Mine is the generation that witnessed the digital revolution. When I was a kid a computer was called a mainframe and was the size of a house, a telephone answering machine at home was considered remarkable technology. Today I can write this blog on a handheld device, send it out via a cafe wi fi system, have it read by strangers in The Ukraine. My generation has mixed feelings about this change. We love it but also miss the time when nearly all human contact was face to face.
The generation being born now will witness the medical revolution, nano and gene technology will extend human life beyond our current imagination. As we learn to prevent bits wearing out or to simply replace bits as they do, there is no reason a life span of two hundred, three hundred, even four hundred years isn't possible. Of course this change will be welcome, I wonder if the generation that lives through it will feel some mixed emotions.
One of the glories of humanity is the urgency of mortality, it's the reason we get stuff done, it is at the heart of romance. Will humans with centuries to live have no sense of urgency, put everything off, decade after decade? Given two hundred years of working life will scientists pursue discovery now, right now? Will young people take no risks? With so much life at stake losing it early will be a terrible loss.
The fear of a life sentence meaning centuries in a cell should deter many crimes. The possibility of having a first child at seventy years old, then being around to see the first two hundred years of that child's life will free women to make easier choices about work and family.
Can you imagine a two hundred year love affair? Two hundred years of being healthy, strong, passionate? I'm guessing a series of relatuonships is more likely, married for life when there is so much time to change seems too weird. The poetry of living and getting old with one person will disappear, possibly poetry itself will die along with the urgency of mortality.
This next generation will see the start of a leap in human evolution. A species with all the knowledge of every previous generation at their fingertips and hundreds of years to learn and work will acheive things we can't even imagine. The sad beauty of a short life will be the price. Generations born after the medical revolution won't be aware of the difference, just the generation that lives through it.
Just as I miss aspects of the time before the digital revolution this generation will miss aspects of the past. No human can go home again, forward is the only direction possible.
Parkstreet.
www.kentparkstreetblog.com
Thought provoking and a bit melancholy inducing as I read this on my phone between bands at a concert with my daughter around the world from where you are writing.
ReplyDeleteKids born today think we've always had iPhones, kids born tomorrow will expect to live forever, I guess we don't miss what we don't know. We are lucky to have been born ina changing time, to be able to see both ways.
ReplyDeleteyes. i sit torn...watching mostly young people at the concert many completely absorbed in their phones and recording snippets of the concert...instead of being present to enjoy that which they came to enjoy with the people they came to enjoy it with.
ReplyDeleteon the other hand...here i am having a conversation about this very topic with a man that i enjoy "talking" with...having met him through a friend that i've never met through another friend that i've never actually met. strange days indeed.
Funny reports of the Bin Laden celebrations, more people standing back filming than singing and dancing.
ReplyDeleteA friend is a sailor, told me a story of one of the planets being quite visible on the horizon right at sunset. While a friend ran below decks to get a camera a dolphin leapt from the water, looked like it was jumping between the sun and a planet, the camera guy missed it.
perhaps that is why some of my favorite times are those times that we are disconnected from the virtual world...either by virtue of location or choice...it is freeing to get rid of all the "stuff" and simply enjoy what IS.
ReplyDeletedon't get me wrong...I LOVE beautiful pictures (your friend Kris' recent pictures for example are so beautiful)...they provide opportunity to share a wonder-full moment...but to miss those moments chasing after preserving them on paper...sad.
I love leaving home without a phone, I feel free.
ReplyDeleteI don't usually look at photos online, for obvious reasons. Her work is great, will take the time to check them out more.
i don't leave home without it often...but yes...it feels great...i remember back to the days when i said "ahhhh" when the answering machine broke because i could come home and not have to answer calls...too connected sometimes these days.
ReplyDeletehm. yes, increasing the size of letters on a page would be good but increasing the size of a photo would rather distort it now wouldn't it. the things we don't realize...a blessing as well perhaps? i have a friend who is hearing impared...i have found this friend "hears" so much more then most of us by "listening" in ways that most of us never learn. i suspect that you "see" in much the same way.
My view of the world is just different, perhaps I'm just aware that it is different because I was forced to think about it. Everyone elses is different too.
ReplyDeleteyes. and the way you share your view is much appreciated. thank you, Kent.
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