In The Matrix, 1999 classic first movie, Mr. Smith mentions that the first version of the Matrix was meant to be utopic, and the people turned on each other and mentally rejected the whole system. So the virtual world was reset to the end of the 20th century, right before technology took off in the direction of The Matrix.
It's sort of funny that the Wachowskis' meta apologetics for why the fashion / architecture / city et al was in 1999 actually turned out to be a prescient point about the last moment in human history when virtual reality seemed like some entertaining science fiction notion and not something we had to deal with. And it's also pretty prescient of the Wachowskis to know the human brain can't survive without survivalism.
"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it." - Morpheus
That is why I have opted out of most internet conversations and articles. I choose to ignore most of what is going on in the world. I don't have a smart phone, no tv, limit my on-screen time and immerse myself in books that cause me to think. I like looking out of the window and watching the leaves on the trees move in the breeze and the cats that occaisionally take a rest in the yard. I hang out with my wife and we laugh a lot. I have reached an age where what goes on in the world is largely irrelevant to me and I'll be gone befores the rot sets in permanently. I feel sorry for those who will be here to experience what is coming next. We seem to be between 1984 and the Brave New World, and rushing headlong into the Brave New World. It was fun while it lasted.
Silicon Valley is in desperate need of a hubris detox center. Reading Ted's UNIVERSE 25 piece, I was struck by the fact, to a degree, that we are already in that scary place. Not that we risk going in that direction. The cell phone zombie pandemic, where I live, is so great that you can feel like an alien not staring into your phone while you're on the subway, walking on a sidewalk, even driving an EV, which is rapidly become a cell phone on wheels. At one of the last dinner conversations I had recently, where I knew only half the diners, I sat by some guy (mid-30s) who could barely eat his dinner, he was so busy on his phone. When he asked me what I do, I said I'm retired, but that I write. In fact, I just finished a book. His reply: Why would you want to do that?
It’s everywhere. The phone zombies can’t do anything without staring at screen. Pump gas, walk there dog, push there baby in a stroller. Every available second must be occupied by something on the phone. People have to talk loudly in public on phones while shopping, checking groceries, ordering food. It’s insanity, and just like this little tray experiment it won’t end well.
I'm considering the impact of a dozen steel cables flung over every electric substation's fences that serve The Machine. I hear the lead time on obtaining substation transformers is somewhere between six months and never, now that they've been off-shored for 'cost savings'. There'd be a pretty big flash in the sky, too....
Oh, and ditto - I get around our metro area predominantly by bicycle (or motorcycle when I need to go into shopping center lands) - the number of people at the wheel of their big cars that have the screen in their hand and no idea what's in front of them is remarkable. A fourth at any given time, I think.
We just leased a Subaru Forester; the screen is built into the dashboard. We asked if it could be removed. “Why would you want to do that? The screen is your link to your phone and entertainment.” The best use for that screen is for backing up, it links to the rear camera; very distracting otherwise.
My daughter had to drive a car without a backing camera and without lane correction. She really noticed how she'd lost the ability to be aware of the need to do small fundamental driving corrections because her car does it for her. I find her car to be a mess of annoying beeps. My car has a screen that I put in myself because I wanted access to music, but no backing camera. It's pretty basic othewise.
Yup. Karen's CrV has the same feature, which I find irritatingly distracting. I've read that higher-end car companies sell the data gathered from your driving around to vendors linked to The Machine, too. But then my car is a rust free fifty-year old Volvo wagon, which is 'tech'd out' with five transistors in the radio. It 'pairs well' with the fifty-two- year old Triumph Bonneville which is my more fuel efficient ICE vehicle. Not a chip to be found anywhere in its circuits. :)
“Man, the flower of all flesh, the noblest of all creatures visible, man who had once made god in his image, and had mirrored his strength on the constellations, beautiful naked man was dying, strangled in the garments that he had woven. Century after century had he toiled, and here was his reward. Truly the garment had seemed heavenly at first, shot with colours of culture, sewn with the threads of self-denial. And heavenly it had been so long as man could shed it at will and live by the essence that is his soul, and the essence, equally divine, that is his body.”
