Convenience v. Control

 

By: Jonathan Seidel

Technocrats and ease: bureaucracy and more difficulty.   

The digital community is so engrossed in the ease of living. Technology has advanced so fast enabling the youth to develop in comforting attire. The close aids of the internet and cell phones has brought the global world closer. It has also provided simplicity in living. Paying for goods with a bank card or purchasing a bus ticket on an app. The ease of technology also fuels a fear of latent control by nefarious means. A danger that is often overlooked in the presence of comfort. 

Recently, a video popped up about an Australian bank going digital. While this may sound futuristic and cool to youngsters it is has a whole host of problems. The first being older folk who are incapable of operating technology. The elderly as well as middle aged adults are foreign to this concept. Many do not carry around credit cards and even those who do prefer to shop in person. There is a disconnect between the youth immersion in digital culture and the adults who cannot keep up. The homeless, those who live in remote areas or backwater communities may not have the digital access. Just because a bank goes digital doesn’t mean everyone has the means to do so. It creates an asymmetry between citizen and government. The bank holds their money and yet they have no way of purchasing. An elderly individual could pick up a bank card but it won’t help if they do not understand how much they are paying (though many youngsters also struggle with this). Another issue is privacy. Hackers can easily steal private information and money which happened recently with little compensation. The bank didn’t even realise the fault until months later. Digital currency puts everyone’s money openly on the web for the taking. It not only hurts those unfamiliar with the concept but puts everyone at risk. 

Such an example also occurred today. My wife was unable to enter the weight room because her face had never been scanned. The face scanner guy wasn’t coming in till ten. Her frustration resonated with a lack of sleep and an expectation foiled. Having to wait to use the weight room because there was a miscommunication for someone to get their face scanned. Yet beyond such logistical failures, the face scan is a technological imperfection. If it doesn’t work one cannot get inside. Not only is the face cam on the door of the weight room but on the front door as well. If the door is locked and the face cam doesn’t work, you’d better hope there is someone at the front desk because there is no way one is getting in. For an apartment complex it is quite high on security. Though it is seemingly trivial to spend so much money on scanning when a key would do the trick or even a code. The obvious pitfalls have already been experienced and it calls into question the efficacy of such fancy utility just to save a few seconds. When it doesn’t work there is no safety net. The overt reliance is not just a bureaucratic nightmare but a night out in the cold. 

The youthful attitude towards technology is simplicity of its utility. Only paying with credit card is so easy. The discomfort to put in any effort. To swipe a card carelessly instead of walking over to the ATM to pull out cash to then spend a few minutes waiting in line. Fast pace high octane digital society wishes to move at the speed of light. Why wait? People have places to go and people to see. Why spend hours scouring through a book when the internet can search it quicker. Why write a research paper when artificial intelligence can do it for you. Control over time and able to manoeuvre swiftly. Technology truly has simplified life subverting to servitude. Technology works for humans. The further spread to the advancements the more optimal results. Who wishes to return to the grinding archaic ages of old. Yet with all the booming enlightenment is still fears of control. Data can be stolen and technology erased. Life is eased but also placed in the limelight. It is placed in a dangerous public sphere for anyone with the skill to grab at it. Too invested in the joy of simplicity that the dangers are ignored. 

Where the line is drawn is indeterminate. What is too much technology? What is too far? The issue isn’t whether life is too easy. Psychologists can experiment how such ease affects society. Moreover the issue is a political step into the abyss of slavery. Digitalising only provides more access to governments and media companies. It places more and more emphasis on governmental regulation and dedication to ensuring its own agenda. Digital power is placing the anonymity and ignorance in the immaterial world. To take just one example from the previous year, Bill Gates' digital ID is an artificial intelligence that assists the government in connecting with citizens. While it may sound easy and hip as it reminds and acknowledges human pitfalls, it is a mindless system attempting to control your life. It may sound good but it is a manipulative trick. It is efficient but it also has a nefarious network. Biometric scanning ascertains the legitimacy. It can receive a passport or pay taxes. Protects credentials and supports the citizenry. Though beyond the imperfections of the technology itself and what could go awry is also those who are pushing the charge. The WEF and banks who suspiciously have a horrid record of protecting citizens and their data. 

