{"id":10,"date":"2009-03-09T12:26:06","date_gmt":"2009-03-09T17:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2link.ca\/blog\/2009\/03\/09\/i-robot\/"},"modified":"2009-03-09T12:26:06","modified_gmt":"2009-03-09T17:26:06","slug":"i-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.2link.ca\/newblog\/2009\/03\/09\/i-robot\/","title":{"rendered":"I, Robot!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, although tired, I got stuck in front of the TV watching Star Trek \u2013 First Contact<\/strong>. No, although I don\u2019t have much of a life, I am not a fan Star Trek<\/strong> \u2013 I was just cleansing my brain (already pretty well scrubbed by the exhaustion; but, you know, one can never be too meticulous about these things).
\nI was watching quite bored The Borg assimilate humans when suddenly a weird thought came to my mind. Nothing new here \u2013 the antithesis between the humans and machines is used and over-used for decades if not for centuries. Who is better? Stupid question! From where I stand it looks even worse \u2013 as an IT worker, for me the machine is a machine, a tool to perform some tasks. Am I better that a hammer<\/em>?! WTF? Still, for some reasons this issue has risen to the level of a real obsession \u2013 books are written, movies are made, scientific or pseudo-scientific articles are published\u2026 Very few of them come to bring anything new to this conundrum. Last night, somehow, my mind managed to overexpose this (fake?) issue over what I think it is a collapse of the responsibility in society and it got me thinking. I believe that, indeed, there is a collapse of individual and collective responsibility: very few people still want to do what is right, very few people want to live by rules, hence the rejection of religion (people, religion is not equal to sexually abusive priests, to \u201cdon\u2019t eat pork<\/em>\u201d etc.), of academic rigors, of systematic parenting and so on.
\nWhat if – pause and think for a second<\/em> \u2013 what if all this behavior, this shedding of responsibilities has a fundament in us trying to make a clear-cut statement: \u201cI am not a machine. I am not a robot<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d Yes, I know it sounds far fetched but, incidentally or not, I can find many arguments for this. Technology has reached a level where it suppresses our individuality. While very often claiming to boost individual personality and liberating ourselves, technology \u2013 and modern society as a fact – does quite the opposite. Instead of a big fish in a small pond, we more and more identify ourselves with a tiny, tiny fish lost in the pond of globalization, of Facebook, of huge corporations. Yes, we communicate more and world has become a village but it\u2019s a humungous village and we really feel lost in it.
\nSociety managed to impose those rules within relatively confined spaces. Social rules are always much harsher and inflexible in smaller communities than in large ones. In face of technology and of this globalization that tries to change us into little robots, the self defense mechanism might kick in and it might try to assert itself by doing silly things and continuously trying to break the mold.
\nEven the dullest of persons will not agree that they are boring. We used to distance ourselves from accountants but that is so pass\u00e9 \u2013 now we are trying to distance ourselves from The Borg and as it becomes more and more difficult to do this, we are forced to become more and more inventive in doing so. 30-40 years ago stating that you will not marry every was enough to be stamped as different<\/em>. Now, wearing in public thong, declaring that you are gay, live in a commune and will adopt children would probably not even get a shrug.
\nThis is probably the dichotomy \u2013 our desire to be accepted vs our desire to be different. I used to wonder what the heck is with youngsters who, after covering their body with piercings and tattoos, complain that they are not accepted. You made this to be different and when, as different, you are treated differently by the society, you say it\u2019s unfair. We should all understand the truth that lies in \u201cone cannot have the cake and eat it too<\/em>\u201d.
\nTechnology makes us embrace it by making us believe that we are different. Everybody seems to brag about their GPS, HDTV, PVR, Shine vs iPhone vs Chocolate. At the same time, our strong association of technology with The Borg makes us behave in more and more irresponsible and aberrant ways, trying in a futile and childish way to distance ourselves from The Borg. Sometimes I really yearn for the age when grandmas were baking cookies and telling stories, not getting plastic surgery, marrying men 30 years their juniors and jumping with the parachute.
\nThe dichotomy above presented is present even in this article. On one hand, I come up with this idiotic idea \u2013 we are irresponsible because we want to draw a line between us and the machines – and on the other hand I really want people to say \u201cWow! I never thought of that! He might be onto something<\/em>\u201d (ok, you may lose the \u201cwow\u201d \u2013 there are so many words in English to describe amazement).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, although tired, I got stuck in front of the TV watching Star Trek \u2013 First Contact. No, although I don\u2019t have much of a life, I am not a fan Star Trek \u2013 I was just cleansing my brain (already pretty well scrubbed by the exhaustion; but, you know, one can never be…<\/span><\/p>\n

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