This piece thoroughly scared me, however, I think the biggest difference between mice and humans is that mice (as far as I know) do not create art, music, poetry, etc. It's definitely scary thinking what AI takes away (jobs) or what it might give us that we don't want (too much comfort?) But while some humans create art for money, the innate desire to create is there regardless of whether that's your job or not. I think, no matter what, we will find uses for our time: there are lots of things that give a human purpose that a mouse cannot do.
You might argue that something like a universal basic income is somewhat like this experiment in the sense that it would give people the ability to eat, have housing, etc without working (or working as much), and that would have similar outcomes. But in UBI experiments, for most people having it a little easier in terms of getting their basic needs met actually just reduces stress and allows them to focus on larger goals. It does not make them lazier or depressed.
Internet addiction is for real, and also scary. But the internet is also a relatively very new invention and we are just figuring out how to put guardrails on it... how to help kids navigate the addictive qualities of it, how to help ourselves navigate it....And this will continue. We're all living a big experiment together.
Yes, also Silicon Valley is full of boys who think they can solve all the worlds problems with more technology. That thinking is so deeply embedded in the culture there (I left!) and it will require a big culture and diversity shift in the valley to change that kind of reductive thinking. But, also, the VC money and startups are much less concentrated in the valley than they used to be, and different kinds of people are creating companies that get funding outside the valley increasingly.
I think this isn´t a meaningful difference, unfortunately. These are surrogate activities that are not as satisfying as real goals, and are never satisfiable and do not provide long term happiness. To quote Ted Kaczynski's "Industrial Society and its Future" (1995) that summarises well relevant ideas found also in mainstream psychology (and which I recommend reading regardless of the infamy of the author and whatever you may think of him):
"One must have goals toward which to exercise one’s power.
Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.
Nonattainment of important goals results in death if the goals are physical necessities, and in frustration if nonattainment of the goals is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.
Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human being needs goals whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.
But not every leisured aristocrat becomes bored and demoralized. For example, the emperor Hirohito, instead of sinking into decadent hedonism, devoted himself to marine biology, a field in which he became distinguished. When people do not have to exert themselves to satisfy their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves. In many cases they then pursue these goals with the same energy and emotional involvement that they otherwise would have put into the search for physical necessities. Thus the aristocrats of the Roman Empire had their literary pretensions; many European aristocrats a few centuries ago invested tremendous time and energy in hunting, though they certainly didn’t need the meat; other aristocracies have competed for status through elaborate displays of wealth; and a few aristocrats, like Hirohito, have turned to science.
We use the term “surrogate activity” to designate an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work toward, or let us say, merely for the sake of the “fulfillment” that they get from pursuing the goal. Here is a rule of thumb for the identification of surrogate activities. Given a person who devotes much time and energy to the pursuit of goal X, ask yourself this: If he had to devote most of his time and energy to satisfying his biological needs, and if that effort required him to use his physical and mental faculties in a varied and interesting way, would he feel seriously deprived because he did not attain goal X? If the answer is no, then the person’s pursuit of goal X is a surrogate activity. [...]"
I've read some accounts of people who receive a UBI in Australia. The income is deposited onto a card that they use for shopping .They say the control over what they are allowed to buy is over the top. For instance, one guy said he wasn't allowed to buy a tricycle for his grandson's birthday.
For some reason, poor people are always the most tempting targets for social control. Evidently there is some grim satisfaction by societal rulers in condemning poor people to a gray, joyless life. The kind of thing you describe above has always been a feature of welfare ecards in the US. They are only allowed to buy things that are thought to be good for them and suitable for someone who has wound up in such a bad situation.
Note that the arrangement you and I are decrying here is totally different from Universe 25, where the inhabitants have all their needs effortlessly met.
Because my first thought was that some people of my (arms length I'm not mother Theresa) acquaintance would spend all their UBI at once on drink/alcohol so still have to go out and beg. So I can see that such a system would be grimly controlled. It's a good thing I like lentil roast!