Convenience is the central point of preferring digitised apple wallet over carrying a handbag around. The issue with digital identification is that the WEF hopes governments federate it. The aspiration is that it is compelled on the public. Not whether one decides to use their apple wallet but that they must. The government may never lose anyone. People won’t fall through the cracks so there is a plus but they will also know where you are what you buy and who you contact. Denial of the potential disaster and the nefarious nature of the elites utilising this for their own regard. At the end of the day, even if the government never hones in on some shopkeeper in Boise Idaho doesn’t mean that it is right or that they have legitimate stand. Privacy is an ontological category not a practical one. In the same respect, surveillance is wrong even if there is nothing to hide. Concerning the government, nothing should be ever taken for granted. Any attempt to force digitisation is placing the citizenry at a deficit. It is prorating convenience to trick everyone into publicising their information. It is a spectacle. A way of inducing simplicity for vital content. Exchanging personhood for ease. No sooner will humanity be forced to say I told you so. 

Digital identification is a radical extreme and has not made it into the consumer market yet but the move for enhanced digitalisation is a dangerous road. Unable to enter the premises without biometric scan. There have been countless issues with passport scans as well as other identification programs. Shifting to digital programming whilst replacing the archaic models is genuinely dubious. No keyhole or cash fare for busses. If people prefer the older models they are left out forced to adapt. To so many it makes life miserable while the young are quite happy with the change. Time is saved but how many lives are? Efficiency must account for the large population that does not fit into the scheme. The majority does not but their experiments are skewed. They represent fringe or a minority of people. Yet even if the inverse were true, is it ethical or even permitted for an institution to push something at the expense of its own constituents. There is no free trial nor is there assistance to ready for the new change. It is thrust upon the public. Those who have the means are saved but those who lacked are screwed. Skynet is the not the fear nor any robotic ascension. The fear is the digital vulnerability that is overlooked for convenience. A genuine fear that gullibly rings in the mouse to the trap. Control is the name of the game, don’t forget it. 

Cartoonish Wisdom

By: Jonathan Seidel

Deleuze anime and cartoons

The impact of film on the viewer is incredible. Benjamin wrote almost a century ago about cinema’s affect on the population watching. Merleau-Ponty expanded arguing that information garnered is bodily absorbed not rationally deduced. With the overall impact of film there is much to gain from film but much to distance from.

Zizek refers to movies to philosophically narrate his point. His narrativising in an allegorical statement. Using film to express a theory of structural reality. In one attempt, he explores the rise of the empire after the fall of the republic. Closing in on Anakin’s transition to the dark side. Such use of cinema to decipher his point. His philosophy is pursued through visual imagery. Denoting cinema to illustrate his point. A characterisation powerfully manifested in its secondary use. The visual par excellence is a bright choice in illuminating his abstractly complex idea. Philosophy is quite the difficult phenomena reverting to cinematic tropes is a profound way of connecting the idea to the event. Yet, he focuses on critically acclaimed films that readers have viewed. Having watched Star Wars in the past and knowledgable of its content, his conclusion reshapes the plot line with his philosophical project. 

His strategy speaks to the weaving through the director’s thematic storyline. Whether or not the director’s intent, it is the conclusion drawn philosophically from the prose that caters to the invested. Zizek looks to draw ideas from cinema. The same cannot be said about the surface level concoction. The metaphorical message is a semiotic cause daunting in the naked eye. Zizek relates to the story of The Graduate. In it he argues that Mrs. Robinson’s immorality was all a ruse to ensure her daughter would remain pure. Finding these gems is truly a marvellously keen eye for detail. There are many things Zizek picks up on that the average observer does not. Whether or not they do so unconsciously is irreverent. The visual absorption does make that rational  link available. The average viewer perceives the Jedi as good and the Sith as bad. Especially to the youth so simple in the semantic deduction unable to see the complex picture. 

There is something to be said of our adolescent portrait of cinema. Even rewatching Star Wars in adulthood the inverse twist to imperial good is not easily construed. Unless one is looking for potholes and theories beneath the surface, the more colourful Jedi are still the good guys. The ascetic Jedi order and republic shortcomings are not parlayed sufficiently to arouse any sympathy for the Sith. The global domination arc is not a tempting good guy response. The hero is the underdog wishing to vanquish evil. The dark aura and the deadly space machine constitute a devilish plot for galactic control. The semantic reading is convincing to the action packed thriller. Most people are watching for enjoyment not philosophical inquiries. The Graduate is a story of maturity and unknown future from the protagonists perspective singing along to Simon and Garfunkel’s beautifully catchy tunes. The cinematic prose cheers for romance and jeers at the controversial affair between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson. 

