Technology and Human Progress: How Fast Are We Really Evolving?

Ever since man invented the wheel, technology as a whole has advanced farther than any of us can ever fathom. The wheel became the cart and the cart became the chariot and the chariot became the carriage and the carriage became the car. The glider got an engine which took it to space. The brick oven started to run on electricity and not on gas. Not long after, it also got the power to emit microwave radiation and the chance to blow up bowls of spaghetti. The pen gave way to the typewriter, and ENIAC gave way to the laptop computer. Writing on stone was later inscribed on leaves, papyrus, paper, and the Word document. Indeed, it would seem that technology has become almost synonymous with human progress.

As much as some tried to use that technology to benefit the working man's daily life, much of it has been done for the sole purpose of ruining it altogether, and I'm not just talking about taxes and the mail delivery system. I'm talking about the other thing in life that is certain: death. While technology offers us strength, this strength also leads to dominance, and this power in the wrong hands inevitably leads to abuse. Our bare hands became even deadlier with the addition of stone tools, bows and arrows, spears, swords, crossbows, pikes, rifles, shotguns, pistols, (sub)machine guns, and bazookas. Horses were kept in the stable when tanks, howitzers, and gunboats rolled out of the production lines. What was once the humble hand grenade became the nuclear ICBM: from the burning of Rome to the fallout of Hiroshima. Torches that were once tossed into village huts inspired flamethrowers and Agent Orange. 

The parables can go on and on, but technology is evidently a tool that can be shaped to become a metaphorical pen or sword. God said in the Koran, "[He (God)] taught Man what he did not know [96:5]". Indeed, God gave man a mind to contrive what he could never have done before. Too often is man enamored by what he creates that the basest of animal instincts, survival and dominance, dominate his mind, and all aspiration and motivation becomes secondary. This can lead to a decline in social and occupational capacity, in pursuit of an obsession with technology and a dry and non-genuine mode of communication that takes no emotion, body language, and other subtle cues of communication in the real world into account.

What have we become? Are we so deprived of stimulus that everything that is new and fresh must be experienced, leaving behind all the dull necessities of daily life? One Reverend Donald Campbell of the Church of Scotland warned of the dangers of such technology in light of his experience with his own followers on the world wide web, stressing that

One of the issues with the social networking sites is that people are friends with people they hardly know or don't know at all. There is a danger humanity is being dehumanised by this technology. If you get hooked into virtual technology and you start to reduce your amount of contact with human beings, and in the most extreme cases, you start never going out at all or interact, then that's an issue for that person as a human being, because are those virtual relationships the same as the ones in the real world? Well, I think quite obviously they're not. What effect does the virtual world have if they don't interact with the real world? There could be psychological impacts on a person, such as a loss of empathy for others.[1]

This comment came, according to the Scotland Herald article posted here, after recent research showed that kids are increasingly being hooked into technology in the form of computers, iPads, and smartphones.

Online communication has become one of the most advanced forms of technology in the last few years. John Grohol, CEO of Psych Central, has taken a more equivocal stance, saying that technology has had the advantage of keeping people in far-off places closer together, but

The flipside is that there’s the potential for people to rely too heavily on these technologies — almost as crutches — rather than engaging people in the traditional ways, such as going out face-to-face for a drink. They may say, ‘Oh I’m all caught up on your life through Twitter, so I don’t really need to try with catch up to you face-to-face.’ Or you could be out at dinner and one of the people at the table could be using their cell phone to text another person who’s not there or Twittering or something of that nature. While that allows us to really connect with people in our lives, it also can be a detriment to our traditional face-to-face relationships. It’s changing our social interactions with one another to varying degrees.[2]

I'm all too familiar with the bolded sort. Layne Hartsell, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea, agreed to the sentiment:

If we are to value human interaction — the old-fashioned kind, where we sit and talk over coffee or tea or where we can reach out and touch the other person — then being plugged in constantly diminishes our social lives,” Hartsell said. “Since people are spending more and more time on the computer or using their other electronic devices for any number of functions, I think many people are putting less value on human relations. Because time is not infinite, there will be trade-offs. The more time I spend on the computer, the less time I have for friends and family.

Hartsell furthermore states that this "plugging-in" is detrimentally affecting normal childhood development and has the potential to damage lives in an unforeseeable future.

When children play video games, it may help their eye-to-hand coordination, or they may be able to develop other skills. However, once those skills are developed, what is the purpose of the continued orientation of their lives around the online world? There is an addictive process going on, along with the observed fact of severe attention deficit and the craving for stimulus after continuous interaction with the screen. Children will and are becoming less capable of seeing or comprehending the world around them.

Even more alarming, according to Hartsell, is that children of today are further disconnecting themselves from what he calls "nature", the state of social interactions in the real world, and that parents, who he seems to hold a sense of blame for,

are unconcerned about nature, but they do not necessarily state it outright. Their children, on the other hand, feel comfortable enough to make such pronouncements without further consideration. Since many children’s lives today are centered around the online world, I am presuming that the disconnect is coming from the centerpiece of their lives

That centerpiece, of course, being the world of technology...

What Grohol, Campbell, and Hartsell said prior simply devolves to the use of technology and whether we are mature enough to handle it. As it expands, technology brings with it denizens of admirers, awestruck at its implications and abilities. These denizens die off as soon as something new comes along, and we feel that we live in a fast-developing world where technology is outgrowing the evolution of social interaction to the extent that it dictates it. In our alienation of ourselves and those around us, we have become nothing but drones of a society that prizes innovation in the material works of companies and brand names, and admonishes the immaterial value of its human members. 

The cutting edge of technology is too mature for us to handle, as we have not reached a point where self-control and self-correction can account for the state of the human mind. Even Star Trek's Prime Directive,

As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Star Fleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation,

echoes the dire necessity of developing at a pace that mirrors our own progress.

Given this spiel, what should we do to avert the hypothetical, impending, or incumbent catastrophe (depending on your perspective)? If technological progress is an inevitability that should be welcomed, not shunned or eliminated, what can we do to prevent us from becoming nothing more than cogs on a gear? To limit technological progress and establish ground rules for keeping that progress in check would be difficult: it is in our desire to advance and evolve. The underlying issue that must be addressed is therefore its control  on us. It is difficult sometimes to remember that we are men and not machines, and it is we who control machines and not the other way around. It's even more difficult when this helplessness is tied to a consumerist culture that demands our wallets be spilt for the latest and greatest.

Just a word of warning: this is not going to be easy. The allure of technology is undeniable: the ability to browse the WWW and access tons of informational resources within the reach of your fingertips, the car that comes with an audio auxiliary cable that allows you to plug in your MP3 player on the go, watching a World Cup match on a fully functional stereo surround and high-definition entertainment system in the comfort of your own home, and the latest desktop showcasing the latest speed and graphics to date.

I'm not saying that we should toss our laptops and go back to typewriters, but we shouldn't let technology make us forget who we are and what we strive to become in our own lives.

Salaam, from Saracen