Tech has been around 40 years now. Thirty years ago when I was in my 30s I was surrounded by 60+ 's going on and on about their tech,hardware,models,software,programs etc so the idea that it's all led by 'da kids' is erroneous. I was into family history at the time which explains the preponderance of Silver Surfers in my life. I,the "young one" was non-techie,they were sharp as pins and knew all the stuff. This young v
Old idea is always a myth.
In fact the ease and convenience of the Internet has been used to suck us in and make us dependant despite giving us an illusion of independence.
I also want to have hope but I fear that the technology we're surrounded by simply stifles creative impulses in many people. Besides, when there is no struggle, when everything is provided for us, people are less inclined to make art....Especially if there is AI that makes "art", there is a danger that everything will start being kind of pointless...
The best art comes from struggle and oppression,didnt Orson Welles say that in a film. It's true. The most creative art seems to come when the artist has to slip subversion through in disguise.
Here's my question, and it might sound stupid (or not). My ”screen time” has increased quite a bit over the last four or so years. But my most-used apps are Substack and NYT. Now, I could revert back to print subscriptions, but to me I am saving y'all printing costs and helping keep real journalism a thing.
After all these years with the internet, I am still humbled by the fact that I practically have recorded history at my fingertips, the great libraries of the world. So, I use my phone for extensive reading. Is this bad?
To give a serious answer, being someone who similarly to you uses screens mostly only for reading, myself: there is research suggesting screen addiction presents itself and brain activity is slowed, dysregulated, and rhythms interrupted by any screen time regardless of content or the type of used device. So what we know suggests yes.
Anecdotally, I do not think using screens in genuinely educational and productive ways causes damage nearly as severe as it does for e.g social media such as Tiktok, and other brain "junk food" addicts. But the evidence we have seems to suggest it does still affect us.
Although I do not have a study to prove it, I also notice in myself and especially others that too much reading of articles and websites lowers ability to pay attention and read longer form writing such as books. On the lower end of the spectrum, it is just less stimulating and harder to do; on the upper end, you have clowns like billionaire-turned-prison-fishmonger Sam Bankman-Fried saying books are an outdated medium, that he doesn't read books, and every book should be a six paragraph article instead.
I do the same. It's not bad. The internet is a tool, like a hammer. We can use a hammer to build something, or hit someone over the head with it. And as I tell my students -sure, you can educate yourself on the internet....but only if you're already educated !
Donald - I heartily agree! I grew up before computers, so I see my "device" as such a great magic tool. I have dictionaries, Wikipedia, maps, web browser, clock, means of communicating. I can read articles & books. I use it for reference when reading: looking up words, people, places on the map. All in a hand-held device! I just have to keep from letting it "beam me up" to a virtual reality (or to time-wasting scrolling)!
These existential concerns remind me of what Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl shares in his book Man's Search for Meaning. In this, he discusses what he calls the existential vacuum. He describes this as “…the feeling of total and ultimate meaninglessness of their lives [young people during this time]. They lack the awareness of a meaning worth living for. They are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within themselves...” and Viktor takes this even further:
"At the beginning of human history, man lost some of the basic animal instincts in which an animal’s behavior is embedded and by which it is secured. Such security, like Paradise, is closed to man forever; man has to make choices. In addition to this, however, man has suffered another loss in his more recent development in as much as the traditions which buttressed his behavior are now rapidly diminishing.
No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).
…
The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. Now we can understand Schopenhauer when he said that mankind was apparently doomed to vacillate eternally between the two extremes of distress and boredom. In actual fact, boredom is now causing, and certainly bringing to psychiatrists, more problems to solve than distress. And these problems are growing increasingly crucial, for progressive automation will probably lead to an enormous increase in the leisure hours available to the average worker. The pity of it is that many of these will not know what to do with all their newly acquired free time.
...
Such widespread phenomena as depression, aggression and addiction are not understandable unless we recognize the existential vacuum underlying them." (p. 99-100).
Maybe a that's why meditation, which used to be considered a highly radical and advanced spiritual technique, is now becoming so popular. For all the faults of McMindfulness, meditation is the one thing that tackles the serious pitfall of boredom and anomie head on.
Stare straight into the void for long enough with no agenda and with complete acceptance, and something eventually changes. At its very best, its dark despairing depths turn around like a reversed sock and reveal themselves as the pure light of consciousness.