Audiences take in themes and values but there is a commonplace to enjoin ideas and themes. Cinema does make it their mission to educate the public about their goal. From movies of the Godfather to Pulp Fiction, there is wisdom throughout. Film has told a tale unveiling its motive visually. Yet in this regard it paints a societal picture. It pivots themes that it wishes to convey. Public reception of the visual occurrence may result in mimicking. The event and not the idea is absorbed. Perceiving the event as a factual possibility, inspired by its efficiency becomes a hallmark of one’s routine. This is not necessarily so. Telling a story on a screen does not resemble realistic human emotion generationally nor situationally. It may attempt to capture the genuine human experience but many a time it is out to tell a story. Reaching the pinnacle of the thematic outcome at any cost. The ideal is taught in the face of the commonplace possibility. Crafting a plot line with encouraging characters to cheer on to do the impossible.

Growing up, going outside away from video games was to gain experience. Technology was a means of distraction. Fun with friends but insufficient education. Today, learning a craft online is simple and easy. Self education in derivatives or building a tree house. Options are limitless. The upcoming generation is seduced by technological freedom. One can be taught everything. The old folk wisdom is replaced with computer generated truth. Chat GPT has become that intelligent marker. While the current stream is finding answers from other people across the world. Quora is a Q&A website. It creates a platform to discuss and learn from other’s knowledge and experience. Yet Chat GPT may change all that namely receiving answers from a robot. Still, it is generating solutions from prior human creation. There is a dependence emerging on technology to teach us what to do and how to do it. While this is divorced from cinema, it is not too far off. It is a visual creation educating over a visual narrative. A law versus narrative symbiosis type dialectical oscillation.

Internet is the godchild of cinema. The visual licence takes on an orderly categorised order for information. No longer speaking in riddles, it is out in the open. The underlying cause of technological education is all too real. Film has taken on a deeper power in the hyperreal setting. It is similar to the Santa myth. Young children believe Santa is real dressed in red riding with his reindeer to deliver presents to good children from the North Pole. All parents are aware of this lie but tell it to their children anyways. The children grow out of it and then persist the lie on their kids. Cinema is the same. Cinema is not the real world. The young fairytales are fantasy. Growing up with life adaptations from the satirical cartoons influences the adolescent mind. Watching real people act out affects the mind in a developmental style. Mimicking characters in their walk and posture. While teenagers are supposed to escape cinema into the real world, the more and more real life high school dramas only perpetuate specific wardrobes. Movies are one thing, television shows are another. The weekly reminder of ideal high school life and character indulging is intoxicating. Chemically binding the viewer to the fictional character’s life. 

While reality tv is technically that bubble in the real from the illusionary. The characters are the same. Reality TV does seem more genuine but how certain is the audience that the show is not directed with a goal. No matter. The ability to separate the cartoon from real life is easy but not from human to human. Consciously America’s Got Talent and Top Chef differ heavily from Drake and Josh and Friends. Yet a show like Keeping with the Kardashians finds a middle ground where the real and the illusion are intertwined. It is real life but also cinematic. Still all these have the same factors in common. Viewership sees people just like them expressing themselves in ordinary ways. If they succeed or fail in those ways that must be something to follow. Especially when the characters are acting in accordance with the plot’s intent. Appealing to the character’s lives and their impact. There is no growing out of it. It is a cyclical loop of cinematic education. Praising types of characters and actions in accordance with the director’s goal. 

It is beyond cheering and jeering. It is internalising the praised and voiding the ridiculed. Drake despite his carefree attitude towards his studies is a ladykiller. Every girl wants him and every guy wants to be him. While the satirical side emerged consistently, it was impactful. Many kids shows from The Amanda Show to The Sweet Life to iCary were real life but comedic. Looking back there were too many laughs to be taken seriously. It was Santa in the moment but alright not to be taken too seriously. Still, the real life moments and proper human trend of schooling and living with a family, doing teenage things could not escape the viewer’s mind. Even James Bond movies which are so foreign from the viewer’s capability still aspire to be. If a person could reach that point and be that awesome, the viewer tries to become that. It is the aspiration for the ideal. Cinema makes the impossible wishfully plausible. To some degree absorbing some of his demeanour can be utilised to better the self. While this may be true it is not parallel to the real world as cinema is chemically constructed. 

Television drama shows depict the most obvious relation influence. A teenager watching other teenagers developing together. Aspiring youngsters watch television with all its aspiring characters. While some television shows may have a stronger pull than others, all pierce the cognitive division of real and illusionary. Real life personas are inherently influential. Learning love and romance from movies no matter how complex the situation is microscopically focused. Embodying the character to become more popular and more liked. It is not all wrong but it is not all right. Santa is not all myth. The plot line may be but the gift giving and good v. evil is real. The same is true of the tooth fairy. The archetype is fictional but the message is real. It is the character engagement that falsely internalised over the overall message. If cinema falsely depicts real life and foreshadows others to fall into that trap. If the character could accomplish it then obviously the viewer can. The viewer identifies with the character to mimic in his successes.

