Dystopia?

Good Friday all!

I would like to start today, if I may with a quick discussion.

Now as I always say, I can comment on nothing but my own experiences, and recently these experiences made me question something very deer to me.

For years now I've subscribed to the ideology that technology is our way forward.

That as a human race we continue to evolve through the application of our brains to better ourselves and our living conditions.

It is through this betterment that we develop better medical techniques and vaccines along with faster more efficient machines.

70 years ago, if you had a frozen piece of meat you would have to leave it out overnight to defrost, now you just pop it in the microwave and leave it spinning for 8 minutes!

Only 30 years ago, if I was to try and reach the masses of the world with my thoughts, experiences and musings I'd have to either buy/start a publisher or tv channel, or failing that try and pursuade an existing one that the dribble I turn out is worth promoting.

Now however I just pick up my branded phone, select the branded APP, and bam I'm away. No need to think about a time frame or a number of words.

It is through technology that I am able to slay dragons with my friends half way across the world and learn about new and upcoming releases from companies I would have never even heard of without.

I freaking love technology!

.............

But it then struck me.

There's a woman I work with who for now we will call J.

Now J is a technophobe. She owns a mobile phone, but never uses it, and the idea of having a phone for anything other than calls is just crazy.

She owns a computer and uses it to send emails to friends, but to the best of my knowledge doesn't have an Amazon account.

Now under normal circumstances this would be followed by plenty of mockage and joke making, however when I stop and look at how J operates, I see someone who is the polar opposite of me.

At work, I will never call someone if I can E-Mail (yes I'm one of 'them') and other than one set of neighbours at home, I have no idea who my neighbours are, never mind their names or personalities.

Now compare this to J, very regularly on the phone keeping in contact with those around her, almost every week visiting her neighbours and welcoming them around for tea. You could almost say that she is part of her local community.

Now I wouldn't want to say which of these extremes are better, as I don't know.

What I do know is what works for me, and what works for J.

But what I also see are many other comparisons to almost unrelated issues.

You see, back in the 70s, film director Kubrick made A Clockwork Orange which was supposed to show the current world through a dystopian lense, now I'm only 28, I wasn't even born in the 70s and so can not compare, but I watch that film now, and what looks like a vision of the future is actually reminiscent of an old block of flats I used to rent near to.

Is this a co incidence? Or is it random chance, as we have become more reliant on technology to fulfil all our basic needs, have we forgotten how to be a community?

I think about this possibility, and I see only one outcome...

In 1997 Skynet was supposed to launch the US stored nuclear warheads starting an international nuclear war that would wipe out most of humanity. This never happened, but maybe it wasn't needed.

Maybe we have already allowed the technological menace into our homes, given it our PIN number and DOB.

Maybe we have already specified our own destiny to be an unknowing, yet perfectly willing slave to technology.

Me? I'm a child of this era, and as long as those food pellets keep coming, I'll keep pushing the FEED button!

As I've said before, we all have our roles to play in life...

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley