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Technology also has the power to connect us with the natural world in ways never thought possible. I can gaze into the innards of a cell from my desk, or explor
by DanI-S 16y ago
Technology also has the power to connect us with the natural world in ways never thought possible. I can gaze into the innards of a cell from my desk, or explore the deepest reaches of the night sky with the augmented view provided by a mobile phone.
Arguably, all of the developments in his post were allowed by a greater understanding of nature and our role in it.
We're becoming capable of connecting with nature on far deeper terms; as participants rather than spectators. The desirability of that is a personal issue; many of our fears of it probably stem from the idea that 'playing God' is bad.
- dools 16y agoNB: This is i reply to heed above as well. Firstly to address the point about human action being "part of nature": of course we are members of the natural world however I think the "disconnection" here that I'm picking up on the in the story is the archetypal story of disconnection told in Genesis. Getting kicked out of the garden of eden (a state of perfect and ineffible natural harmony) for eating from the tree of the "Knowledge of Good and Evil" (gaining sentience through our evolving brains and become Directors rather than Actors). Note I'm not actually a religious person but this is certainly an strong story in the collective psyche of a large part of the human population alive today so it's not to be ignored. Secondly to DanI-S I would say that the "connection" you're referring to here is the "cerebral" connection, or interconnection, illustrated by the burgeoning information economy in the story, and not a physical or emotional connection, illustrated by the "grass on the toes".
- DanI-S 16y agoYou're right, but at some level toes are just a high-bandwidth interface between your brain and the world ;)