Cinema constructs an illusion with specs of truth. It is this mix that garners viewer support and empathy without striking the absolute truth. A perfect example is of both Tom Felton and Jack Gleeson. Felton who played Draco Malfoy was Harry’s rival and antagonist. He said that girls were not fans of his demeanour. In a sense they could not separate him from his role. Felton was Malfoy and girls did not take too kindly to it. Though even more extreme and sinister is Gleeson’s situation. Gleeson played Joffrey the childish maniacal menace. Due to his incredible acting, Joffrey was the most hated character in the beloved series. Reportedly, fans harassed him. While Felton’s character was met with empathy, Gleeson’s was met with scorn. Verbally abused in public over a fictional character is the burden of the audience’s inability to separate truth from illusion. Given the sexual and perverse nature, young adults or adults were harassing him. For children it may be understandable but for teenagers, it only furthers their cinematic hold. The unmistakable disconnect between actor and character is the audience’s misperception and hypnotic assimilation.  

Characters on television are redeemed by their realistic side even if the cases are irregular. Medical shows are notoriously false. Ironically, it is the comedy Scrubs that is the most medically authentic. Yet, the show is more about the drama than the medical aspect. Recalling watching House, the character development and their interactions are more memorable than the medical case at hand. The side character’s are nameless even if their profession is recalled. The side character, such as the magician’s illness which affects House concerning mortality and the beyond calling is so swiftly sweeps under the rug. Episodic characters are relational to the primary character development. House is a perfect example of personally identifying with a character. Recognising the resolute hypocrisy in disassociating from cinematic overhaul. Yet it is ironic, it is not a perfect memo but there is where to connect. House’s dire behaviour makes sense from a viewer walking with a cane due to medical complications. Cinema is not perfect but it is also not empty.

While an interest in outlaw figures is a personal favourite from a love of societal rebellion. This passion is more of an alignment than a sought aspiration. Still, the latter is not without impact. In this regard, Japanese anime comes to mind. American cartoons tend to be comedic: Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park. The more action packed cartoons are eastern cuts. Many anime fans find the classical satirical content in American shows to be more valuational in anime. Shows like Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Naruto are hero journey narratives with bliss purpose and empowering tropes. The imaginative aura beloved by readers find film adaptations minimally relatable is akin to life adaptations of former cartoons. The focus on the character themes and motifs are more recognisable behind the fictional story. The irrational relatability is intersected. On the one hand Naruto’s cartoonish side disconnects the viewer from the character but his horrid past pierces the emotional coil clinging to the viewer's heart.     

It is the story arc propagated by fictional logos with human pathos. There is more a link between the characters and their episodic counterparts as those characters influence one another. There is more of an unlimited range with animated capability but it is also the ethos behind the Japanese cinema that pushes these themes. The cartoon is never replaced as the real. Viewers may dream of a fantasy realm where they can become a ninja or fire energy blasts from their palms but the engrossment is the character themselves. There is a deeper interest and merited fold. The obsession may even go deeper than fans of Grey’s Anatomy and Criminal Minds. Perception is clearer to the animated ideal of attributes over self proliferation. That isn’t to say anime doesn’t have a diverse genre or in romantic senses there is hyper-sexualisation. Whether due to Japanese culture, taboo immaturity or average human fetish it does raise a red flag. Still overlooking this mark for the story at large does bypass the fan service. 

Speaking of anime fiction, there is a 2D male/female fetish. This is the aspirational real. It is not solely the sexualised drawings but the character’s personality. Their personality’s rage against the societal stigmas of men chasing women. These girls run after the male protagonists no matter how much of a goofball. To the stereotypical loser male, shy and outcasted this is a godsend. What life could be if it was a video game. While this may make for some tenuous unhealthy relationships and calls into question the AI girlfriend possibility, there is an empowering mechanism of revolting against norms. Will 3D girls run after you as they do in the fictional programs, maybe not but it is about the ideal plausibility to be oneself and proud of it. The ideal can easily be distinguished from real, while for life adaptations it’s taken at realistic face value. The viewer can not be the protagonist but can acquire his skills to capture the heart of the near perfect 3D girl. There is a separation between the two. It allows more personable imagination for the self to find its true self. The females are beautiful but they are heroines to the male protagonist.    

