Published on 2024-07-26 by Teagan Pacheco
Hello fellow prospectors and good morning. Technology - the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. Technology isn’t just the supercomputers in our pockets or the self-driving cars around the metropolis, but in other unabashedly intuitive methods often outside of the general consumer’s direct interest. Without technology, in the broader sense of its etymology, we would all still be farming for ourselves as independent aspiring agronomists praying to have stored enough to make it through winter. Through the power of innovation, we have the time to explore other avenues of life outside of our biological necessities like eating, and sleeping. What are you exploring thanks to the help of another generation’s discoveries?
Human history is an excellent example of consequence and causality. Otherwise known as “because” storytelling, we humans have continued to build upon the revelations of our lineage. We harnessed iron because of fire and stone tools. Our agriculture prospered because of irrigation and the windmill. We have accessible information because of printing and the telegraph. Incidentally, the first message sent across the telegraph line by Samuel Morse - its inventor - was a clipping of Numbers 23:23, “...What hath God wrought!” which I believe to be deterministic in the greater context. With each generation, our understanding of the world is ameliorated through the exploitation of technology. At the very least, our physiological lives are improved due to ergonomics and the progression of modern medicine which includes distinguishing veins from arteries, identifying smallpox, inventing spectacles, and discovering penicillin. Surely, history has demonstrated that our extended life expectancy is correlated with the advancement of technology. In Europe during the 18th century, assuming you survived the 30%-40% infant mortality rate, the average adult was expected to live until about 35. Today, infant mortality is in the single digits and we can expect an additional 50 years comparatively. The American author and lecturer, Dan Millman, says, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new”.
I have not been on this earth quite as long as some of you who may intimately remember timecards or punch clocks, transistor radios or Sony Walkman, VCR or cassettes. While these trailblazers are out of the limelight, their impact on the future was tantamount. Ironically, the nostalgia you may feel for these treasures was likely the very iniquity the previous generation thought obscene and only a deficient trend that has enticed their waffling children. Eugene O’Neill, the American playwright of the early 1900s, said, “There is no present or future - only the past, happening over and over again - now.” Following this theme, as our predecessors have done, we are instinctively tied to the prominent tools and techniques of our impressionable youth. This inherent coercion against change often reduces our willingness to appreciate new technologies and their intended benefits. Such transformative technologies today include the internet, personal computers, email, wearable devices, artificial intelligence, and smart warehousing robotics. Each of these contraptions has undoubtedly shown up in your life whether or not you were ready for it.
As you may know, my day job is in Cyber Security. My clients have observed firsthand or vicariously from another neighboring organization, how calamitous a neglected IT landscape can become. My peers and I are charged with analyzing security incidents to determine their nature and scope. This includes identifying the type of attack, the affected systems, and the extent of the compromise. Proper design, implementation, and maintenance of our security information and event management (SIEM) environments ensure the effective use of the platform for data analysis, security monitoring, and operational intelligence. Should we fail, we risk the company’s integrity and reputation. The threats we encounter are always evolving as they attempt to circumvent our countermeasures. Observably, we practitioners must continue our erudition of both the technical and political for fear we are too late to learn of the latest exploit or liability. The technological advancements we enjoy in the security realm all too often expose us in other ways not previously regarded as consequential. The 20th century American theoretical physicist, Richard Feynman, said, “To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell. And so it is with science.” Almost simultaneously, my job is enhanced with artificial intelligence, and reduced by it. I will only keep my germaneness through the adoption of the new and contemporary.
Where does this leave us? I suggest three distinct directions one could use to sort through all the perceived madness. The antiquated approach is to choose seclusion, autonomy, and circumscription. I consider this “old-fashioned” because it will only work if you’re closer to the end of your life than the beginning. If you purchase your home, receive healthy retirement distributions, subscribe to the local newspaper, use a brick-and-mortar bank, perform your own household repairs, and shop at the general supermarket, then you don’t need the internet for much outside of healthcare. Nobody understands American healthcare, so don’t feel bad when you struggle and hang up until you get a semi-competent customer service representative that you pray won’t transfer you. This demographic of outstanding people have it made. I aspire to remove technology incrementally from my life and focus my efforts on localized enrichment be it my home, my family, my neighborhood, or my city. Something I can have a direct impact on through volunteer work or sponsorship - fulfillment derived from concentrated conduct.
The next option at the other extreme, isn’t for the faint of heart, however, many of us already live here, but in dissonance; chronically online. I work in cyber security for a larger client and as people in the field know, the work-life balance is imperfect to say the least. I have peers on both sides that go on vacation with their laptop and phone just in case, and others that entirely disconnect. I am in the former group due to my compulsion and monomania. We vainly indulge in an information diet comparable to that of a professional strongman. Notifications, alerts, pings, messages, alarms, and signals brighten up my screen like a decorated Christmas tree with each app having an unnervingly high number of notices. There is hope, however. Trim the fat and reduce the noise. Eliminate what you don’t need, or what you feel you need, but isn’t productive or healthy. I used to have Netflix, Paramount, and Disney+ on my phone ready to stream and allow the technology to transport elsewhere. I realized, however, that if I have time to use my phone for a long-form video, I have time for something else that I should be doing such as reading, writing, studying, chores, or playing with my children. I heard from Chris Williamson, the English podcaster, “The magic you're looking for is in the work you're avoiding.” You can leverage technology to your advantage by improving on your skills and strengthening your comprehension.
The final option I propose is simple in concept but difficult in practice. Therein lies the intentional homeostasis from which you select what will be influenced by technology, and what will not. I get my pruned news feed from only a handful of sources including The Morning Brew, The Daily Stoic, Tim Ferriss, and Why We Buy. Some of these come into my inbox every day, while others are only once or twice a week. The writers are excellent, the topics are expansive, and I learn something that often helps me or I could use to help others. Meanwhile, I don’t use the internet or technology for my relationships save for communication. Now, I don’t own a business, and I understand there are huge benefits to an online presence when you have a website, but I don’t use social media such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. I am going to school online because of the economic and time savings, but I learn as much as I can through paper books be it history, science, psychology, theology, parenting, or politics. I don’t wear smart devices for constant monitoring of my sleep, my steps, or my diet. I can donate blood plasma through plasmapheresis during which my blood pressure, temperature, pulse, hematocrit, and weight. When I wake up tired, I know I didn’t sleep well or I shouldn’t have stayed up as late, or I shouldn’t have eaten as much the day before, or I shouldn’t watch anxiety-inducing content beforehand. If you feel lethargic after a meal, perhaps it was too high in carbs, sugars, or fats. By the time you reach adulthood, you ought to know what is and is not healthy foods. Frozen food, ultra-processed food, oily or heavy food, and fast food, are all clearly bad for your health outside of reasonable moderation. I refuse to believe that people are too ignorant to apprehend this. While technology may seem like it is integrating itself into all aspects of life, we have the power to pick and choose our inputs which directly affect our outputs.
Technology has always been captivating to each respective generation. It is only going to become more advanced, intertwined, and complex. We control which parts of our lives advance or increase in complexity and either could be with or without technology. Historically, the introduction of new technologies has brought with them exceptional gains and measurable losses. Our independent and impartial introspection and purpose-driven actions are indispensable regardless of your usage or acceptance of technology. The 19th century classical scholar, and philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, said, “And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.”