The Affair of Ease

              “What is this life if, full of care,
                We have no time to stand and stare.
                No time to stand beneath the boughs
                And stare as long as sheep or cows.
                No time to see, when woods we pass,
                Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
                No time to see, in broad daylight,
                Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
                No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
                And watch her feet, how they can dance.
                No time to wait till her mouth can
                Enrich that smile her eyes began.
                A poor life this if, full of care,
                We have no time to stand and stare.”
                  -William Henry Davies, Leisure

         The world is strange, instead of honoring the hard working and the strong; we give praise to those who lead us into dullness and leisure. We invest time and money into machines to do work for us that really took no effort. Instead of advancing our society we are depleting our manhood. At some points it is hard to tell what is the dominant species on Earth: Man or machine? It seems now that we can no longer live without the clunky machinery and turns a want into a need. It is quite pathetic how so long ago we faced the fiercest of predators in the combat of the wild, when all of a sudden our hard iron skin has turned pink and soft. If it is leisure we desire then we will find it soon, the ultimate leisure, within a coffin.

      “All the biggest technological inventions created by man—the airplane, the auto-      mobile, the computer says little about his intelligence but speaks volumes on
      his laziness.”
            -Mark Kennedy, politician

    The iphone is the new hit of the century, selling more than a 500,000 of them on the first night of their arrival. It was one of the biggest and most campaigned phones in our history. How come? Why has man fallen to his knees in awe over such a small device? Because they have focused the whole iphone on one simple design: leisure. The articles, the commercials, and all the reports deal with how less time-consuming the new iphone is. They initially started to glorify comfort on a simple hand-held device. The iphone can text, call, record, take pictures, film videos, download content, listen to music, search the internet, and many other actions. In the year 2002, we stopped cleaning floors when we invented the Roomba; the first ever robotic vacuum cleaner that moved on its own and sucked up all the dirt within your household and you didn’t need to lift a finger!  Other needs are being taken care for us, too. There used to be a time where man put the caps on bottled coke but not anymore, man has found out that technology can solve that problem too. We invented machines to take jobs away from ourselves leaving to a spike in unemployed population. Then again, I guess in today’s standards a hundred people on the street is worth a device of comfort ability, don’t you think?

    I do know the answer that springs within your mind; what is wrong with comfort, with the ability to relax and have time for oneself? The answer to that is simple. When something becomes easy then it comes with a price. Since the 1920’s we been producing a threatening amount of gas against the ozone and causing a rift in the environment. Our new technology has proven fatal to the environment. The technology we have fallen in lust with has injured us as well.  These problems have plagued mankind before the 21st century but it is only now when we can actually finish them off. With the technology and knowledge we have gained we can understand the cures of various diseases instead of finding new codes to download movies faster. Instead of saving our world we have induced technology to either murder a mass amount of ourselves or to make them lazy beyond compare. We’ve spent billons of dollars on warfare and barely any money to aid ourselves. Tom Mahon,” Sixty percent of the world lives in abject poverty, but we don’t see it because we desire more intense entertainment and less disturbing information.” If this is correct, then 4,007,719,358 of the total 6,679,532,264 people that currently live on this planet are in poverty. That’s a higher number than the people out of poverty. Little is done to help stop the poverty problem but multitudes have been done for the ipod and the other handheld music devices.  The reason why we do not try to stop the vast problems like these is because it is neither glamorous nor profitable. Money may be the root of all evil, but it is also, as it seems, the reason for our survival now. I mean,” The sight of 50,000 children of today dieing of starvation will not do a lot for the sale of Happy Meals.”  There are some who try to make helping others glamorous like the U2 member, Bono. The problem is we shouldn’t have to make these problems appealing because to be blunt they are not appealing. A child starving in a nation that thinks obesity is a major concern is not pretty. It is ugly to the core and if we do not use our knowledge soon then it will be too late. Hitler has mass murdered 30,000,000 Jews, Hutu militias massacring 500,000 Tutsis in Rwanda, and now after man tried so hard Technology will finish the rest of the billons of people that plaque the world. The genocide of us has always had a chance to be stopped, from Hitler to Rwanda; we have always had at least one chance to stop it. The sad part is we choose to ignore it, you can’t ask the victims this but they are the proof of ignorance. They are the proof of what happens when the obvious is hidden and ignored, this cannot end well.
         Enough about the suicide of our people and lets focus on why we let this happen. Psychologists like the famous Wilhelm Wundt and Eric Fromm agree that human nature are influenced and are adapted by society itself. Since you were born you were getting built up with the things you will see, hear, and feel within the society. Your life may be different tomorrow because of something you did today. “The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed and biologically given nature, but result from the social process that creates man,” said Fromm on the topic of man and society. Eric Fromm stated that it is the spirit of man that changed throughout the years; fore the man who lived in the Renaissance greatly differs from the man in the time of World War II.  It was the times that they were living in that made each single person of a certain different and with our new age there will be quite different results. We must control this and stop the flow of Technology’s comfort. Comfort has eased us into laziness and dulled us into believing we are doing nothing wrong.  In fact, Fox News even tolled up that 77% of Americans do not believe Global Warming is real. This denial of such a pressing matter is harming us. We don’t want to think the technology we are producing today is harming us because then we will become at fault and it is man’s instinct to not want to lose. It is in our instinct to think we are the ones who can handle this, this is wrong and we must stop. As a society we think there will be some Superman to save us at the last second. When that bomb begins to tick won't you all be depressed to know that nobody will just miraculously save us? In Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael it states that the swarm of technology and man’s obsession to try to make nature succumb at his will does not cast us as truly human. To be man does not mean you have to cast yourself outside of the animal kingdom and not bear the same laws as the animals. The laws of aerodynamics apply the same to a bird as to a man’s plane.