Cartoons are best displayed as humorous portrayals of human action. Cartoons are not real, many of their famous stories are sci-fi at the max. Fans are left to recognise the illusionary on screen as another world. Even if they wish to identify with the character there is only so much they can do. While the visual eclipses the imaginative novella, the characters are not real. The visual does not trick the viewer because rational relation is reducible. Cartoons cannot be faked into reality. Viewerships connection to the show is about thematic and entertaining content. Aroused by the plot and character development. Enjoying the journey with its ups and downs. There  is no getting lost with genuine linkage. While there are limitations and imperfections, it is a model to contest with as a growing person. Humans are surrounded with visual content to influence. Books are replaced with television. The cartoonish middle ground aids in solidifying the real world from the falsehood that is merely an organic platform to rejoice.  

Turn off the TV

 

By: Jonathan Seidel

Heidegger: being and publicity

  

Heidegger’s entire magnum opus with the corrections is an infatuation with human presence. Though he alleged misconceptions in the original, his later works on mysticism and technology further cement his crucial point. Being is temporal and caught in a machine with no privacy. The mystic deserts to the forest to escape the industrialised cog. He meditates to affirm his presence even as he loathes temporality. The poetic mysticism only furthers the faltering descent of being to communal oblivion.

Being and time narrates the fundamental question of being. He never fully answers his inquiry but solidifies his prowess with the temporal work. Being-to-death highlights a central axis of existence. It is in this position that life is self fulfilling. It is with the redemption from overachieving denial that death will come one day. Being is a profound characterisation that is depleted from its essence. The focus of the collective riddled being’s magnification. With so much metaphysical lore it was close to impossible to articulately define the subject. Being as first philosophy remains voided of concern. Heidegger attempted to tackle that issue. Solve Aristotle’s query in Germanic fashion.

His turn to technology and mysticism was a poetic prose to his initial style. This anti-globalist rhetoric sought tradition and the days of old before modernity swept everything up. The emotion flourishing in the pages draws from the soul of desperate pursuit. Modernity was a revolution, gradually eclipsing identity. It was a bulldozer marching forward picking up all the old dirt with it to shove aside for a new foundation. Changes were occurring ever so frequently all the while doing away with bygone customs. Avenues charred with car prints ossified into cracked defeated roads. The special was an old charm with no present relevance. A past time not worth reliving. 

Returning to being was a long shot attempt to revitalise all that was progressively erasing. The individual was losing his touch. He was marred from his potentiality. He was a cog in the machine. The collectivist model in the industrialisation mode was a worker’s nightmare. The individual was more and more replaced by technological insight. After WWI and the scientific fiasco, the individual was suffering. Alone in the universe, with bygone nationalism. The nationalistic compulsion slowly faded into the darkness. Being was the necessary adversary to nationalistic collectivism. Industrialisation in a way capitalised on the autonomic pursuit yet the nationalistic pride maintained a machinery process. Being is lost in the perpetuated materialistic exhaustion.  

     

Existentialism sought to candidly manifest individuality. To deal with the new world. A world no longer bound by traditional metrics. An ecstatic new future of solo venturing. Existentialism was a comfort to the lonely lost adventurer. Figuring things out as he goes along. Phenomenology was the second degree of existential thought. Turning from the objective metric to subjectivity. The personal conscious view delves into a private layer of the individual’s identity. Being is a self-reflective measure to counteract the external fear of tomorrow. The lonely journeyman has a moment of introspection to recall his mighty self in the face of defiled descent. Being and time reassures the self promise of affirmed beauty. 

Aristotle’ being as first philosophy was metaphysics and theology. For Aristotle, divinity preceded human affairs. Heidegger flipped the switch to place man’s self as the first piece. Heidegger’s motion transitioned from the dead divinity to man’s superhuman capability. The need to accommodate the new age was profoundly executed by Heidegger. God’s place at the top of the corporate ladder overwhelmed human necessity. Now it was man’s turn to take a look at himself in its totality. Focusing on his own strengths and weaknesses. There was a void after the religious desertion and that void was filled by human introspection. Looking deeper internally to the wonders of the human mind and its finitude. Man is a social being but also a meaning seeking creature. This primary insourcing gathers the self in a time of dire abandonment. 

