For those of you who haven’t seen it yet,
here it is:
Now they’ve done it. They’re literally shoving it into our faces. We
are going to become cyborgs who are powered by machines.
This video is more than product placement. If TED
talked about the iPad Mini, that'd be product placement. This is promoting a
new lifestyle. One where all the cheesy 80's sci fi movies come to life, us in
the future, we become a weird cyborg thing and listening to the automated
voices against our better judgement.
“We don’t need this”, you might say. But when
the iPad was born just a couple of years ago, we all made fun of the name said
"we don't need this". Look at us now. What about cell phones? In
2000, would we, in our wildest dreams, have imagined that a cell phone could
replace a camera, video recorder, gaming consul, mp3 player (which weren’t even
around back then), TV, and can even surf the internet – wherever you are! No,
we didn’t. As a kid born in the early 90’s, I saw the changes first hand. I
remember the windows DOS system, and thought it was the best thing in the
entire world. I used to hold my dad’s Nokia 3210 and wonder how it can do so
much. I loved that windows 98 laptop, we spent a small fortune
on it too. Floppy disks, VCR, Walkman…and now fastforward to today: I hold a
32GB microSD card in my hand speechless.
I remember flipping open my first cellphone
and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. I remember when 1TB is
unthinkable to purchase, and 1TB being portable is something the next
generation may get around to inventing. But here we are, 10 years later,
arriving in the future and staring at the second axial age in the face.
What is this Second Axial Age you ask? Well
I’m quite fortunate to have the privilege of listening to Dr. Vervaeke speak at
TEDxUofT this past Saturday. He explained the primary axial age to be a time in
ancient Greece, when humankind first discovered thought and philosophy, math
and science. These concepts completely changed human thinking for the upcoming
thousands of years. And now, we are seeing a shift in our thinking yet again.
With the rapid changes in the ways we communicate with each other, the ways we
learn, obtain information, the way we work, the structure of society…It’s all
based around the computer and the internet.
So, back to the future.
The Google glass marks the beginning of the
end of this revolution. 20 years ago, we were pretty much electronics-free. We
had radio, TV, maybe a Walkman. Those are used for recreational purposes, maybe some news. Not even remotely close to what we have now. But growing up right alongside technology is
scary. You never know what the next big thing is, and what you were once
familiar with is now null and irrelevant. Think about it. We are the last
generation that would use a floppy disc or teach our grandparents how to use a computer. And
eventually, there won’t be another person on earth that isn’t reliant on
technology in their daily routines.
After electronics become body jewellery for
us (Google Glasses, Blackberry concept phone Empathy), I hope humankind is smart
or mature enough to draw a line. I like to keep electronics on the outside of my skin.
A couple of days ago, my flatmate
complained to me about being stuck in traffic for 40min after the Victoria Day
fireworks with no phone signal. I itched to roll my eyes and say “Oh NO, whatever shall we do” in a
sarcastic voice but stopped myself. So this is what a lot of humanity has come
to? A little black (or white) device that we cannot last for an hour without?
Well I feel myself draining away. My mind
is ebbing away from me, my thoughts less sharp. That is what you get when you have
the luxury of capturing everything yet revisiting nothing. Your days become a
blur in front of a screen, as the world outside the window look duller and
duller, whether that’s from the pollution or the brightness of the screen I
cannot tell. Welcome to my generation. They say that only 90’s kids remember
the 90’s. Yeah, we grew up with the change, we don’t take the 90’s as granted.
We take the history seriously, and the future even more seriously. That’s because it's our past
and future you’re talking about.