A bit of renewal and... you're ready to smell the breeze, do the dishes, or whatever it is that life calls for that day.
Yes! Relating it to the Frankl quote, meditation allows you to see what's authentic in life for YOU...not what others do or what others want you to do. When you stare into the void, like you said, that pure light of your consciousness comes pouring out. Well said!
Well,in the apartment block where I live my sense of purpose is creating,nurturing and maintaining the little bit of garden outside. Sadly someone else's sense of purpose is destroying it. So I've decided to pack it in. So now this mouse is confined to quarters. I cared. Now I've decided NOT TO CARE. IS THAT MAKING THE WORLD BETTER.
Durkheim was one of the first social scientists to write about suicide as a social problem- and the feelings engendered by anomanie were undoubtedly a factor in its employment.
i don't disagree with this analysis, but beg of you to read marx's theory of alienation, which goes into great detail about how capitalism alienates us from our labor, our community, and our family. metaverse-style social media accelerates this, but imo not the underlying cause.
This isn’t anomie as much as a bunch of ‘trust fund’ mice. They don’t have to solve problems so they don’t develop. They become permanent 14 year olds.
And they want to Stop Oil. Grandma who was a hippie at the Grosvernor Square riot ( those were the glory days) drives Indigo and Sebastian up from their rustic Dorset home in her Bentley so they can all protest together,seeing as her grandkids missed out the first time round.
The Universe 25 experiment should teach us all we need to know about a world created and controlled via AI. Utopia doesn't exist and never will. It's a pie in the sky kind of place. And as the experiment shows, it turns out to be just as destructive as dystopia.
AI is barking up a mobile phone mast, mistaking it for a tree!
What we need is Syntopia. A new society nurtured and regenerated by natural human intelligence in symbiogenesis and synergy with nature.
Being a non-believer, I question the last line but this has been a valid prescription for a full life since 1971 and likely for many, many years before that........
Hmm, not sure about the inference but in terms of quality-of-life experiences, historical comparisons would provide ample benefits from gardening & eating peaches... heroin addiction, not so much... bringing it back to the topic of 'Universe 25' as envisioned by Silicon Valley, it's all about the Mis & Dis - Information in refuting a simpler future......
But how do you do that without money. Access to the country side is controlled by your access to money. And now so may animal welfare,plant bio-health and other laws have been out on the statute that living on that plot of land with a pig,some chickens and an apple tree is a form filling (online now)nightmare.
Truedat... but the lifestyle is obviously not for everyone, it's always been a minority of the population and minimalism also has a really wide range of levels. Do we all need the latest iPhone upgrade w/AI tech just to communicate, the latest EV SUV to move about wherever you live. Bylaws can be restrictive anywhere but always comparatively stricter in urban areas. Not trying to hi-jack a thread here, just sayin' there are always alternatives to what people are being 'told in the name of progress'.
The old saying, 'Sheep don't look up' can also apply to humans.......
In The Matrix, 1999 classic first movie, Mr. Smith mentions that the first version of the Matrix was meant to be utopic, and the people turned on each other and mentally rejected the whole system. So the virtual world was reset to the end of the 20th century, right before technology took off in the direction of The Matrix.
It's sort of funny that the Wachowskis' meta apologetics for why the fashion / architecture / city et al was in 1999 actually turned out to be a prescient point about the last moment in human history when virtual reality seemed like some entertaining science fiction notion and not something we had to deal with. And it's also pretty prescient of the Wachowskis to know the human brain can't survive without survivalism.
"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it." - Morpheus
That is why I have opted out of most internet conversations and articles. I choose to ignore most of what is going on in the world. I don't have a smart phone, no tv, limit my on-screen time and immerse myself in books that cause me to think. I like looking out of the window and watching the leaves on the trees move in the breeze and the cats that occaisionally take a rest in the yard. I hang out with my wife and we laugh a lot. I have reached an age where what goes on in the world is largely irrelevant to me and I'll be gone befores the rot sets in permanently. I feel sorry for those who will be here to experience what is coming next. We seem to be between 1984 and the Brave New World, and rushing headlong into the Brave New World. It was fun while it lasted.