Mystics have always had a thing for the theatrical. The mystical pull forges a connection with life itself. The mystic sees beneath the materialistic hard drive to supply and grow. It is routine that he deserts to the forest. To be alone with the universe. To focus his energy towards a larger cause. Whether that be a deity or a unified reality. The mystical front is the individualised reminder in the external collective world. Spiritual pursuits highlight the need for a break from the heavy burden of life. It is a reminder of self empowerment. Yet some mystics ran away to leave this wretched life. It was a cleaving to enter the bliss of infinity. The mystical addiction began as an antidote to the worrisome daily actions but morphed into a drug. Mystics sought salvation away from societal coercion. Hellbent on surviving the chaotic nemesis breathing down their throats.

The mystical right is not necessarily isolating in the woods. Such hermit behaviour is a temporary escape but not a permanent dwelling. There is a need to venture away but that is not the ideal. Stoic philosophy and eastern mottos encouraged meditation. Sitting quietly relaxing and taking a breath to focus on one’s breathing. Aligning the chakras and stabilising the self. Duty bound to maintain a clear conscious devoid of external invasion. Internal harmony is the mystic’s purpose. An unassuming salvation at the end of the road. Searching the self for a revitalising experience. Encountering the universe, standing beyond the self feeling lifted up beyond the sacrilege materialistic bind. An emboldening temporary trance to daily overjoy. 

Affirming the self in the world of overwhelming technology. Technology that takes the role of the human conception. Nationalist paradigms re-emerged in the globalist prowess. Technology linked the world in a collectivist world for connection. Technology overhauled the self reflective genius. A industrial boom back into routine work. More time to focus on television series. A materialist ploy to engage the masses. No more alone time. Taking answers from others and needing attention from an audience. Being is professed to the whims of global illusion. Mysticism turns inward from the external exploitation to focus on the self. Yet the technological conformity derails any individualistic affirmation against the interconnected web of anonymity.           

Technological thinking becomes a formation creationist problem. It is a concentration on change, seeing things for how they are useful to us. While this stretches to inanimate objects, it also reoccurs in relationships. Attaching oneself to another for personal benefit or the inverse. Technological thinking is a selfish pursuit for grandiose achievement. It sees everything as an object to bend to one’s will. Profiting from exceptional innovation at the behest of others’ enslavement. While technology in of itself is not an evil, its use beyond weaponry can be exploitive. Materialistically seeking produces a gainsay into the human psyche even if disastrous to the self in the long run. Working for profit with tech booms at the expense of permanent damage. Shooting for monetary surplus in the technological tranquility comfort. 

Focusing on technological advancement in all its positivity lurks a never ending continuation. The need to persist to grow and build bigger and better. Time is rarely allocated to self improvement and reflection. External appropriation and indulging is required. Working no stop with no selfhood left to properly assess. Introspection is a last second resort at dire exhaustion. Near evening after a long day at work, the reflective idea pops into the brain. Yet it quickly gets tossed aside for more immediate concerns. Ensuring business is up to par and excellence is advancing. There is a routine that congests any opening for a breather. A moment of individualised focus and introspective agency. 

A globalised world of persistent labouring to achieve heights of fame and fortune. To acquire the necessary goods to showcase exclusivity. A model of status and hibernated insecurity. Requiring others perception to feel accepted and worth it. Technology presumes a social standing to connect to others in the greater wide world. A mystical persona relives the selfhood. The soul to be reproduced from its drenched near drowning in torturous anguish. A social climbing aspiration while neglecting one’s own sanity and purpose. Being is not something to brush off but to assimilate and stoically profess in a world of rampant collectivist conformity. 

Tech Myths

By: Jonathan Seidel

Icarus and technological abuse 

Technology has advanced tremendously in the past decades. Communication has exceeded any of its predecessors. Cellphones today eclipse the enhancement of the late twentieth century. Ever since the internet blossomed in the late 90s, it has only connected the global nation with its social platforms. The internet is a means of knowledge, attaining information with the click of a button. With this great technology has grave responsibility. It is not only the detrimental use on the dark web but the obsession with technology has a means of survival. People glued to their technology in order to get through the day. Unable to disconnect from their devices. 

The greek myth of Icarus best illustrates this problem. Icarus and his father Daedalus were imprisoned and to escape Daedalus invented wax wings. Yet he warned his son not to veer off course as the wax was not sturdy. Icarus so jolly in flying lost sight of the mission and began to fly freely away from his father and towards the sun. In this loss of purpose, he drew too close to the sun and his wax wings melted causing him to crash into the sea and drown. His father alternatively, landed safely on the nearest island to mourn his dead son. Daedalus focused on the mission and not the enjoyment of flying survived while his son did not meet the same fate. Icarus’s over-indulgence in his father’s invention was his downfall. Caught up in the moment of flying was detrimental fall to despair. He lost track where he was and drifted toward his end. 

