Do you think Machines have taken over part of your life?

[QUANTUM LEAP]

Sitting here next to my laptop with my mobile on the side and the tv in the background, I realised part of my life is now no longer mine. I do depend on this little objects and machines to ensure im able to keep up. Though when you think about it, one realises the loss of relationships with family friends and the humour and entertainment we used to take for granted has all disappeared.

 

More than nine million of us have succumbed to the powerful temptations of portable office technologies. But instead of the freedom to work anytime, anywhere, we sometimes end up working all the time, everywhere. And it's not our employers or clients who pay the psychic price of instant availability. Too often, it is our personal family, and community lives that suffer the most.

 

One author predicted what would happen and his predictions have thus far come true.

 

Please read on...

 

The Machine Stops

 

The remarkable short novella titled ?The Machine Stops? by E.M. Forster is an early example of apocalyptic fiction that shows humanity trapped by technology. It was written in the early 20th century. "The Machine Stops" is set in the distant future, when mankind has come to depend on a worldwide Machine for food, housing, communications and medical care. In return, humanity has abandoned the earth's surface for a life of isolation and immobility. Humanity lives in a honeycomb of rooms inside a vast subterranean machine that procures to every human need. When the inhabitants want food, the machine provides food. When they want to sleep, the machine provides a bed. When they want entertainment, the machine plays music. All needs are met through the machine. However, in his novella, E.M. Forster warns humankind that the consequences of machine worship could be the isolation of humankind, the elimination of love and the loss of human uniqueness.

 

Amazingly, almost a hundred years ago, Forster had an uncanny ability to predict exactly how technology would develop and how it would change not only our way of looking at it but more importantly how it changes our lives. In his novella ?The Machine Stops?, the Machine is the ultimate

 

 

technological advancement that provided all needs for humankind. Aside from the necessities such as food and clothing, the Machine provided humankind with a different way to connect with each other, a way that leads to complete isolation. People rarely leave their rooms or meet face-to-face; instead they exchange through a global web that is part of the Machine. Each cell contains a glowing blue optic plate and telephone apparatus, which carry images and sounds among individuals and groups. This boost of technology increases the accessibility to others even from far away, but diminishes the purpose of personal interactions. Forster also realizes that the quality of personal connection depends on the quantity-often inversely. The more people one knows the easier it is to replace them. In other words, too many connections devalue each one of them and they become less of a concern. Vashti, writes Forster, "knew several thousand people; in certain directions human communication had advanced enormously."(Pg115) In his novella, Forster thinks of technology that is being developed more and more as a means to physically removes humankind from one another. Eventually humankind incorporates this detachment from each other into their social rules and norms. Not only does the way of communication changes, but also the living standards. ?Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp.?(Pg115) These millions and millions of small cells are identical and are where humankind dwells. Through these images that Forster is presenting to the readers, these cells can be closely related to those in a jail. While the Machine blindfolds Vashti and the rest of society, Kuno on the other hand is moving towards the opposite direction. He understands how the Machine turns causes segregation to society. He does not want such a thing. He doesn?t believe in the Machine, but rather the opposite. He craves the personal interactions, the direct exchange of ideas and a true relationship with his mother Vashti. The Machine ?has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and it has paralyzed our bodies and our wills?(Pg141) says Kuno. He wants to free himself from society and the Machine. Humankind is missing too much due to the isolation placed on them by the Machine.

 

Another problem Forster sees with the eruption of new technology as it flows out the pores of humans, is the loss of individual human uniqueness. Throughout the entire novella, Forster gives the readers a consistent image of human impartiality. From the material point of view, everything humans use in their day to day lives is the same. This includes the cells and "beds of

[MAXIMUS POWERS]

I would agree with the poster of this topic. machines play an important party in our lifes. However this makes our lifestyle more easier.

 

I cant live without:

1. Internet

2. Mobile Phone

[QUANTUM LEAP]

Well dont you think you have lost freedom of movement as you can order for food by phone or online. Call a friend rather than visit....miss out on nature as it supposed to be and watch it instead online. Hear and listen to oratol prowess, interactions rather watch on tv.

[ElPunto]

^No you have more freedom - ie freedom not to move.

[Nin-Yaaban]

Where is John Connor... The machines have taken over.

[Eng.Cadde]

My Mobile phone plays an important role in my life.

[Cowke]

It is quite a funny process that many people tend not to see happen. But technology has made our lives better in one aspect, things that required manual down-time labor and were once more error prone have now become automated by machines for efficiency and tend to have a higher accuracy rate.