I'm honored that you are one of my best readers, given your feelings on this issue.
I always look forward to reading what you have to say. You provide thoughtful stimulation and humor; two indispensible qualities.
I've said I want to live to be a hundred (in just over 4 decades) just so I can see how this whole shit-show plays out.
I hope you make it.
Silicon Valley is in desperate need of a hubris detox center. Reading Ted's UNIVERSE 25 piece, I was struck by the fact, to a degree, that we are already in that scary place. Not that we risk going in that direction. The cell phone zombie pandemic, where I live, is so great that you can feel like an alien not staring into your phone while you're on the subway, walking on a sidewalk, even driving an EV, which is rapidly become a cell phone on wheels. At one of the last dinner conversations I had recently, where I knew only half the diners, I sat by some guy (mid-30s) who could barely eat his dinner, he was so busy on his phone. When he asked me what I do, I said I'm retired, but that I write. In fact, I just finished a book. His reply: Why would you want to do that?
www.jim-frazee.com
It’s everywhere. The phone zombies can’t do anything without staring at screen. Pump gas, walk there dog, push there baby in a stroller. Every available second must be occupied by something on the phone. People have to talk loudly in public on phones while shopping, checking groceries, ordering food. It’s insanity, and just like this little tray experiment it won’t end well.
I'm considering the impact of a dozen steel cables flung over every electric substation's fences that serve The Machine. I hear the lead time on obtaining substation transformers is somewhere between six months and never, now that they've been off-shored for 'cost savings'. There'd be a pretty big flash in the sky, too....
Oh, and ditto - I get around our metro area predominantly by bicycle (or motorcycle when I need to go into shopping center lands) - the number of people at the wheel of their big cars that have the screen in their hand and no idea what's in front of them is remarkable. A fourth at any given time, I think.
People looking at their phones while driving is why I'd never ride a motorcycle or bicycle these days
No better here, but, you know, 'one less car...'
NOT next (but equal in peril) would be soloing a Cessna to a landing at O'Hare, or cycling on I-80 over to Iowa City during the morning rush hour...
We just leased a Subaru Forester; the screen is built into the dashboard. We asked if it could be removed. “Why would you want to do that? The screen is your link to your phone and entertainment.” The best use for that screen is for backing up, it links to the rear camera; very distracting otherwise.
My daughter had to drive a car without a backing camera and without lane correction. She really noticed how she'd lost the ability to be aware of the need to do small fundamental driving corrections because her car does it for her. I find her car to be a mess of annoying beeps. My car has a screen that I put in myself because I wanted access to music, but no backing camera. It's pretty basic othewise.
Yup. Karen's CrV has the same feature, which I find irritatingly distracting. I've read that higher-end car companies sell the data gathered from your driving around to vendors linked to The Machine, too. But then my car is a rust free fifty-year old Volvo wagon, which is 'tech'd out' with five transistors in the radio. It 'pairs well' with the fifty-two- year old Triumph Bonneville which is my more fuel efficient ICE vehicle. Not a chip to be found anywhere in its circuits. :)
go Bonnie me too
and 66 vw sedan
“Man, the flower of all flesh, the noblest of all creatures visible, man who had once made god in his image, and had mirrored his strength on the constellations, beautiful naked man was dying, strangled in the garments that he had woven. Century after century had he toiled, and here was his reward. Truly the garment had seemed heavenly at first, shot with colours of culture, sewn with the threads of self-denial. And heavenly it had been so long as man could shed it at will and live by the essence that is his soul, and the essence, equally divine, that is his body.”
― E.M. Forster, The Machine Stops
Great. That is an amazingly prescient story.
Addendum: In querying Ms. Torotopo, a biologist, about Universe 25, she cut to the chase as she's inclined to do: Haven't you watched The Crown?
This piece thoroughly scared me, however, I think the biggest difference between mice and humans is that mice (as far as I know) do not create art, music, poetry, etc. It's definitely scary thinking what AI takes away (jobs) or what it might give us that we don't want (too much comfort?) But while some humans create art for money, the innate desire to create is there regardless of whether that's your job or not. I think, no matter what, we will find uses for our time: there are lots of things that give a human purpose that a mouse cannot do.