        “I’m saying the price you’ve paid is not the price of becoming human.
        It’s not even  having the things you just mentioned. It’s the price of enacting a
        story that casts mankind as the enemy of the world.”
            -Ishmael, P.75

    What could be the cost of humanity? Why cannot the powerful species of man have leisure and keep the world he lives in as well? Because, Ishmael stated that man couldn’t live outside the Law of Limited Competition.  The law states,” You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food.” A Lion kills an Antelope and devours its flesh, but the Lion only eats to his content and leaves the rest for the buzzards. The Lion does not take more than his share and with this the law goes into effect, a law that even us God-complexed humans must comply to. The reason this works within the realm of technology is that humans take form the animal kingdom to create the troubles of ease and comfort, which in turn causes a wound in the law. We cannot survive taking more than we need. We have a surplus of trouble brewing our way. Man has proven throughout technology as a taker and the sole “ruler” of the world. Man has worked tirelessly to take nature by the throat and control it. If we continue to try to control nature, if we keep putting our hands down nature’s throat then eventually nature is going to swallow us whole. Our obsession of controlling all things, from nature to leisure to technology, will lead us to our downfall.
         “Lo! Men have become tolls of their tools!” exclaimed Henry David Thoreau, a man of literary genius.  His words speak true too often; we have become controlled by our ipods. A 19 year old from Paisley was diagnosed with the addiction of cell phone texting:

        “One of the first cases of its kind, the teenager was referred to an addiction
          centre after he ran up a bill of £4,500 in one year texting about 100 times a day. 
          He also lost his job after sending up to 500 emails a day from his office
          computer, many to his former girlfriend. The couple separated because she
          could no longer cope with the barrage of digital communication.”
            -Robert Booth

You all may be suspicious of these claims but Robert Booth’s essay told us about the symptoms he felt with this craving:

        "He was suffering from severe anxiety when he wasn't getting any reply, which
        was causing him to text and email even more," said Phillip Irvine, project leader of
        Renfrew Council on Alcohol trust, where the unnamed man is being treated. "This
        patient has all the hallmarks of any classic addict where mental health problems
        such as depression, low self-esteem and relationship difficulties occur as a result
        of the addiction."

This is the first recorded incident of a texting addiction and it could be leading into somethig erratic. The idea of someone being addicted to such a pointless device, like a iphone for instance, could be a major problem in the 21st century. The 20th cnetury was addicts of  smokes and drinks while today’s 21st century may be an addict of phones and games.  This is a sign of the future and its false belief we have a hold on technology. Any machine or device that can hold you into discomfort, distress, or to innability to function is not really a machine of comfort but a machine of control. We cannot let the iron tyrants rule us with, ironicaly, an iron fist. You may be pressing your iphone’s buttons today but will the iphone be pressing you tommrow?
         
    John F. Kennedy once joked that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than us. This may be true, with too much power comes too much responsibility and if we are barely struggling surviving ourselves then the technological leap is too far to grasp. The differenc between the 20th  and 21st century is not the invention, although it may seem so. Inventions are always being updated and a century makes no difference between the two. A auto mobile is just an updated horse buggy. The difference is what we know and how we can use it. In the 20th  century we used the technology we had to aid ourselves. They invented the space shuttle, vacinnes, radio, and the refridgerator. They also put together the harmful inventions of all time including the gas powered car, the nuclear bomb, the tanning beds, and chemical warfare. The difference between the vast arrays of dangers presented in the 20th  century is the fact they did not know the effects of their inventions or how to solve the agony it causes. In the 21st century, you do have the technological genius to solve all these problems. Mattew Ward, a journalist, wrote about a gas powered car that can be replaced with an oil found in corn. but they haven’t even tried much attempts to perform this task. The nuclear explosion leaves many to disavantage, if you survive I mean, and they could be using knowledge to invent a vaccine that takes away radioactive effects. The American Cancer Society has proven tanning beds causes skin cancer and cancer seems to never come close for a cure, although our technology is far advanced on other diseases. Chemical warfare is the new cause of death for soldiers overseas and they are very ill equipped with chemical protection. We must protect the ones who protect us or we will walk ourselves into a real oxymoron. 
         