The alarming irony is clear in our present societies. People are so caught up in their phones they do not look in front of them bumping into the person ahead. In more tragic examples, an individual texting and driving crashes into a pedestrian crossing the street. Too focused on their phones, they are not aware of the upcoming encounter. While technology is not the sole issue, as someone reading a book could cause the same damage but it is at times a driver using a map app like Waze that is the cause of the suffering. The slogans “do not text and drive” correlate to people feeling compelled to answer people swiftly. Someone texted, I need to answer. The phone buzzes and the driver feels an obligation to respond immediately. Innocently reaching for their phone while looking away from the road. Disconnecting from the road ahead is endangering but the communicate asset is necessary. While all sorts of distractions can occur on the road such as a wailing child, an incoming message is not one of those that requires validation. 

Travesties emerging from roadside indulgence are common enough for the public to forbid its use. Public endangerment is quite the necessity. It also fuels a distraction for humanity. A way of voiding obligations for entertainment. Technology fuels a void to use instead of facing responsibility. Need to study for a test but instead watching Netflix to pass the time. While technology can produce positive results in attaining information, its frequency for other than obligational use habituates a negative routine. It becomes a tool for unproductive usage and unmotivated potential. It has the possibility for good. Technology enables simpler directions and accessible study guides and most importantly communication. Yet its hedonistic prevalence shifts human mentality from a tool for construction to a toy for play. A measure of lost time and even more lost brain cells. Persistent trends down this path erodes any ability to transcend this virtual force for the real world. 

Technological neutrality provides man with an opportunity. To use for good or bad. Bad is not necessarily devilish plots to harm others. Secret communications to raise calamity. It is the surface World Wide Web danger that hides in plain site. It mummifies people into a zombie apocalypse. Glued to their cellphones like a patient to his ventilator. It is their medicine to the cancer of reality. The only way to overcome the struggles of reality is through cellphone inoculation. Having a bad day watch a romcom, need to get your rage out watch a comedic special. Entertainment is at a person’s fingertips. One click and they have whatever they need in an instant. Though limited to an extent, it is a personal robotic servant. It can educate inspire and develop the individual. It requires devotion and dedication but the committed can grow. This is truly incredible but it is the stooped in the enjoyment that leaks. Watching every youtube crash course video still is through the technical element. Even with the individual’s growth, his reliance on the technology to bring him this knowledge is problematic. The mechanism’s vitality is at stake. 

Terrifying dangers are virtual. They seem real even if fiction. Whether in cinema or the news. In the latter, news networks brought to your screen are relatable. It is not a story in text but a speaker from a text (news on a teleprompter). The audience perceives a person relaying information to them earnestly. The confidence in their claims and the body language in its execution feels reliable. A person is talking to the audience and the audience like in any encounter trusts the other. People are gullible especially at a disadvantage in knowledge. They are being taught that which they did not know before. Intuitively it makes sense to rely on the information. A newspaper is worded in a certain way. There is no individual, less confrontation and more opportunity to disagree. Alternatively, the news is seen as objective meaning it’s just information not propaganda. Journalism is acquired content not agenda pushing. The virtual though is remote feels much closer. It feels like they are talking to us. The inability to discern rationally the news as newspapers in audio format derails the sceptical attitude. The news teachers exploit the public through gossip hanging stories embellished in citizen trust.  

The former relating to cinematic fiction portrays plot lines that seem very real. While fiction is more real than real, it more idealistic than realistic. One of the most obstructive truths is movie romance. The “real world” does not operate in the same way. Films are orchestrated in the ideal course to fetishise. A method of hormonal regurgitation to maintain an audience's staring. People watch and monkey see monkey do. Yet actors are playing by the strings of the director’s thoughts and goals not the average Joe. While the audience may enjoy for the aspiring utopia, it is not a recipe for success in personal execution. The world is not as lovey-dovey as fairy tales are supposed to occur. They are bedtime stories for children. For children to stretch their imaginations and fall asleep in joyous satisfaction. Just as Santa is not real so too happy ever afters are also. Life is work and is very difficult. Those caught up in cinematic fantasies are doomed to the unnatural character of people. While Shakespeares’ tragedies weren’t necessarily that much more realistic, it is important that any theme in cinema though has profound value is not to be mimicked identically. It is to absorb and ponder for the self. 

