I believe I can fly

Yes, I truly do. Even if the only way to do so is trust machinery weighing a few tons :-) I also like to think. Which is not the same as saying I do think. Thinking is an area of human activity where I have a lot of catching up to do.

Posts Tagged technology

Now presenting, ladies and gentlemen, War 2.0

Apr 7

Posted by The Practical Idealist in General | No Comments

We’re all used to reading obituaries that don’t have any heart in them. Few are the people among us who can say that the impersonal nature of companies is surprising. We all know how we tend to get a bit impersonal in our email / IM replies. But can a soldier in a war say that the killing of lives that a war always results in is impersonal? Thanks to technological advances, yes!

“It’s the fundamental difference between the bomber pilots of WWII and even the bomber pilots of today. It’s disconnection from risk on both a physical and psychological plain.

“When my grandfather went to war in the Pacific, he went to a place where there was such danger he might not ever come home again. You compare that to the drone pilot experience. Not only what it’s like to kill, but the whole experience of going to war is getting up, getting into their Toyota Corolla, going in to work, killing enemy combatants from afar, getting in their car, and driving home. So 20 minutes after being at war, they’re back at home and talking to their kid about their homework at the dinner table.”

Here’s to our modern civilisation – not only have we found enough justification to kill people, we’ve made the whole process impersonal as well!

Related article

Tags: , ,

Technology in our lives

Jul 1

Posted by The Practical Idealist in General | 5 Comments

Technology makes our lives come a full circle, but not the way we might have expected.

We invented gadgets and devices to give us more time for leisure. Then we found more things to do in our leisure which, surprise, resulted in us having less leisure. And then the realisation hit us (thanks to TVs, endless ads and gossip columns about movie stars who have “six-pack” abs) that we are, horror of horrors, not healthy and fit. So what do we do? Go to gyms, and use the ultra-high-tech stuff to become “healthy” or lose weight. There are also people who have “discovered” that doing household chores helps in keeping the surging calory levels in check too; and they trumpet their discoveries to their social peers, thereby proving their humility and social liberal-mindedness. Of course, their parents and forefathers did not know better (and don’t you dare tell them otherwise unless you’re prepared for a prolonged argument) though they might have been telling us exactly the same thing – that being self-reliant (translate that into “do your work yourself”) also keeps you healthy, besides giving you a sense of satisfaction. There, I digress as usual.

This new-found health in turn makes us feel better, and so we feel we have earned the right to indulge a little. Just a little. In no time at all, the little turns into “a little more”, and then, before we know it, we’re back where we started – we have no time.

Technology makes our lives come a full circle, but not the way we might have expected.

Tags: , , , ,