Or are we already there
Something is happening to me. No, it’s already happened. My days are consumed by staring at a screen interacting with people I don’t even know.
At night I love to watch YouTube videos that entertain me or teach me something new. This thin piece of plastic containing mysterious circuitry feels almost like a part of my body since I hold it so much.
But wait, what’s going on? I didn’t grow up this way. Back in the sixties all we had was a black and white TV with an antennae called rabbit ears sitting on top.
Our phone hung on a wall without an answering recording device. If someone called and no one was home well, they just called back later.
For some reason these things weren’t good enough and technology has now vastly changed. Information is now called data and must be shared and consumed at breakneck speed.
The young, having no previous exposure to how life was before, embrace this technology as normal.
And they are right, for it is now the new normal way to live. Normal is staring at their phone for hours on end as they scurry through a frenzied paced lifestyle.
Faster is now better, smarter must be achieved. And let’s not forget the competition. No matter what, strive to be better, make more money, be a leader, succeed!
I see my old world shifting into the new, and have found myself willingly following along. I’ve been seduced by this magical device that let’s my thoughts fly into a virtual reality where no one really exists.
But then again, we do exist in this technically crafted existence. Without needing physical proximity, we can interact despite time and distance. Our thoughts are translated into bits of data to be forever recorded as our minds interact like some kind of data hub.
I see a blinking yellow light, the kind that warns of something comming. Perhaps it’s time to slow down or it might be too late.
Are we evolving into technical beings?
Will we eventually no longer need our bodies to drag around and continually maintain? If our environment becomes too toxic and unsustainable for life, will we just create a robot with an internal computer to be us?
Imagine that. No more needing water or air to breath, or even food to eat. We might even exist forever.
Yet the obvious is terrifying, because a computer does not have a soul. And if AI decides we no longer should have one, what will happen then?
Will anyone even care, if we’re programmed to forget what a soul even is? Since we’ll never die as machines, they might become as antiquated as our black and white TV.
If this is our future, I’m glad I’m old, because I want to keep my soul. I don’t want to meld with this virtual reality to the extent that it becomes me.
But what about future generations who wholeheartedly embrace it? Why should they care when immediate gratification and data is now all that matters?