You might argue that something like a universal basic income is somewhat like this experiment in the sense that it would give people the ability to eat, have housing, etc without working (or working as much), and that would have similar outcomes. But in UBI experiments, for most people having it a little easier in terms of getting their basic needs met actually just reduces stress and allows them to focus on larger goals. It does not make them lazier or depressed.
Internet addiction is for real, and also scary. But the internet is also a relatively very new invention and we are just figuring out how to put guardrails on it... how to help kids navigate the addictive qualities of it, how to help ourselves navigate it....And this will continue. We're all living a big experiment together.
Yes, also Silicon Valley is full of boys who think they can solve all the worlds problems with more technology. That thinking is so deeply embedded in the culture there (I left!) and it will require a big culture and diversity shift in the valley to change that kind of reductive thinking. But, also, the VC money and startups are much less concentrated in the valley than they used to be, and different kinds of people are creating companies that get funding outside the valley increasingly.
I still have hope for humanity...
I think this isn´t a meaningful difference, unfortunately. These are surrogate activities that are not as satisfying as real goals, and are never satisfiable and do not provide long term happiness. To quote Ted Kaczynski's "Industrial Society and its Future" (1995) that summarises well relevant ideas found also in mainstream psychology (and which I recommend reading regardless of the infamy of the author and whatever you may think of him):
https://archive.org/details/kaczynski2
"One must have goals toward which to exercise one’s power.
Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.
Nonattainment of important goals results in death if the goals are physical necessities, and in frustration if nonattainment of the goals is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.
Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human being needs goals whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.
But not every leisured aristocrat becomes bored and demoralized. For example, the emperor Hirohito, instead of sinking into decadent hedonism, devoted himself to marine biology, a field in which he became distinguished. When people do not have to exert themselves to satisfy their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves. In many cases they then pursue these goals with the same energy and emotional involvement that they otherwise would have put into the search for physical necessities. Thus the aristocrats of the Roman Empire had their literary pretensions; many European aristocrats a few centuries ago invested tremendous time and energy in hunting, though they certainly didn’t need the meat; other aristocracies have competed for status through elaborate displays of wealth; and a few aristocrats, like Hirohito, have turned to science.
We use the term “surrogate activity” to designate an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work toward, or let us say, merely for the sake of the “fulfillment” that they get from pursuing the goal. Here is a rule of thumb for the identification of surrogate activities. Given a person who devotes much time and energy to the pursuit of goal X, ask yourself this: If he had to devote most of his time and energy to satisfying his biological needs, and if that effort required him to use his physical and mental faculties in a varied and interesting way, would he feel seriously deprived because he did not attain goal X? If the answer is no, then the person’s pursuit of goal X is a surrogate activity. [...]"
Hirohito had a fling at world conquest too – maybe the marine biology was a corrective, or maybe it something else was involved...
I've read some accounts of people who receive a UBI in Australia. The income is deposited onto a card that they use for shopping .They say the control over what they are allowed to buy is over the top. For instance, one guy said he wasn't allowed to buy a tricycle for his grandson's birthday.
Also people are directed to buy at certain stores where groceries are often more expensive. It's tyrannical and frightening.
For some reason, poor people are always the most tempting targets for social control. Evidently there is some grim satisfaction by societal rulers in condemning poor people to a gray, joyless life. The kind of thing you describe above has always been a feature of welfare ecards in the US. They are only allowed to buy things that are thought to be good for them and suitable for someone who has wound up in such a bad situation.
Note that the arrangement you and I are decrying here is totally different from Universe 25, where the inhabitants have all their needs effortlessly met.
Because my first thought was that some people of my (arms length I'm not mother Theresa) acquaintance would spend all their UBI at once on drink/alcohol so still have to go out and beg. So I can see that such a system would be grimly controlled. It's a good thing I like lentil roast!
As for mice creating art, read Kafka’s “Josephine the Mouse Singer”, a short story.
