Are we REALLY making any progress?

Written by Editor in Chief, Pick The Brain - 20 Comments
Categories: philosophy

It is generally assumed that advances in technology lead to the improvement of society. With technology we can do things earlier generations couldn’t imagine. We can travel vast distances in a short time, do incredibly complex calculations, and spread ideas around the world within seconds.

Surely these advances make us more able than our ancestors, who had a hard enough time finding food to survive.

But is this really the case? For all our forward progress, do we leave something equally valuable behind?

Consider this passage from Emerson’s Self-Reliance:

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat, and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under! But compare the health of the two men, and you shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength. If the traveller tell us truly, strike the savage with a broad axe, and in a day or two the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch, and the same blow shall send the white to his grave.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows as little; and the whole bright calendar of the year is without a dial in his mind. His note-books impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance-office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy, some vigor of wild virtue.

Do these same conclusions apply to modern technology? I think they do.

Consider an advance in communication, the cellular phone. We’re no longer forced to make phone calls from a set place, allowing spontaneous communication. As circumstances change, we can make calls from anywhere at any time to adjust our plans.

The benefit is clear, but closer examination reveals drawbacks. Now that we have cell phones, we don’t plan ahead anymore. Why bother when you can make a call later? So we wait until the last minute, thinking organization doesn’t matter.

The result is confusion. If there is a missed call, loss of service, or malfunction of equipment, we’re left without a plan. Even if everything works perfectly, we still engage in ‘phone tag’ that wastes more time than it would have taken to create a decent plan to begin with.

Even if we wanted to go back to the pre-cellular way of doing things, I doubt anyone remembers how.

The same could be said of the internet. We can hear a million voices, but have no way of knowing which ones are worth listening to. Millions of new articles are published every day, so we neglect the literary masterpieces passed down to us.

I’m not saying that technology is bad or that society is declining. But we’d be intelligent to abandon our modern vanity. We’re aren’t any smarter than our ancestors. We’re actually dumber in many ways. It’s time to stop thinking of technology as a cure-all and recognize it as a double-edged sword.

  • http://blog.wi.id.au WadeM

    Great post!

    Have been thinking along the same lines myself.

    Check out
    http://blog.wi.id.au/2007/03/14/moving-towards-technological-singularity-or-the-reverse/

    Would love your thoughts on that..

    Peace,
    Wade

  • ab

    Authors have romanticized the brute ever since man stepped out of the forests. We have been fed pictures of natives living in harmony with nature, innocent and free. The truth is that the brute dies young.

    He dies young because the technology to support him is sparse; a single infection can bring him down. If there is a draught or an early winter, he will starve.

    The economy of the world is ever improving. The modern man lives longer today than he did 20 years ago. The modern man of tomorrow will live longer than the man of today. Technology has made life easier not only for the privileged few, but also for the masses.

    Without antibiotics old people will die in droves. Without contraceptives world population will explode. Technology enables us to live longer, it enables us to focus on other things than survival. Technology enables us to evolve culture, to evolve the mind.

    Compared to the savage, the modern man now commands an army of minds when he makes decisions. The internet, and especially the search engine, gives the mind an enormous leverage. The difference between an individual with google under his fingertips and one without is absolutely mind boggling.

    Like it or not, this is where we are going, and it is not a runaway machine destined for destruction. It is evolution, the evolution of culture, the evolution of the mind. As more minds connect to the internet, we will see the birth of one high technological culture. This new culture will be a synthesis of that which divides us now, and while we will be far removed from the brute in the forest, it will be that which unites us. You can already see it on youtube or even on digg; this is where we have been heading for some 20 years now. Communication does this to us and we just can’t stop communicating, it is what we are wired to do, and is the natural next step in our evolution.

    Yes, the individual will become more and more removed from reality and objective truth, but the collective storehouse of information and our technology will improve by leaps and bounds.

    I haven’t used a cellphone for 3 years now, neither do I carry a watch. =)

  • http://www.psychic-aus.com TerryG

    Simply loved it. I am a real techno head and try everything new. This was just another way that I never thought of and now I do. What an informative article.

  • http://www.psychic-aus.com TerryG

    I forgot to add you might want to check out my site on psychic ability development at http://www.psychic-aus.com. You are most welcome.

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    ab,

    I agree that “communication is what we’re wired to do” and that we can’t stop it. It’s mind boggling to contemplate how technology is affecting evolution and where all of this is going.

    Wade,

    I found that article very interesting. It is certainly a new take on the development of music and transportation. When you listen to modern pop, it’s hard not to agree.

    TerryG,

    I’m glad you liked it. I tried to visit your site, but an error came up (bad request: invalid hostname).

  • http://www.balancedlifecenter.com Nneka

    Emmerson’s quote is accurate to an extent. I tend to think of it as 2 steps forward, 1 step back so the net is forward movement.

