The march of technology is inevitable and inexorable. We can’t stop it or even slow it down and we definitely can’t reverse it (nor should we want to). As I have noted in a previous post, one of my concerns is that this progress is so rapid that we don’t have time to determine or even consider the implications of each technological advancement on our individual and collective lives before it is released and entrenched in our personal lifestyles and the zeitgeist of our culture.
I will admit that, as someone who has serious concerns about the influence of technology on us since the introduction of the Internet, I may be more Chicken Little than Paul Revere. There’s no doubt that calls of “The sky is falling” have been heard throughout the history of technological advancement, for example, with the introduction of the printing press, the internal combustion engine, and the television. In all these cases, most would agree that each of these “game changers” have been boons to humanity. Plus, we are adaptable creatures who have demonstrated the ability adjust to all sorts of changes with which we have been confronted.
And it’s easy to make doom-and-gloom predictions that may or may not come true. But we can look at what is happening now and draw some conclusions from what we see before our very eyes.
