking special because we think we are separate and since we think we're separate we destroy everything in sight. until people learn how to co-operate with nature and shed this cartesian model of taking in order to receive, we're never going to get anywhere. as it stands we're nose-diving.

[parson]

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mich ... _view.html

[parson]

the earth is a far more impressive organism that humans.

[parson]

it's like as if the eyeballs decided they were the best organ in the body and decided to kill the body in order to have ipods.