I'm reading this like 'the singularity is upon us'. We aren't there yet, but articles like this are very good (even if they are slightly non-realistic at the mo

I'm reading this like 'the singularity is upon us'. We aren't there yet, but articles like this are very good (even if they are slightly non-realistic at the moment) to throw a dart at where we, as a civilization, could end up. We have lost the ability to question where we'll go, because we move faster than our feet can take us. We are sliding down a snowy hill, holding on for dear life, hoping there's a nice landing at the bottom that won't end with us crashing. We've lost control of the sled, but it still moves forward because there's nothing to stop it. I have an anecdote from Germany, and one from Uganda that kind of flow with the idea of 'if you want to, you can, but why?'. We are talented creators, we can make awesome things. Almost anything you think of now a days can be created (and likely has). Some of these things shouldn't have been created, and if every time we want something we ask "but why?", I think it help us to realize where we're going. These are anecdotes from friends, I have no idea of their truth, but they're interesting nonetheless (if it's wrong, consider it fiction). In Germany, the buses run on time. When the buses are just a couple minutes late, people start getting mad. Ultra efficiency, where everything is perfectly meshed together like the gears on a Swiss watch. The timing is perfect, and it lets life progress with a minimum of fuss and extraneous endeavors. Get in, get out, get on your way. In Uganda, when you invite someone over to your place to get together, you can set up a time. They'll get there, but they might be eight hours late from the time you set up. They might start walking, and talk to everyone they see along the way. They'll get the scoop on everyone's life, and share the human experiences that are happening around them. This lateness would sound like insanity to most people, but once you realize that everyone's clock is adjusted to the lag time of getting somewhere, it's not a big deal. Now we, as humans, can create the most efficient complex world that we want to. But why? I think we have collectively lost a lot of modesty as our world has been progressing. We love to play games, we always need a challenge to solve. There's challenges all around us, and the money from solving the challenges is ripe for the taking. It doesn't matter what you do to get there - if you get the money, you get the prize and you won. The ripple effects are what does us in, and the ripples are the unexpected or unintentional differences that were created in our society after adopting the solution to the challenge. Some examples of technology with ripple effects are things like lead paint, leaded gasoline, clear cutting forests, asbestos insulation, etc. We might have been able to predict these things would be bad before we started if we thought a little longer. I'm sure a lot of people knew it would be bad, but it was the easier one that solved a 'problem' that we had. We're young as a civilization, and we are going to make mistakes. The mistakes we should not make though are ones that could have been prevented with a little bit of thought before jumping in head over heels (drunk driving for instance, if you don't do it, you will likely live a bit longer). It takes self restraint (from a person) and conditioning/education (from society) to reduce the number of drunk drivers. The trouble is that we have no restraint with advancing technology, and our society hasn't had the change to find the differences that are created when we advance it. We're like dogs trying to resist the urge to pounce on a piece of meat. We simply can not let something pass us by. If there's a forest to ravage, or an ocean to destroy, we will do it, and we'll do it well. Try this - the next time you think of something cool to make, DON'T MAKE IT. Think about it, see it in your head, but resist the urge to make it. It's very, very challenging. It's easy to know what you've lost after you've lost something, it's hard to predict what you're going to lose. When we do something, we have to change society, and we lose parts of society that we had before. Sometimes the changes are good, sometimes they're bad, but before changing it we should think about what we're doing.