    This scenario can either end good or bad, many may even doubt we can do this. Technology is already grasping our minds and dulling us into simplified rocks. How far will we let this go? The farthest man can go and may go is beyond the horizon that we cannot see but we are coming near. Its something more frightning and more exciting than Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
It is to be able to become a Biomechanical oraganism. This is the fruit of our labors, the pinniacle of man, the summit of our hopes, and the end of the very, very long road of technology. I cannot even begin to tell you if this is over the horizon or far from it, but once we get there then there will be no turning back. The absolute control technology can do is be one with you, To be no different from your limbs of skin to your limbs of metal. It will not effect the way you have sex and it will not change the way you have birth, you are still human but a human that has lost control. This control over technology, evolution, God, science, and nature will become a Biomechanical organism. 
    “ A living and reproductively capable organism whose physiology consists of
      organic, inorganic, and synthetic materials. In order to be accurately classified as
    biomechanical the organism in question must
                                                                                             
    1.) Have a genesis of being biologically engineered by a separate species, or group 
    of species - as such its development occurs outside the evolutionary timeline of the 
    environment in which it was created.
    2.) This process of bio-engineering must incorporate some application of mechanical
    engineering and/or the principles there of to the organism in question as well as
    incorporate these aspects into the biological structure of said organism.
      3.) The organism must be able to reproduce via gametes - be the organism haploid,
      diploid, or polyploidy - and reproduce via either sexual reproduction and/or asexual
      reproduction. This reproduction is not limited to either the k-selection or r-selection 
      strategies.
                                                                                                                   
      4.) The organism must be able to synthesize any and all organic, inorganic, and 
      synthetic materials naturally without a required interaction between the organism 
      and the species responsible for said organism's genesis.
      5.) The organism must be self-reliant and self-sustaining as well as be able to
      evolve beyond its original design once introduced through the natural process of
      inter-organism/trans-environmental interaction.”
                  -Oxford English Dictionary.

This is just a thing of movies, noting Terminator and Alien, and not yet come close to being accomplished with humans.  The reason it is not yet accomplished is because our technology is not that powerful yet and not everybody is being controlled by their technology, although the ones that do increase everyday.  One day, we might be able to actually do such work as a Biomechanical human. Then they can run faster than a cheetah if desired and able to lifts hundreds of pounds beyond normal capability. It is unsure if Biomechanical humans will adapt to certain outcomes. We do not know yet if they will get increased anger issues or if they could get diseased. We do not know how hard they may be to stop if one shall go insane, as since part human and human’s sanity is weak.  Books like The Time Machine and many movies have shown styles of Biomechanoids and it is clear that it may be on our mind within the future.
         Fire was our first invention, but will Biomechanics be our last? We cannot tell at the time but we do know we are spiraling into a void of technology. Our submission to entertaining or comforting ourselves harms the rest of the ecosystem. To focus on others who are in need is more important than focus on ourselves who is in want.  We have to stop this affair of ease and comfort; we must use our technology to stop the problems we do have. Global warming is caused by us and us alone can fix it. Chemical warfare was started by us and us alone can fix it. The mass starvation of people was caused by weakness and only us can solve it. Technology is only a blessing when you keep your hands on the tools and not let the tools put a hand on you. We were born to work, whether it is religion you abide by or by science. In both realms your survival is work. The Lion does not take rest and neither can we, we are Homo sapiens and we are no different from the animal kingdom.  This is our last chance, our last chance to pull back from the hands of technology and instead focus of the power of healing. We must cure our current problems instead of trying to build a workless utopia; it is a fantasy of impossibility. This is not about maniac robots or cyborgs; it is simply just your iphone’s revenge.

          “Man's destiny was to conquer and rule the world, and this is what he's done--   
          almost. He hasn't quite made it, and it looks as though this may be his undoing.
          The problem is that man's conquest of the world has itself devastated the world.
          And in spite of all the mastery we've attained, we don't have enough mastery to
          stop devastating the world--or to repair the devastation we've already wrought.
          We've poured our poisons into the world as though it were a bottomless pit--and
          we go on gobbling them up. It's hard to imaging how the world could survive
          another century of this abuse, but nobody's really doing anything about it. It's a
          problem our children will have to solve, or their children.”

                          -Ishmael