"The story of the events and the people who over centuries came together to bring us in from the cold and to wrap us in a warm blanket of technology is a matter of vital importance. Since more and more of that technology infiltrates every aspect of our lives it’s become a life support system without which we can’t survive." - James Burke, Connections - 1978
Today is Valentine's Day. The holiday loosely based on some religious dogma but popularized by greeting card companies and flower vendors. The holiday probably delivers the most amount of guilt, especially towards the male of our species. According to the doctrine surrounding this so-called holiday, true love (or any passing fancy, lust or like) can only be truly expressed on this particular day - through the gift of red and pink emblazoned topiary and chocolates - rather than any other day of the year.
Regardless, we all seem to know our place when it comes to Valentine's day - we have to get our significant other something or risk retribution. Yet, as human evolution and technological evolution continue to merge, how is that going to change the romantic expressions we are guilt driven into performing? You see, humans have always evolved along with technology, but there will come a point where we cross that line. Instead of us driving the evolution of technology in parallel, technology will drive our evolution.
I like to cite the movie Wall-E in this case - with the fat, dependent humans. Technology - invented and perfected by the human - became something that drove change. The human race became dependent on technology for their survival. While that argument could be made now (kick a teenager off Facebook, you'll see) we really aren't to the point where our base levels of survival are based on technology. It assists and moves us through almost every aspect of daily life, but if shut off - we would survive. Of course, the counter argument could also be made that even if we are past the point of not being able to survive without technology, life would still find a way.
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via Technology articles at Technorati http://feeds09.technorati.com/~r/tr-technology/~3/ZnpECQD7QL0/