"Those were the days"

I have been thinking lately a lot about a statement that came up in the movie “Contact”. In that film, a character asks the question, “Are our lives really better with all the advances in technology? Has technology made anything better?”

And I think that there is some merit in this line of questioning. There is no doubt that technology has made our lives easier, and our lives longer, but have they done anything to increase the quality of our lives? In many ways, this will undoubtedly depend on what constitutes an assessment of quality of life. And in asking that question, there is undoubtedly a personal feeling about what is the purpose behind life arises.

Are we a happier people with all of the technology around us? I am not so sure. Before television, families used to actually talk to one another, play with each other, do things. I am a great offender in staying at home to watch a movie rather than go out and take advantage of the myriad of things that this city has to offer. And I use that box as a surrogate of many things. And with all the media that we are inundated with, when is there time to reflect on our own thoughts rather than being told what to think?

The technology of transportation has also provided us with the possibility of traveling and exploring the world. But that exploration of course leads to exploitation and desecration. And it has also created a world where the excitement of travel is reduced. That which is commonplace is removed from the realm of wonder.

Technology has lead to a much smaller world, where with every instant news update, we slowly have become so involved in what is happening to the “outside” world that we neglect ourselves and the ones that we love.

This all began for me when I was considering what it must have been like a hundred years ago for people on their wedding nights. This was a moment where each person was about to see a piece of anatomy that they had quite likely never seen before. A mystery was revealed. Now, we'll all seen every type and size of part well before we've left our teens. There is no mystery any longer. And perhaps it is this mystery that I long for. The fact that imagination has been removed from our lives. I am not talking about the act of being imaginative, but that we do not have to use our brains any longer to conjure up the image of anything. I can imagine the sheer exhilaration that an explorer must have felt when he first came across a giraffe. And then, how to tell people about it. Before the photograph, a person hearing the story would have to conjure up an image for themselves.

Now we just look it up.

Of course, I am cognizant that perhaps I am looking at all of this through the tainted glasses of nostalgia for a time that I have never experienced. And this is true. But the inverse is also accurate. It is impossible to say that people long ago couldn’t be happier without all of the great stuff that we have. Well, you know miss what you’ve never heard of. Happiness’ scale depends solely on reference. Undoubtedly I would be a miserable person if I were transported from this time to the past where to get medical help I would need a leach, and I would be lucky to live to 50, or where to communicate with anyone more than 10 miles from me would take more than a day’s journey.

I in no way am planning on giving up all my creature comforts – I am aware of them so I can’t deal without them. There will be no hippie commune for me. But the question remains, are we better off with all of this? And I do not know the answer.

And yes, I am aware of the irony (à la Sideshow Bob) of using this technology to question it. :)