Ironically it is always the shallowest uses of technology which surge above other uses – for example the world wide web is predominantly used for pornography or the commercial exchange of mass produced goods, and the minimal usage that is ‘development’ actually powers the existence of the whole thing.
So is the internet to be defined by what most people do with it or by what the minority creates it to do? Is this a free information universe or a free porn outlet? And shift away from these latest gadgets and consider toasters, kettles, television sets… this is what we have done with the potential we have technologically, so what does it represent? Could we have made better stuff? Is there stuff which is more useful and sensibly managed, but which is less mainstream? What, for example, is wrong with kettles?
Perhaps domestic battery chargers are the one obvious and easy example of a technology that could do a lot of good in the world but aren’t really mainstream and hair curlers, next to them, are an atrocity? Well, okay, she could look REALLY good like that and then who the hell am I to criticize, which brings us back round to the original harsh accusation – of shallowness, of using technology to make life sexy… is it really so bad? What better use IS there than to make our lives that much nicer? We ALL only live once, and frankly I like the way she looks no matter what technology it took to get her that way, whoever she is, every single time.
An intelligent person would value a conversation with Einstein or Hume, but a night with Marilyn Munroe would rank number one any week of the year. Technology is to make our lives better, not to turn us all into harder workers or better people! Live it long and live it fast…