Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Dearth of an Empirical.


(1)  Empirical … Philosophy derived as knowledge from experience,                                       especially sensory perception, not applied logic.
(2)  Dearth …      Lack of something

Just a figment of the imagination of this writer… the title, that is. Thinking about some of the issues we have touched upon during posts along the way, this is a summation of what I believe is happening to forthcoming generations.  We are letting go of the utilization of those senses which have really set us aside, over a number of lifetimes, from other species; in doing so, we are giving up our sole animal advantage.

Why do I believe this is so? Our new generations are more and more dependent of techno equipment; computers in all possible iterations, “smart phones”, clouds, long distance communications, interfaces… you name it. Seems that all new interactive structures take us more and more in a direction which gets us away from social, communal growth. As in… we really do not need to actually “talk” eye to eye, when we can communicate through said computers, phones, etc.

Social networking mega theaters have become the depository of a huge, gargantuan accumulation of information about us … which we readily give up; already breaches of privacy have made news and these are very likely to become commonplace, rather than be tamed and controlled. The information which is contained in these data banks are just too attractive to those who make a living by stealthily entering them and using whatever is there for the taking. It never ceases to amaze me just how much private information users plaster all over these so-called “walls”. Often, information the same individual would be reluctant to deliver to someone just met. “Cyber” crime is more common; as a matter of fact, the very term was non existent just a few years ago.

Do we give up on these grand discoveries? No, of course not. They are a part of our own advances as intelligent human beings; just that we should not forget that last phrase and what it actually means: “intelligent human beings”. A big part of our cultural heritage, our ability to learn as it developed over generations of exquisite human engineering, has been nurtured through exchanges between people. The cognitive ability to look at someone and have a “gut feeling” about that person; the fact that we can interact with other members of our human club and define who we like and who we do not like; what we want and do not want… the ability to think through situations which involve others, to survive without "techno help". That, and other sensorial abilities, has been a learned prerogative which, as a base instinct, has been developed through thousands of years of this direct interaction and its consequential growth.

I wonder what this very ability will be, or will fail to be, in a few generations. This time is not too far away, as the crow flies. We have seen some potential advances in several movies and books that talk about that dreaded, to us old timers, concept of the “controlled society”. A society where people are usable entities within a social group, with defined rights and ceilings; predestined to be one thing or another from the moment of conception.

The only difference between these coming exercises and those of failed attempts done in the not too far past by control freaks, will be genetics knowledge, heretofore a fairly little developed science field. Genetics has already opened experimental theaters which will eventually allow the existence of an individual whose make up is determined by whatever societal needs are deemed a priority at the time that particular entity is conceived. In a tube, of course. Is this too far a thought? Not really. Just look at the news and the almost everyday exercises in genetic engineering are there to be found. In fact, news of this sort has become so “old hat” in the last ten years or so, that these exercises do not even make the front page anymore. Only if the results are some sort of hideous consequence, sort of like drinking a not well prepared witches’ brew.

I have to admit my instincts and likes are of the old fashioned type. My preferences include direct interaction, touching, seeing, hearing –not through a dismembered, cold phone- but a whisper carried in the warm breath of a loved one, tasting a fresh fruit or, better yet, delicate lips ... smelling the earth, flowers, the wetness of rain … If we are to be the intermediate generations in a changing humanness which is slowly veering to that impersonal state of being a “functional computer aided brain”, where the rest of the body becomes a useless appendix, then I am grateful to be here now. My guess is that, as generations succeed, each will have its own dinosaurs (like me) and will eventually, as a whole, move on towards that homologated state of being.

Oh well … ‘nuff for now about this nonsense … or is it “yes-sense”?

Be Well … Be Back!!!

Final Notes:
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