The cinematic creation is hyperreal. A Disneyland of sorts. Unlike theatre, the technological use to reframe real life events and make humorous dialogue with natural events. Recent marvel movies have made allusions to real life events whether WWII for Captain America or the Afghanistan war in Iron Man. Though Spiderman may be the best example in Peter Parker’s bewilderment of superheroes in his childish aspirations. Even more so is the irony of cinema mocking the fiction of other storylines. Blending fiction with reality only fantasises the ideal more with real life events that take place in the present. The audience is aware that fantasy is foreign but synthesising fictional characters within a realistic dilemma with concurrent event muddles rationality. Visual becomes ever unavoidable. We see, we grasp and we internalise. Cinema has provided an escape with reality tv in the form of game shows and unscripted programs. Reality television is this dividing line. Reality shows are not realistic in the average Joe sense. It is an inauthentic portrayal of the audience whether for production or social reasons. Fabrication is not realised by the audience. Even if it is, it is placed with the rest of cinema as a textbook of information. Consuming enough information will believe that which is true. The rational faculty cannot discern that which is habituated to disagree with sufficient overload. 

Texting is the first step into the virtual expense. Prioritising messaging over speaking. The immediate response exceeds the emailing stage. It is no longer a notification but a filtered encounter. The confrontation is is apparent but not present. The encounter lacks the emotional experience and the directed intent. Words cannot facilitate the terminological tone necessary for dialogue. Even after growing up in this age, the struggle to decode bland language persists. Some people have rules. While usually the tone of voice denotes the proclivity magnitude, the text does not. My fiancé argued that “ok” is plain and upset while “okay” was more ecstatic. There is no universal order. Even if there is, it is not taught and is merely a sectarian oral framework. For now, each person has a separate decoding process. Some people use exclamation points to emphasise feelings and yet it is still insufficient. Emojis to the rescue. Now symbols are the measure of communication. An emoji combination is the modern hieroglyphics. In a sense we have regressed to pre-literary stages. We had also progressed by unifying literary and extralinguistic aspects. Words and gestures to communicate. 

The virtual shift in the meta-verse phenomenon has people purchasing virtual land. Virtual reality was for a while the highlight of escapism. A world different than our own. Limited by the software but unlike prior gaming systems it enables an individual to properly mobilise around the universe. Though a flawed reality, its pleasure in promoting a self sufficient altered reality is encouraged. Yet the augmented reality experience has begun to overtake the virtual. Augmented reality is the self sufficiently in the real world even if simultaneously through the virtual lens. The game Pokemon Go is a perfect example. A game virtually compiled through the real world. People would see virtual Pokemon sitting in their recently mowed lawn.  Immersed in the virtual via reality. There is a great deal of good like the target app that aids in digitally viewing an object in their home. Yet caution of expelling the tool for a lifestyle. Augmented reality is to aid with realistic life not to become its replacement. 

Trendy dystopias of the 60s pointed to the dangers of cyberpunk. Machines ruling the world. Scares in the acclaimed films of Terminator, The Matrix, I Robot and Blade Runner. Debating the puzzling possibility of Skynet and the eradication of humanity is not inevitable nor near. The new Blade Runner 2049 displays potential affinities to augmented reality. It was more a futuristic aspiration for augmented reality consumerism. Augmented reality has not overtaken our realistic perceptions. The dichotomy is still obvious but combatively it is regressing. For those born into full-blown augmented reality for desired consumerism, there will be little for the “real” to be recognised. The virtual will have become the objective. In a television show called Altered Carbon, the protagonist takes a pill and then is able to see the virtual in its real form. It is only in the conscious state that fiction can vitalise. The dark dirty alley becomes a Vegas strip of brothels and bars. Meshing the virtual for the real foregoes the actual for the fake. Once melded completely the farce is true. The struggle may be comforted but the real ignored. Civilisation may save the individual from the chaotic jungle but virtuality is not changing location, it's changing visual perception.    

Technology is a true gift to man. Man has deciphered its power and has morphed it into helpful assimilation. In this vein, we must caution our use. Technology is a tool not an end in of itself. We cannot become servants to our technology. While there may be no Skynet actively orchestrating humanity’s downfall, we will passively submit ourselves to the machines. We cannot sacrifice our individuality and existence for our technological comforts. We cannot become addicted to technical soma. Not measuring our complacency by indulgence in fingertip pleasure. It is a danger to ourselves not to confront the incoming evil and avoid our issues. Accountability in its ultimate phase to elevate our being as the top priority to the secondary machine aid.