Does Technology Alleviate Human Suffering? KEW 113

Are you a technologist? Do you think tech is going to solve all of our human problems? Do you see science, health advances, nuclear tech or some other human invention as being our salvation?

Maybe you don’t even see problems around us. I find it hard to believe that everyone, in some way, doesn’t wonder where we are headed.

As any follower on KEW will know by now, I think we need to take a few steps backward toward our ‘older’ and more indigenous nature. I like science and technology, but I think we’ve gotten ahead of ourselves.

There are so many good things we’ve figured out – especially in the last couple of hundred years.

-Clean water

-Better health care

-Vaccines

Yes, I like it that I don’t have to hunt for my food. Grocery stores are cool.

But do we need 100 kinds of cereal?

For every technological step forward, we take at least one step back. It’s a break-even, at best. At the worst, we are destroying the planet.

Besides, humans are SUPPOSED to suffer. That shit doesn’t always work out is a given. It just doesn’t. And, like Paul Gadola said, you don’t really want a Heaven because we’d all be bored silly. Suffering is good for us. It keeps things in perspective.

Also, how much does tech really cost? We don’t SEE the real price. We see that a tech exists because some corporation can sell it for more than it costs THEM to make it, but the actual costs are much, much greater.

This has been called Energy Blindness, and you can learn more about it here.

As we’ve ‘advanced’ forward with all this tech, it has taken a huge toll on our planet, our communities, and our spirit.

That’s a lot of additional suffering.

If you ask me, and this is what most of this episode is about, we have paid too much for the tech we have. As such, I think we need to:

-slow down

-look back at what we USED to do (like, 10,000 years ago)

-appreciate the steps forward that tech has provided us

-relearn how to be connected, despite the disconnect that technology creates.

Podcast audio here: https://pdcn.co/e/https://chtbl.com/track/CGDA9D/www.buzzsprout.com/530563/12299963-kew-episode-113-suffering-and-technology.mp3?download=true

Youtube video here: https://youtu.be/NBo13T2W7vM