We are nearing the third century of unprecedented technological upgrades begun at the dawn of the industrial revolution. In that time these technologies have altered the way we communicate, work, eat. They have disrupted our social norms and integrated diverse cultures (sometimes to a breaking point).
Yet for all this change there isn't much talk of a learning curve, or any need to re-tool our basic perceptions. For the most part we, as a society, still react to technology the same way we would have 100, 200 years ago. Tools are seen merely as commodity to ehance our lives, not as agents of change that require re-evaluation on how we interact with the world.
This belief has led to a false sense of control. A delusion that is embraced and enforced (through marketing, education, politics) by those who stand to profit from the new technology.
Most technology is beneficial up to the point we can use it confdently, yet if a technology is successful there is always a point were teh technology changes how we interact with the world. This can happen on a macro level as well as on a micro level. The automobile is an example. On the macro level it has changed the population distribution. By doing so it has changed the make up of our communities. On the micro level we have greater individual mobility. A mobility that requires a greater restraint to balance our personal lives with the freedom this mobility brings.
The paradox is that for all the techonological advancement we are at a primitive state in how we deal with the changes brought by these technologies. This is not a judgement call on our ever-growing interdependence with technology. Rather it's a realization that to fully intergrate technology we must pro-actively adapt our lives to fit the changes brought by the technology.
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We are in the transitioning point between Modernism (the dominent intellectual thought of the werstern world in the 20th Century) and Globlization (multiculturalism driven by commerce and media).
As such it makes us primitives in this new environment were the scope of our world is no longer regional but global. No matter how aware we want to be of their influence, our daily lives are impacted by actions of people living hundreds, thousands of miles away.
