To Be Considered

     Everywhere around us the buzz is out. the newest gaming tech or computer feat flies through the media dominating whole sections of popular news broadcasting programs and controlling an astonishingly large portion of the Internet's emerging news source as well. The release of Microsoft's Kinect brought with it over 10 million purchases within 10 days. according to Robotic Nation by Marshall Brain "Human brains are thought to be able to process at a rate of approximately one quadrillion operations per second. A CPU in the 2040 time frame could have the processing power of a human brain, and it will cost $1,000. It will have a petabyte (one quadrillion bytes) of RAM. It will have one exabyte of storage space. An exabyte is 1,000 quadrillion bytes. That's what Moore's law predicts". Creativity will allow the expansion of technology to continue endlessly as is shown with this Coke powered phone.

     The bottom line is this: what does this really mean to me?  Some argue it will create a disengaged, lazy, un-educated, un--fulfilled, and regressive society; as in D. Keith Shurtleff's The Effects Of Technology On Our Humanity. Others firmly support that it enables us to overcome other problems, reach new levels of success, and evolve as a species. However, it would seem very few have proposed solutions to the possible problems. In fact, the majority of articles on the Internet even admit we are wasting our time complaining about this ambiguity when we could create solutions.

     I propose that every problem does in deed have a solution. There are three basic types of problem solving that can be employed in every situation: yours, mine, or ours. Based on this principle, three clear solutions exist for you personally and this challenge as well as society as a whole:

     One: accept technology for what it is and can be.  This is what most of us in first world nations have decided to do. Regardless of what it may do, technology is currently helping each and everyone reading this blog. We rely on it and thus, bestow faith in it. going back to the optimistic approach to the problem itself, this solution is basically stating that there is no problem, and that if there were, technology would help us solve it anyway.

    Two: Ban technological advancement. Although drastic, this method is justified with a little bit of research into the science and truth behind situations like i-robot or Matrix. The only effective path for which this solution has application is on a personal scale. The reality is that the capitalist mindset governing most of the economic power of our world today does not permit such a drastic and "non progressive" methodology. Thus, this approach would manifest itself in lifestyle choices similar to that of a monk.

     Three: Find the middle ground between technological revolution and the human condition. Perhaps we do not need robots to clean our houses and cook our meals. But on the other hand, who doesn't appreciate the powerful effects of information technology in the areas of politics, art, science, medicine, education, and recreation?

   However annoying it is to hear: compromise is inevitably better than extremes in almost every real world scenario. So, take a shower manually, turn on your iPod with the touch of a finger, and walk out the door to enjoy your balanced lifestyle