envirocraft

Our world—primarily the Western World, is consumed with wanting more than needed while the culture is growing into an expansive breeding field of numerical definitions and ignoring the dismissal of soulful morale. This, to some, is noted to be attributed to the technological advancements of time.

Thoreau states that our inventions are but improved means to and unimproved end. Technology has allowed for our lives to be 'easified'. We have indoor plumbing with hot water, washers and dryers for our clothes and dishes, we have refrigerators to store food that can spoil, ovens, HVAC units, buses, cars, computers, even doors that open for you. All of these technologies came about to better and help our lives in some way—yet the technological advancements keep growing as does our want to 'easify' life. What happens when the growth of technology pacifies our daily lives? Some believe that it already has.

We have machines doing our dirty work progressing into machines doing our work—leading to machines doing our thinking? To an extent, machines do help us to think, calculators for example help us to mathematically logitize our surroundings and interactions... but is there more, are machines on the "up and up", soon available as thinking devices?

What then will humans consist of other than being a task-force for the machines to run our lives?

Our technology has created a nation of individuals who are dependent upon it. Computers are mandatory for the exploration and development of education and business—all of which is the basis for what we strive to live for, knowledge and success within the economy. Although one can argue that the knowledge that we acquire today is far different than that of the past, which I believe is the truth.

In a time long ago, people were blessed with a kind of innocence. Technical knowledge was unknown and labor undermined their strife for life. The concept of "hard work" has thus changed to our 9-5 jobs which primarily consist of ass-massaging chairs being sat in all day in front of a computer, networking through a digital world. What has happened to our thankful demeanors for every meal? What happened to our love for nature? What happened to our family morale? Technology.

Today, we have TV dinners we put into microwaves, we have restaurants. Today we have urban sprawl, the need for bigger and better homes, the need to drive instead of the need to walk to enjoy the birds and the trees. Today we have television, computer animated games, "X-boxes". Today we have dual parental full-time jobs to support today’s "normal" lifestyle--all neglecting to open family time to love and cherish one another.

What has happened for the love of the Arts? Poetry, Painting, Music--all of which was considered a mandatory trait to have in the olden days, while today these characteristic adorning gifts are set aside in our schools to teach math and science in hopes to establish a generation of individuals who will solve our horrendous footprint on our earth.

We have manipulated technology to the point where we can now, not live without. The issues we face today are enormously due to technology. Thus, more advances in technology will be the way to fix it.

Technology. Has it been the improvement to our lives or has it been the demise? Is Thoreau right?

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