Tech has been around 40 years now. Thirty years ago when I was in my 30s I was surrounded by 60+ 's going on and on about their tech,hardware,models,software,programs etc so the idea that it's all led by 'da kids' is erroneous. I was into family history at the time which explains the preponderance of Silver Surfers in my life. I,the "young one" was non-techie,they were sharp as pins and knew all the stuff. This young v
Old idea is always a myth.
In fact the ease and convenience of the Internet has been used to suck us in and make us dependant despite giving us an illusion of independence.
I also want to have hope but I fear that the technology we're surrounded by simply stifles creative impulses in many people. Besides, when there is no struggle, when everything is provided for us, people are less inclined to make art....Especially if there is AI that makes "art", there is a danger that everything will start being kind of pointless...
The best art comes from struggle and oppression,didnt Orson Welles say that in a film. It's true. The most creative art seems to come when the artist has to slip subversion through in disguise.
yes, somebody definitely said that but I forgot who
My tech addiction is reading your substack.
Amen to that brother!
Here's my question, and it might sound stupid (or not). My ”screen time” has increased quite a bit over the last four or so years. But my most-used apps are Substack and NYT. Now, I could revert back to print subscriptions, but to me I am saving y'all printing costs and helping keep real journalism a thing.
After all these years with the internet, I am still humbled by the fact that I practically have recorded history at my fingertips, the great libraries of the world. So, I use my phone for extensive reading. Is this bad?
To give a serious answer, being someone who similarly to you uses screens mostly only for reading, myself: there is research suggesting screen addiction presents itself and brain activity is slowed, dysregulated, and rhythms interrupted by any screen time regardless of content or the type of used device. So what we know suggests yes.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363861767_A_Central_Role_of_Biofeedback_in_a_Complex_Therapy_of_Screen_Devices_Usage_Addiction
Anecdotally, I do not think using screens in genuinely educational and productive ways causes damage nearly as severe as it does for e.g social media such as Tiktok, and other brain "junk food" addicts. But the evidence we have seems to suggest it does still affect us.
Although I do not have a study to prove it, I also notice in myself and especially others that too much reading of articles and websites lowers ability to pay attention and read longer form writing such as books. On the lower end of the spectrum, it is just less stimulating and harder to do; on the upper end, you have clowns like billionaire-turned-prison-fishmonger Sam Bankman-Fried saying books are an outdated medium, that he doesn't read books, and every book should be a six paragraph article instead.
I do the same. It's not bad. The internet is a tool, like a hammer. We can use a hammer to build something, or hit someone over the head with it. And as I tell my students -sure, you can educate yourself on the internet....but only if you're already educated !
Donald - I heartily agree! I grew up before computers, so I see my "device" as such a great magic tool. I have dictionaries, Wikipedia, maps, web browser, clock, means of communicating. I can read articles & books. I use it for reference when reading: looking up words, people, places on the map. All in a hand-held device! I just have to keep from letting it "beam me up" to a virtual reality (or to time-wasting scrolling)!
These existential concerns remind me of what Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl shares in his book Man's Search for Meaning. In this, he discusses what he calls the existential vacuum. He describes this as “…the feeling of total and ultimate meaninglessness of their lives [young people during this time]. They lack the awareness of a meaning worth living for. They are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within themselves...” and Viktor takes this even further:
"At the beginning of human history, man lost some of the basic animal instincts in which an animal’s behavior is embedded and by which it is secured. Such security, like Paradise, is closed to man forever; man has to make choices. In addition to this, however, man has suffered another loss in his more recent development in as much as the traditions which buttressed his behavior are now rapidly diminishing.
No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).
…
The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. Now we can understand Schopenhauer when he said that mankind was apparently doomed to vacillate eternally between the two extremes of distress and boredom. In actual fact, boredom is now causing, and certainly bringing to psychiatrists, more problems to solve than distress. And these problems are growing increasingly crucial, for progressive automation will probably lead to an enormous increase in the leisure hours available to the average worker. The pity of it is that many of these will not know what to do with all their newly acquired free time.
...
Such widespread phenomena as depression, aggression and addiction are not understandable unless we recognize the existential vacuum underlying them." (p. 99-100).
Sound familiar?
