Saturday, June 30, 2007 7:54 AM
by
jtspencer
Feeling Like an Android
It's seven thirty thirty. I know this, not because of the sunlight or the heat. Rather, a box on the bottom right hand corner tells me the time. I trust the box more than my own mental perception of the sunlight. I count backwards in my head, proud that I am not depending on an online calculator to tell me that I have been awake for four and a half hours. I take a sip of cheap coffee, brewed by man's best friend - Mr. Coffee. What a great guy.
I realize that there are both humanizing and dehumanizing elements to using technology. For the past two weeks, I have been virtually hooked up digitally, merely another extension of a USB port, but I'm not as fast as a machine. I feel like an android trying to capture my humanity and all for a three credit master's class! I smile at Micah, who is sitting in his car seat. Yep, I can still show human emotion. Still, I am slowly losing touch of human contact. I start wondering if my skin is turning white and pasty like Data from Star Trek.
It seems that technology wars against humanity in a way that is more subtle and yet more frightening than a Terminator movie. I want to bust out like Paul Bunyan and fight against the machine. I'm angry that the computer is why my eyes ache and my back is killing me. Even my butt hurts. And as I write this, I have no way of knowing who will read it, how they will respond and whether they will read into it a quiet melancholy or a smiling cynicism.
I'm angry that technology makes life more complicated and takes me away from the human aspect of loving my family. It's supposed to be so simple, yet I've even noticed that the more user friendly they make it, the more complicated it gets and therefore loses its value of being user-friendly.
At the same time, I am thankful to technology. It's eighty degrees inside and it will stay that way all day long. This morning, I made my coffee and within five minutes it was done - liquid happiness in five minutes! I love how I can access information instantaneously. I love the creative act of web design.
If technology is dehumanizing, there is the opposite side of the paradox. There is a very human aspect of man's dominion over nature. When we first captured fire, we set off a process that would lead to where we are today. It's a very human thing to pursue technology. At it's worst, it means nuclear bombs. At it's best, it means a cup of Starbucks coffee.