read a bumpersticker today which said:
“It has become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity.”
This expression misses a crucial point. Our technology is in fact a consequence of our humanity.
Technology comes about only because of the human, thinking, rational mind. The human mind is the essence and core of our humanity. Without the human mind, there are no life-saving comforts that we can take for granted. Without these life-saving comforts, all of civilization as we know it would collapse.
Think about it. Think about all the concrete examples we take for granted as “technology:” automobiles; life-saving medicine and surgeries; factories which give us all kinds of modern conveniences such as cellular phones, fax machines, and computers. I could go on and on.
Perhaps the best way to grasp the power of technology is to go to, or learn about, an impoverished third-world country that never had an industrial revolution (much less a post-industrial, technological one).
Most people who look at the misery and mediocrity in these countries ask themselves, “Why does the United States have so much?” The real question to ask is: “Why do they have so little?”
An important, fundamental part of the answer is the fact that reason, and the human mind at its best, never became valued in those societies. Nor did freedom. As a consequence, such societies stagnate and slowly, painfully die.
I’m not at all appalled by technology. Quite the contrary. I love technology. And I understand that without humanity, properly defined, there is no technology in the first place. I’ll bet that the person driving the car with the bumpersticker is not so appalled that he/she is prepared to give up these comforts, including the car being driven.
Are you?
