The Digital Age
In modern society, technology is an integral part of our daily lives. It has pushed its way into more and more aspects of our lives, becoming essential to our workplaces, entertainment, gatherings, and hobbies. So much of our information is spread out across the web known as the internet - addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, photos. How much longer until our digital reflection matches the real world? How much longer until we turn from physical beings who occasionally go digital to digital beings that occasionally come back to the real world?
I recently finished the novel Warcross (a must-read!). It's based in a world that's mostly identical to ours, except where everyone is obsessed with a game called Warcross. This game is played by wearing a pair of glasses, which interact with your brain and create a virtual world that feels entirely real. Virtual reality doesn't feel extremely real as it only stimulates one of the senses - sight. Warcross is as good as a dream - it stimulates all of the senses, making it just as exhilarating as real life. It can also be overlaid on top of the real world to make the experience in the real world more engaging.
Although the Warcross experience seems very entertaining, the book heavily describes how people become overly dependent on it to escape the confines of the real world. The overlay I mentioned earlier allows people to interact with Warcross's 'real' world 24/7, at the cost of remaining half disconnected from the actual world. Their digital profiles are more interesting than their physical ones, their entire history and private information is up in the maze of the worldwide web. Everyone spends more time in the digital than the real world.
Warcross really made me wonder, how much longer we have until technology starts dictating our lives instead of us controlling our technology. So much of our day is spent online, for work and play. We must be careful to stay immersed in the real world - the virtual one may seem more entertaining, but we belong to the real one. It is what makes us human.
Sometimes I think about how amazing my life would be if I went completely off the grid in lived in the thick of the woods in Maine or on an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean because I honestly think the internet has made so many problems. Obviously, technology is essential in order to progress as humans, but sometimes I wonder if all of our progress is worth it. I definitely have to check out Warcross soon!
ReplyDeleteThis theme of technology and human dependence is one that will become a crucial in the coming years. Technology has made our lives better, but eventually we'll have to ask ourselves if the evolution of technology will end up doing more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteI believe it's inevitable that'll we'll try to escape this reality using technology, we already seek escapisms now. Once we have the technology to fabricate a digital reality we will, it will be up to the individual how much they want to indulge themselves, just as it is with escapisms today. The only problem is that this form of escapism could be touted as the only form of escapism without consequential negative side effects. Does that then make it good thing? I don't know right now, but these questions will need to be answered within the century.
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