Moblog 3 - Gunning For The Satisfied Pig
Posted @ [25 Aug 2005, 02:44:23 AM]
Right. We all know that technology has greatly benefited our lives. With technology we are able to live life in comfort. We have air-con, we have mp3 players and we even are better able to device formulas that tell us things fall to the ground when we throw them up. yay technology. More importantly perhaps, it has helped us in our efficacy. "It is the great proliferator of knowledge" someone once said. (someone I cant remember, meaning it could be anyone ranging from the economist’s special report on technology over the past decade, to my kid brother while enthusiastically playing Halo 2 and simultaneously downloading music off kazaa) whatever the context, there is some degree of truth in this statement. Transportation, communicative devices all aim at spreading knowledge across boundaries we once deemed impossible.
And so they say - I really can’t imagine living 50 years back without all this technology. my mom says it too, albeit in a more, erm, passionate (euphemism) tone - back in my time, we had no such 
comfort. We walked to school, even if it was God knows how many kilometers, and we played marbles for leisure. You don’t know how fortunate you are. But to some extent, this may not all be true.
I like to think that 50 years from now, when they have teleportation systems and virtual reality games selling off the shelves, that I might just say the same things to my kids as my mom would say to me now. In other words, the only reason why we seem to be so blessed is because as compared to our parent's generation, conditions seem so much better. it is only human nature to gauge the value of things based upon the relative value. the value of money is relative to the US dollar, the value of any good is relative to the next best alternative (opportunity cost) the value of our grades in school is relative to the highest and lowest grade in the student population and the value of our standards of living can only be relative to the past since we have no idea how the future is going to turn out. This means to say that I wouldn’t mind going back in time and live life than given that I have no knowledge of the potential of the future, that way, I would never know what I’d be missing out on.
However, relativism will only keep us happy to a limited extent. Technology has improved things that we would appreciate with or without a former generation to compare to. Things such as the ‘reduction of infant mortality rates’ is one example of something that we would desire no matter what; the value of life is timeless.
The greater irony is that instead of helping us function as technology set out to, it may have in fact further stressed us more than anything (can you imagine the number of essays we have due over the weekend? all expected to be typed out too.) what technology has done is to allow for better communication, which inexorably leads to increased trade. with all that, there has been an increase in competition over the years and that is what has caused the increase in expectations of our work.
No, I’m just kidding. The reason for which trade has sharply risen along the past century has a multiplicity of factors, out of all of them, one happens to be technology, or arguably, technology is the manifestation of increased trade. they are generally perceived to be inter-linked in any case.
Ignorance is bliss. I wouldn’t mind forgoing all the benefits technology has given us, and revert back to the good ol stress-free days, especially considering that man has unlimited wants and thus is impossible to completely satisfy no matter the amounts of technology we invent. Than again, if what domch said is true about technology giving us the 'flow', than I might want to take that back.