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In Reply to: Tomorrow would have been my dad's 102d birthday posted by PabloP on September 12, 2020 at 19:12:06:
The technology is moving at a fast pace but it doesn't mean humanity is progressing - some may argue it is regressing in certain ways.
I suppose what we have to do is to stop letting the macro world negatively effect our micro-world. The technology inundates us with the macro world which didn't really exist in your dad's day to the degree that it does today. I wake up in the morning and say "Hey Google. Good Morning." Then Google's artificial woman comes on and tells me the time, the weather and provides me 3-4 news outlets top stories.
This often gets my blood boiling and I haven't even had a cup of coffee yet. And here's the thing - the news stories are all about things that I have ZERO power in any way shape or form to change. If I know about it and can't do anything about it and it gives me stress - it's probably a story I don't really need in my life.
The planet will go on no matter what damage the human race does to it - humans may all die out as a result - but the planet will be fine - it's going to be here long after us. So it's not humanity destroying the planet - it's humanity destroying humanity's Eco-system.
The individual is essentially nothing. My dad passed away in 2004 at the age of 68. A lovely man, Mensa IQ, very well read, kind, honest - too honest perhaps - and the guy who always drove 5km an hour under the speed limit that drove everyone nuts - though he always stayed in the right lane at least. Served his country - worked in veterans affairs over his last 10 years in working life etc. But when I die and my mom dies no one will remember him. We are all fleeting specs of dust. Oh sure some people will be remembered - Shakespeare, Hitler, but in the end once you yourself are dead - you won't care if you are remembered or not because you'll be back into the nothingness from which you began.
It's probably why I like Star Trek (not Discovery or Picard) - the idea, as fictional as it may seem, that in the future many of the issues of today's world somehow got solved and the species has progressed to fully realizing the top level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs instead of fighting over a toaster oven on a black Friday sale when they already have a toaster oven that works perfectly fine. Indeed, Star Trek follows the Dickensian desire of finding the betterment of humanity.
But these things will not be solved in our lifetimes because power corrupts absolutely and we allow people who crave absolute power to lead nations and industry. It would take a fundamental shift in the fundamental structure of the global economy and man's innate desire for power and gluttony to move the needle.
Since this won't happen any time soon - perhaps taking a page from George Carlin and just sit back. As he said - being born into this mess is like getting a free ticket to the Freak Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkTeZLiNCoM
But perhaps the more optimist side of me prefers Carl Sagan's Blue Dot. We are all made of stardust.
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- RE: Tomorrow would have been my dad's 102d birthday - RGA 09/12/2020:42:27 09/12/20 (0)
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