An e-Message From The Lower Depths

Digital technology, for me at least, has become a sort of Plato's cave. After all, here I am, still communicating by twentieth-century email and updating my antediluvian blog, staring at flickering shadows on my computer screen cast by protean technologies beyond my troglodyte powers of understanding. I might as well spend the day downloading primitive images of bison and aurochs traced with simple pigments on a wall of solid rock. Meanwhile, outside this dark grotto that is my Internet stone-age-man-cave, there is a bright, brave new world of NFTs, virtual reality, cryptocurrency, and TikTok video waiting to be discovered. So, I'm sorry venture-capitalized Plato, but the only sane course of action is to retreat further into the depths of my cave instead of dissolving my brain in Silicon Valley acid.

I don't want to sound like a Luddite. I'm not anti-progress by any means. I just prefer technology that makes life easier rather than technology that makes life not life. That is a 'divided line' that should not be crossed or even straddled. Take the so-called Singularity, for instance. Robotic vacuum cleaners will liberate us from the shackles of domestic drudgery, which is a great boon, but a robotic life partner is just going to whisper sweet digital nothings to your bluetooth-connected toaster every night while you're playing virtual golf on the moon in your VR goggles and touch-sensor gloves. Even worse, when everything in your home is connected to the cloud, your robotic life partner might also whisper those sweet digital nothings to somebody else's bluetooth toaster. Surely it is more fulfilling to languish amongst the stalagmites, reading some foolish blog on an obsolescent laptop? Not that most people will, of course, but I am grateful that you do. 

Comments

[Tatyana]

It is my pleasure (Plato will speak for himself).
Was just listening to a panel on national digital currencies and am scared. oh where is the cave deep enough?

[stephenesque]

I think the empire of Ozymandias probably traded in Non Fungible Tokens

[Tatyana]

S., are you OK? Your silence here is uncharacteristically long

[stephenesque]

I'm fine. Thank you for your concern. It is much appreciated and valued. Unfortunately, there have been some rather onerous demands on my time of late, which leads to a lack of both opportunity and inspiration to write anything here. But I imagine I might spread some nonsense across the internet this coming week or next ...

[Tatyana]

Your 'nonsense' is never nonsensical. And highly addictive - why else would I be coming here all these yrs

Glad you're OK.