 

This however can have it's disadvantages also such as children or youth being stuck behind a computer or video game and getting no exercise and lose key socializing skills needed for everyone in order to be successful.

 

So yes technology can be summed up in a good line "Can't live with it, Can't Live without It".

[Dhagax-Tuur]

Kinda part of the topic, or the frings of it, I was reading an advert the other day of the Times that said, 'a quarter of Japan's workforce are robots'. Humanity cannot stop to modernise and find creative ways of improving their lot, but ethics of how these things creep into our lives must kick in sooner rather than later. There are even some who believe that these machines will eventually take over (Some Canadian professor, name escapes me).

 

There some parts of today's technology that are harmful to ourselves, the humans, and that we could do without (I would put the TV somewhere in the first 3).

[Indhoos]

^^^Heh, TV ma daawan in dhaweed, siiba waxaan ay reality TV dhahaan layma tuso.

 

Iskoolkiina, casharkii intay la oroday bay show theme uga dhigtay oo tiri show hebeloo kale haloo soo diyaariyo, waa class project. Dooqa labaadna waa show hebel...Waan maqlaa weligeey ma daawane maxaan ka qabtaa? Waxay igu kaliftay inaan showga soo daawado si aan bal wax uga fahmo meesha wax loo wado.

 

Yacni hadda waxaa lamaraa heer hadii aad adiga iska dayso, meela kale uu kaasoo galaayo oo teknolojiyada sinaba looga madax banaanaan karin. Sidaa darteed waxaan dareemayaa in nolosheeda qayb ka mid ah ay makiinado qaateen.

[grasshopper]

Originally posted by Cowke:

 

This however can have it's disadvantages also such as children or youth being stuck behind a computer or video game and getting no exercise and lose key socializing skills needed for everyone in order to be successful.

True... I know someone who can't drive anywhere new without a GPS. whatever happened to using your brain?

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Horta Soomaalida see ku noolaan lahaayeen without internet ku wada xiriiraan? Waxaa ka hadlaayaa dadka walaalaha ahaa, asxaabta ahaa iyo dariska ahaa kala firiray, oo shanta gees adduunka ku kala nool see ku xiriiri lahaayeen. Kasoo qaad hadduu dagaaladda dhici lahaa, lana soo wada qixi lahaa in '70s.

 

Sheekada telefoon qaali ah iyo old mail service noqon lahayd. Wararka Soomaaliya bishii hal mar la maqli lahaa. One positive outcome would have been less fadhi ku dirir gatherings around. Shabakadaan ayaa waxaas ka aqristay iyo waxaan kasoo arkay ma jiri lahayn, though the usual hardcore fadhi ku dirirists would have gotten a way to spin the news.

[QUANTUM LEAP]

People want to spend money and now that most jobs are slowly but surely being taken over by machines, there no jobs and no jobs means no money to spend on whatever one wishes to buy.

 

When you look at society today alot of people are being paid to be idle and this process has rippling effects like people getting lazy fatter and dont even exercise hence diseases for the rich hitting the poor who are on the dole or rather welfare. When walking around two watching tv most shows about human having problems of weight lose, stress, drugs and basically luck of what to do. In the old days there was alot to do like work for everything, travel long distances other than sit in one place and communicate more than face to face than hide behind keyboards hit the fridge at night and think you are king and queen of the unseen.

 

A while back they used to say machines would reduce the use of paper but I find that the opposite today far too much waste in all aspects. Food are over produced even when not needed and the environment is taking abattering.

 

Humans appreciated what the earned a while and enjoyed it with family but now one finds getting money for not working in itself is stressful to the person as he or she feels like being spoonfed rather that earn aliving.

 

Mobiles are ok in the short run but who knows twenty yrs from now the effects they would have on many of us and once I used to love these little gaggets but today I tend to shy away from them and feel like every word I say is being listened to besides the headaches that come along as aresult of aprolonged chitchat.

 

Sitting behind computers in away has made many of us have multiple personalities where u changed suits and behave in strange ways and reality being some foreign to many who wouldnt know how to act amongst others. It sure is astrange world...

 

Aqyaar sxb in away yeah the world has become as they say aglobal village' though not many can trully say what is being written or seen on screen can be factual or doctored.

[5]

Originally posted by Nin-Yaaban:

Where is John Connor... The machines have taken over.

Haha!