Maybe a that's why meditation, which used to be considered a highly radical and advanced spiritual technique, is now becoming so popular. For all the faults of McMindfulness, meditation is the one thing that tackles the serious pitfall of boredom and anomie head on.
Stare straight into the void for long enough with no agenda and with complete acceptance, and something eventually changes. At its very best, its dark despairing depths turn around like a reversed sock and reveal themselves as the pure light of consciousness.
A bit of renewal and... you're ready to smell the breeze, do the dishes, or whatever it is that life calls for that day.
Yes! Relating it to the Frankl quote, meditation allows you to see what's authentic in life for YOU...not what others do or what others want you to do. When you stare into the void, like you said, that pure light of your consciousness comes pouring out. Well said!
What others want me to do is go away,not exist,not BE.
The profound irony of the technology society is that its end goal is to bring about Schopenhauer’s bored paradise!
Well,in the apartment block where I live my sense of purpose is creating,nurturing and maintaining the little bit of garden outside. Sadly someone else's sense of purpose is destroying it. So I've decided to pack it in. So now this mouse is confined to quarters. I cared. Now I've decided NOT TO CARE. IS THAT MAKING THE WORLD BETTER.
Sure. Some people are unimaginative.
Wow, great article, Ted! People do need to wake up and defy that which is slowly removing the very essence of civilization.
The Universe 25 experiment with mice is terrifying. OMG.
I wonder how did he even come up with that idea.
Durkheim was one of the first social scientists to write about suicide as a social problem- and the feelings engendered by anomanie were undoubtedly a factor in its employment.
i don't disagree with this analysis, but beg of you to read marx's theory of alienation, which goes into great detail about how capitalism alienates us from our labor, our community, and our family. metaverse-style social media accelerates this, but imo not the underlying cause.
This isn’t anomie as much as a bunch of ‘trust fund’ mice. They don’t have to solve problems so they don’t develop. They become permanent 14 year olds.
And they want to Stop Oil. Grandma who was a hippie at the Grosvernor Square riot ( those were the glory days) drives Indigo and Sebastian up from their rustic Dorset home in her Bentley so they can all protest together,seeing as her grandkids missed out the first time round.
Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice
And she said, "We are all just prisoners here of our own device"
And in the master's chambers they gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast
Last thing I remember, I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
"Relax," said the night man, "We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave"
Reminds me of the third verse of the linked lyrics. https://genius.com/Curtis-mayfield-freddies-dead-theme-from-superfly-lyrics
The Universe 25 experiment should teach us all we need to know about a world created and controlled via AI. Utopia doesn't exist and never will. It's a pie in the sky kind of place. And as the experiment shows, it turns out to be just as destructive as dystopia.
AI is barking up a mobile phone mast, mistaking it for a tree!
What we need is Syntopia. A new society nurtured and regenerated by natural human intelligence in symbiogenesis and synergy with nature.
"Blow up your TV, throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try and find Jesus on your own."
- John Prine, 1971
Being a non-believer, I question the last line but this has been a valid prescription for a full life since 1971 and likely for many, many years before that........
Fair enough, but the hole in daddy's arm (where all the money goes) is on a much higher plane...
Hmm, not sure about the inference but in terms of quality-of-life experiences, historical comparisons would provide ample benefits from gardening & eating peaches... heroin addiction, not so much... bringing it back to the topic of 'Universe 25' as envisioned by Silicon Valley, it's all about the Mis & Dis - Information in refuting a simpler future......
But how do you do that without money. Access to the country side is controlled by your access to money. And now so may animal welfare,plant bio-health and other laws have been out on the statute that living on that plot of land with a pig,some chickens and an apple tree is a form filling (online now)nightmare.
Truedat... but the lifestyle is obviously not for everyone, it's always been a minority of the population and minimalism also has a really wide range of levels. Do we all need the latest iPhone upgrade w/AI tech just to communicate, the latest EV SUV to move about wherever you live. Bylaws can be restrictive anywhere but always comparatively stricter in urban areas. Not trying to hi-jack a thread here, just sayin' there are always alternatives to what people are being 'told in the name of progress'.
The old saying, 'Sheep don't look up' can also apply to humans.......