Ontological Arguments (Humans)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 23:35 (5168 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

I've been kind of wondering over the last few days if technology isn't the missing piece to this separation puzzle. At the beginning of a cycle, we are closer to God, more in tune mentally if you will. Then, as we progress technologically, we lose touch with that aspect of ourselves as we being to rely more and more on external objects. I'm not anti-technology, but at the same time, I can see some fairly distinct disadvantages. Written languages/literacy has shortened our ability to retain while increasing our ability to acquire. Graphical interfaces reduce our ability to imagine, while increasing our access to detailed imagery. Calculators reduce our ability to perform complex equations unassisted, while making the same equations more accessible and faster. Heavy machinery reduces our physical capacity/health while making tasks faster and achievable by less people. Medicine provides quick fixes while actively working against the processes that would keep us healthy to begin with. (i.e. antibiotics and long term affects on viruses and our immune system). More and more we have come to rely on things external to ourselves.-I've often heard arguments like this, in varying forms. -"We've lost touch with nature." 
"We've lost touch with God." -Shifting gears slightly, being in computers I am at the center of some of what you're talking about. Graphical Interfaces prevent you from having to interact with computers like this:-http://www.winagents.com/screenshots/rhino-terminal/rhino-terminal1.gif-Letting machines do computations reduces error and allows us to spend more time on what machines ARE NOT good at doing, like interpreting the results. The moon landing would have been impossible without IBM. At the same time, without knowing how those results got calculated, you won't know how to interpret them--trust me. These guys get weeded out very quickly. -In terms of medicine--antibiotics are absolutely necessary, just not all the time. Having worked in Pharmacy I'm less likely to use drugs. -But I counter the idea that "more and more" we rely on things external to ourselves. Nietzsche wrote that man is powerless to change nature. All we can do is change how we experience it. -Previously, if we hurt badly, we would still go to the medicine man, and instead of a pill, we'd either get a root of some kind, or other various shamanistic cures. We're still relying on something external to ourselves. Even if we turn to God--God is still external. (If God were internal, we would be God.) -The only thing internal is ourselves, and it is in this light I can agree with you. We rely far too much on other people, and on other things. My view on this is skewed--I am an only child. Self-sufficiency was hoisted on me at an early age. Though this will be a loaded statement; the only thing you can rely on absolutely in your life is yourself. -Now, I'm married, integrate with teams with excellent feedback. So I'm not advocating we all be hermits; but at least with all the friends that I know, people give up on things too easily; they turn in on themselves with "I can't." Especially when it comes to medicine. America has become a "savior society," where we'll do whatever we want and then expect doctors to "come save me" when things invariably turn south. -Back when our societies were young and man communed with God daily; we had to fight for everything! Maybe God is disgusted that we've been becoming less and less self-reliant over time, less willing to take risks? -"Companions, the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators, the creator seeks -- those who write new values on new tablets. Companions, the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest. ... Fellow creators, Zarathustra seeks, fellow harvesters and fellow celebrants: what are herds and shepherds and corpses to him?" --Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"