(credit: KaterBegemot/wiki commons)
When you consider the evolution of the human species over the full sweep of time, our bodies have been changing only very gradually. Slowly it seems we get a bit bigger, a lot heavier and a lot less hairy.
So what else?
Well, we’ve gotten more sophisticated in using tools, building nests, crafting comfortable clothing, inventing vehicles that let us zoom around the planet at will, establishing routines that optimize pleasure and a bunch of other lifestyle stuff.
We’ve expanded our lifespans.
And we’ve been able to accomplish this by inventing technologies, many by accident.
But if we had a giant mirror and could reflect down on ourselves as we are living now, we are still exhibiting the behavior of a bunch of monkeys in a zoo who have gotten a hold of a hijacked truckload of portable digital toys.
We’ve got them firmly grasped in our hairless little hands and we are staring at them when we are not turning them over and over, marveling at their magic. We look up now and then, looking side to side as of to make sure nobody’s going to discover us at this guilty pleasure, lest they swoop in and take them away from us.
We smile that guilty smile of secret pleasure and we just keep looking at those screens as we hop around place to place on our hindquarters.
***
Technology is inherently neither good nor bad. It is officially neutral like Switzerland. It is also, I firmly believe, inevitable. If there are imperatives to the evolution of our species they include a technological component — we are going to continue to experiment and develop technologies that extend our ability to live our lives the way we want to, to satisfy our desires and that extend our reach — physically, mentally and even emotionally.
No government or religion can stop that.
But this process is also inherently disorienting and disruptive. It was becoming commonplace for a while to describe each new upheaval of one of our traditional industries in terms that it had just been disrupted by the internet, or by a digital device, or a software application.
In the process, suddenly all the middlemen, all of the intermediaries who dominated our society were being thrown out of work. The technical term is disintermediated.
Travel agents? Disintermediated.
Secretaries? Disintermediated.
Used car salesmen? Disintermediated.
Taxi drivers? Disintermediated.
Publishers? Disintermediated.
Journalists? Disintermediated.
I could go on (and on and on and on) but you get the idea. Why did we need these people anyway, when we could just manipulate the new technologies to do everything for ourselves?
Well, that’s a good question. You know that old thing about being careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater?
Beyond being an exceptionally odd phrase and concept, it’s nevertheless got more than a smidgeon of wisdom to it.
Because maybe we got something pretty valuable from some of those intermediaries who used to be in our lives. Something we need every bit in our lives as much as we need food, water, clothing, blankets when it’s cold and fans blowing fresh air when it’s hot.
We need to be cared for; we need to be taken care of now and then; we need to be loved.
Conversely, most of us need to be able to take care of other people. We need to be able to feel that we are needed.
It gives our lives meaning. It gives our jobs meaning. We need to feel we are helping makes things better, not worse. Trust me on this one.
Fame, money, success, power? In the end, they are meaningless. This is the lesson Donald Trump has never learned.
But using your time here to try and make the world just a little better for others, including those to come? That means everything.
(NOTE: I published the first version of this essay a year ago. This is version 2.0)
LINKS:
Tennessee House expels two Democrats who joined gun-control protests (WP)
Judge in Trump's New York case appears to have donated $15 to Biden for President in 2020 (NBC)
Israel hits Gaza as Netanyahu vows to extract ‘heavy price’ (Politico)
McConnell lets an indicted Trump twist in the wind (The Hill)
Trump’s criminal case in New York may collide with the 2024 campaign (WP)
Trump called on Republicans to cut funding for federal law enforcement as investigations swirl around him. The DOJ has also been investigating Trump’s efforts to interfere with the transfer of power after losing the 2020 presidential election. [HuffPost]
Clarence Thomas has accepted undisclosed luxury trips from GOP megadonor for decades, report says (Pro Publica)
Voters in Wisconsin have flipped control of the state Supreme Court to liberals — For the first time in 15 years, voters have flipped the Wisconsin Supreme Court to liberal control. Justices are likely to overturn the state's abortion ban and could throw out GOP drawn voting maps. (NPR)
Wisconsin Rout Points to Democrats’ Enduring Post-Dobbs Strength (NYT)
A near-century old abortion ban that fueled one of the largest ballot drives in Michigan history was repealed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, just months after voters enshrined abortion rights in the state’s constitution. [AP]
Dominion can force Murdochs to testify at Fox News defamation trial, judge says (CNN)
Report details ‘staggering’ church sex abuse in Maryland (Politico)
Where did the workers go? Construction jobs are plentiful, but workers are scarce (NPR)
The ‘Manhattan Project’ Theory of Generative AI (Wired)
For American workers, generative AI threatens an already unstable future (The Hill)
I use ChatGPT 50 to 70 times a day for everything from preparing for professional meetings to getting superglue off my fingers (Insider)
Several Chinese AI experts back call by Musk and others for a pause in rapid development of ChatGPT technologies (SCMP)
OpenAI plans to present measures to Italian authorities to remedy concerns that led to a ban of its ChatGPT chatbot in Italy, the country's data protection authorities said. (Reuters)
Uber Is Taking on Amazon With a Groundbreaking New Service (The Street)
French President Emmanuel Macron urged China's Xi Jinping to reason with Russia and help bring an end to the war in Ukraine as the two held the first of a series of meetings in Beijing. (Reuters)
Zelensky Gets Hero’s Welcome in Poland, Cementing Ukraine’s Ties (NYT)
Hollywood writers union asks members to authorize strike amid contract talks with studios (ABC)
Kansas bans transgender athletes from women’s, girls’ sports (AP)
Conservatives called for a boycott of Bud Light after it partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The company stood by its choice. (Insider)
Supreme Court refuses to reinstate W.Va.’s transgender athlete ban (WP)
US would bar full ban on trans athletes but allow exceptions (AP)
Texas abortion funds cautiously resume services following legal reprieve (Guardian)
Trump Boys Ask Melania If They’re Getting New Daddy Now (The Onion)
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