Being human is not to be a man. To be a man is biological. To be human is something so much deeper. I believe that humanity is not a state; neither is it an identity. To be human is a process; a journey in which the journey is the definition of being human.
In school, we were taught that no man is an island; that humans constantly search for companionship, for love, for fulfillment, for so many things that complete us. We search for meaning in life, for truth, wisdom, and success. These are all beautiful things to hope for – to want. Without them, we cannot be happy. And happiness is the essence of living.
But in a changing world, many say that humans have become superficial. Values no longer exist. Integrity is hard to come by. People have become selfish and apathetic. What the world once was has been tainted by our insatiable hunger for technological advancement and sophistication. But, just as the world is constantly changing, maybe what it is to be human should be allowed to change
too.
I don't look forward to a world without patience, intimacy, or ability to communicate in a physical social gathering. I don't look forward to a world where philosophical questions about life no longer matter and where people are educated and trained for no other reason than to serve technological demands. I don't look forward to a world where people no longer grow from mistakes and life has become so "perfect" that errors no longer exist. But anxiety and fear are products of not knowing. Maybe the world won't burn in a self-inflicted apocalypse. Maybe humans will become something greater than what they are today. Maybe I should have faith that just as I believe that being human today is still a beautiful thing, maybe being human tomorrow, despite an evolved connotation, will still be a beautiful thing. After all, those before me would probably think that Starbucks, Facebook, Apple, and Disney all don't make sense and have crippled humans and created mindless zombies.
We shouldn't judge the people of tomorrow based on what we understand as people of today. We fear that technology will create heartless and brainless creatures when heartless and brainless are words whose denotation is derived from how our world is and how our lives are. But this doesn't mean we shouldn't be vigilant in our quest for progress. The future is shaped by our hands. Maybe how we understand certain values will change such as finding happiness in watching a butterfly hover over a flower but I think the core of every value will stay the same. I don't believe people will ever grow tired of finding simple pleasures. It will probably just not be through a flower next time.
What is important today is not so much worrying about the amount of technology we produce but the kinds of people we create that will live with this technology. Should it matter how young they are when they start building their own Apps or the number of new technological courses we create to ensure that we have people capable of coping up with technology? I don't think so. Because at the end of the day, it's not technology that is at fault if and should the world become something we're not happy with. It's people. It's because we've forgotten to cuddle our children while their still young. It's because our ears have been covered by our mp3 players that we weren't able to hear our two-year olds' gibberish singing. It's because we taught them that there's nothing wrong with basking in front of the television during dinner time instead of talking about how our day went or sharing a joke we overheard in the train station.
Who are what the world will be tomorrow because of all the rapid changes happening around us will be who and what the world will be. This is not what scares me. Putting the blame on machinery and pretending that the changes in humans and how we live are has nothing to do with us and everything to do with how we're influenced by computers and overflowing data is what makes me shiver inside. This is what scares me. This is what should scare you too. For even if the meaning of being human continues to change as time goes on, one thing should not change, it is that we are masters of our own lives. If we don't like something, we do something about it.
"They do not start by asking what children need to do to adapt to a machine world, but rather, which technologies can best serve human purposes at every educational level and how we can prepare children to make wise decisions about their use in the future." – Lowell Monke, The Human Touch
In school, we were taught that no man is an island; that humans constantly search for companionship, for love, for fulfillment, for so many things that complete us. We search for meaning in life, for truth, wisdom, and success. These are all beautiful things to hope for – to want. Without them, we cannot be happy. And happiness is the essence of living.
But in a changing world, many say that humans have become superficial. Values no longer exist. Integrity is hard to come by. People have become selfish and apathetic. What the world once was has been tainted by our insatiable hunger for technological advancement and sophistication. But, just as the world is constantly changing, maybe what it is to be human should be allowed to change
too.
I don't look forward to a world without patience, intimacy, or ability to communicate in a physical social gathering. I don't look forward to a world where philosophical questions about life no longer matter and where people are educated and trained for no other reason than to serve technological demands. I don't look forward to a world where people no longer grow from mistakes and life has become so "perfect" that errors no longer exist. But anxiety and fear are products of not knowing. Maybe the world won't burn in a self-inflicted apocalypse. Maybe humans will become something greater than what they are today. Maybe I should have faith that just as I believe that being human today is still a beautiful thing, maybe being human tomorrow, despite an evolved connotation, will still be a beautiful thing. After all, those before me would probably think that Starbucks, Facebook, Apple, and Disney all don't make sense and have crippled humans and created mindless zombies.
We shouldn't judge the people of tomorrow based on what we understand as people of today. We fear that technology will create heartless and brainless creatures when heartless and brainless are words whose denotation is derived from how our world is and how our lives are. But this doesn't mean we shouldn't be vigilant in our quest for progress. The future is shaped by our hands. Maybe how we understand certain values will change such as finding happiness in watching a butterfly hover over a flower but I think the core of every value will stay the same. I don't believe people will ever grow tired of finding simple pleasures. It will probably just not be through a flower next time.
What is important today is not so much worrying about the amount of technology we produce but the kinds of people we create that will live with this technology. Should it matter how young they are when they start building their own Apps or the number of new technological courses we create to ensure that we have people capable of coping up with technology? I don't think so. Because at the end of the day, it's not technology that is at fault if and should the world become something we're not happy with. It's people. It's because we've forgotten to cuddle our children while their still young. It's because our ears have been covered by our mp3 players that we weren't able to hear our two-year olds' gibberish singing. It's because we taught them that there's nothing wrong with basking in front of the television during dinner time instead of talking about how our day went or sharing a joke we overheard in the train station.
Who are what the world will be tomorrow because of all the rapid changes happening around us will be who and what the world will be. This is not what scares me. Putting the blame on machinery and pretending that the changes in humans and how we live are has nothing to do with us and everything to do with how we're influenced by computers and overflowing data is what makes me shiver inside. This is what scares me. This is what should scare you too. For even if the meaning of being human continues to change as time goes on, one thing should not change, it is that we are masters of our own lives. If we don't like something, we do something about it.
"They do not start by asking what children need to do to adapt to a machine world, but rather, which technologies can best serve human purposes at every educational level and how we can prepare children to make wise decisions about their use in the future." – Lowell Monke, The Human Touch
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