    Also, things go in cycles. We are moving up and out like a particle in a tornado. For example, we seem to be at exactly the same point we were at in the late 1800′s and during the renaisance period, exploring spirituality, developing art, and improving communication. This time we’ve upped the ante with better technology. We’ll see how it works out this time.

    In Spirit,
    Nneka

  • Jerry

    I agree with AB, Emerson was being highly selective. He also didn’t talk about how some Brutes sacrifice children or virgins because they believe that is what the Gods want of them, or in this day and age where female circumcision is considered appropriate amongst some tribes.

    Lack of organisation and not knowing how to turn off your phone and devices is an individual maturity issue, many people do manage to have technology and pursue rich and fulfilling lives.

    Your blog is an example of that!

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    Haha, so it is.

    I really do love technology. Most of the time at least. But I do think that life has lost some it’s raw energy. Instead of living naturally, we’re now animals pretending to be machines.

    There is an excellent case for the other side too, and it is important to consider both sides. I chose the least popular side to write about because I enjoy stirring up conversation.

  • http://slastlancer.blogspot.com/ John Doe

    Maybe this post is one of the excellent examples that technology isn’t just all-good things. Every lose have it’s own share of gain. Someone might get disease and as a return, he will know what he must do to prevent it from happening again and to be more disciplined in taking care of his own health.

    No matter how much our invention we make, we will lose something as a return and global warming is clear example of what humans greed have caused to our nature.

    Is it worth to call human as an anomaly to the nature? I think yes. What do you think think John (Wesley)

    :)

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    I’d agree that humanity is an anomaly in nature. Compare us to any other animal. They all have their own place in nature, and although they continue to evolve the process is very slow. They basically exist within their space without trying to dominate the rest of the ecosystem.

    Humanity, because of our ability to create and communicate, has been in a constant state of change. As AB said, the evolution of the mind is accelerating. One day future generations will consider us primitives.

  • http://buzdale.blogspot.com/ Buz Dale

    Great post. Sometimes I find myself in the neoLuddite camp. I usually don’t stay there for long. I really love indoor plumbing.

    I think sometimes we feel as if we aren’t making progress because we are constantly going through growing pains. Society is always catching up to new technology. It took years for reforms to work in the industrial age. Labor laws, environmental regulations, and other refinements took a while to catch up. We seeing this today. Cell phone usage is restricted while driving and in schools in some areas. A college in India has decided to shut down Internet access from 11:30 pm until 12:30 pm the next day as a way to get students to get students to attend classes, play sports and socialize – instead of sleeping after long night of gaming. Not sure I agree, but obviously the culture is trying to come to grips with the technology and its best use.

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    That’s an interesting example, about the Indian college. I might better off if someone cut my internet off at 10 pm. I know I’d get more sleep and read more books.

  • http://slastlancer.blogspot.com/ John Doe

    Humanity, because of our ability to create and communicate, has been in a constant state of change. As AB said, the evolution of the mind is accelerating. One day future generations will consider us primitives.

    And what make us primitives? Our lack of technological advancements or our lack of humanity? I wonder how future generations will respond to disaster, tragedy and such… will it be like total ignorant (like most of people) or a ‘good person (humanity aboves all, money second)

  • http://www.balancedlifecenter.com/202-fab-5-on-friday-033007/ Fab 5 on Friday 03/30/07 – Spirituality Applied to Life – Balanced Life Center

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  • http://lifejunkie.org Travis Jeffery

    This is one of the major themes and metaphors that Joseph Campbell was interested in when he watched Star Wars. If you understand the Hero Journey then you’ll notice how the story of Star Wars follows that pattern. How technology doesn’t solve problems and society’s difficulties it’s the people who wield choice.

  • penny

    As a research mathematician, I would trade all current advanced technology for
    NO tetraethyl lead in the air of my childhood. And that lead –as particles is
    still all over our environment. Worse, nowadays Mercury has replaced lead in paint for children’s room–as a “antifungal”. Mercury is worse than lead.

    We ALL have brain damage, and that is a high price to pay!

    If we do figure out how to use stem cells to fix this damage, and even increase intelligence and lifespan—- I would reverse this position.
    Penny

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  • bob dylan

    Use technology, don’t let it use you.

    Personally, I won’t spend time with games, cell phones and TV it’s a distraction from my goals. I’d never use social networking or any noisy self-importance machine (iPod/cell phone/you name it). I make it a point to only engage in activities I deem productive. In short, I redefined what fun meant to me.

    I like the internet for it’s useful information though, The social direction it’s taken, while probably right, has it’s cons (That’s another rant!). Ultimately garbage in, garbage out. If you intelligently choose your input, you’ll grow.

    If I sound too serious, you’re not serious enough! This is do or die…literally I want to have a great life.

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