A Sense of Déjà vu

Walking to work I observed the people that I passed: there were adults talking while they waited for the bus, people sitting on benches reading books and school children laughing and jostling around a tennis ball…

None of that is true. It probably felt false to you, a warning bell clanging that the statements sounded hollow somehow. Or was it a glitch in the matrix? It may be how we envision the world, but it is not reality. Not any more.

Many science fiction movies and TV shows have covered the plot of humans trapped in un-reality:

  • The Matrix where humanity lives out a computer-generated fantasy; all the while being enslaved and used as living batteries by the conquering technology.
  • In Continuum people are brainwashed into a robot-like state by evil corporations.(They never really explain why that is more effective than machinery, but anyway…)
  • In SG-1 the team is trapped and their experiences are re-lived for the entertainment of a community living in stasis.

On my walk to work that day I saw many individuals: most of whom were absorbed entirely by their mobile devices. We may not be trapped permanently yet, but we are on the way. Will the next generation even know what it is to not have mobiles to use? Unlikely.

The point is that people are trapped by technology and disconnected from reality. But I wonder, at what cost?

[Researcher Dr Hisao Ishii] warned: ‘Genuine conversation will be driven out by superficial communication, in which the act of contacting one another is all that matters, leading to a deterioration in the quality of relationships. Indeed, the very fabric of society may be threatened.’ (Source)

I think this is the tip of the iceberg. Any new Terminator movie should clearly be based on SkyNet knowing how to flood the market with shiny new apps.

Sent from my Samsung Mobile.


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