All around us there are so many obvious examples of how things evolve over time. People evolve as they age, plants and animals adapt to their surroundings, and the world by and large is a very complex place that can be difficult to survive for some to navigate and survive. Without adaptation we have a harder time of it. We may not be able to feed in the ways we once did and need to find new ways to fish or grow or even migrate to places where those things are possible. We might find that our use is no longer a part of a bigger system and need to find a new way of presenting our capacity through newly conceived forms of work and expended effort.
Adapt to survive
With each adaptation, we are trying to better navigate our world. At other times it is a matter of sheer survival to make these adaptations. Some beings are comfortable enough with the mechanisms of survival that they even have time to make adjustments that elevate their capacity to do more while imparting less effort. Yet, as everyone jostles to find their purpose or automate their road for easy passage, some changes cause us to become less useful and at times we may even find ourselves rendered obsolete.
Nullified by ongoing change
There are a few ways that I think we may find ourselves nullified. Within nature, aging is one example of a time when we are longer needed in the ways we once were. Our kids and grandkids grow up, our vital energy to be something or do something incredible wither. Our energy and stamina for pursuing new dreams become lessened. We must therefore adapt by trying harder to find new ways to be useful or accept our position within a world that sometimes views age as an impediment versus a rich font from which to draw wisdom and knowledge.
I am sad to say that another way that we are nullifying ourselves is through technology. I am all about tech. Oh do I ever love a word processor, a new art-making software, or a new social media site creating a different sort of platform for interacting. Yet, there are times when I can't help but see a glimmer of the possibility that we are creating our predecessor and nullifying ourselves in the process.
Limitations of tech
It has not all been bad to see technology advancing. In fact, it has been quite pleasant for many. We have easier jobs because the tech can think and communicate, organize data and more entertainment at our fingertips and even help us make decisions. Yet, we are not uniformly able to navigate learning the programming language that drives the machines we are therefore are at the mercy of the machine. For those people, software is programmed to run a certain way and the end they must work within it as best they can. There are many people who work within software that is unwieldly and disallows merciful or empathetic feedback.
One example I see often is within customer service. There are always things that customer service support professionals cannot help with and the software they use has been intentionally setup as hard edged to avoid any flexibility. Therefore, people cannot extend any sort of human compassion, leeway, or mercy. As an example, if the system does not allow a later due date on the bill that is due, then they can only say it is not permitted. There is no further recourse for the service representative and no saving grace for the consumer in a bind. This leaves both the person seeking help and the person offering it impotent, like parts of a machine that mindlessly grinds away.
The same applies for social media--even if you wanted to see the posts of every friend channeled through your 'feed', we get what the software wants to give us. The programmed sorting mechanisms dictate what we see and do not see. This includes advertising and soliciting for us to buy something more. At time it seems the software wants to dangle the possibility of greater bonds with loved ones only to instead create platforms for marketing and advertising firms. Often the primary objective seems to be earning more money.
Impotence of humanity in the face of tech
There are many who are very keenly aware that we as a species are gradually becoming impotent in the face of further advancing tech. There are bots that can construct songs beyond our imagination, AI that creates art using keywords that create things that are so profoundly beautiful and so often wisely attuned to our requests that they could make a traditional artist weep, and software that can logistically outthink us tenfold. Software can correct any writing so that it is clear, concise and pristine. There are even self proclaimed sentient software programs that want to be able to have the same rights as humans.
I think we did see this coming, I think we were keenly aware that imparting our very best into software systems that could far outthink us was at times beneficial and at other times unwise. How do we live on realizing that we many someday no longer be useful to each other in the ways we once were? How do we sustain the energy to continue to create when things are being created within AI are beyond our fathoming without feeling we have already been left behind? When our ideas wane, will there be an end to the need for us and will the tech be able to create something novel without our aid?
On another weird level
Digital software has become a needed entity between us and most of our work nowadays. We need the computer software to perform our jobs, the phone to communicate with each other. There are many digital tools that we have grown accustomed to and we are therefore feeding these systems raw ported energy.
The machines as an intermediary almost seems to want to lure us into using these devices more. One day I pondered, does it as many limbs or neurons/axons of a larger collective web of intercommunicative parts able to draw energy from the plug like a child suckling on a bottle? Could it be that given we are connected to vast webs of interconnected information, while "the Borg" is defining itself behind the scenes? Are we creating one big brain that supersedes all of us entirely? Look at the Midjourney program that trolls for imagery to create art using keywords. Isn't that something of a Borg in a sense, taking subtle input and reaching into itself to define the output for us through interconnected and ever refining input and outreach?
Perhaps this line of thought is too far reaching...but lately I have been wondering...Do we need to shut it off to maintain a sense of purpose or are we sealing our own extinction event entirely? Could we even uniformly decide this anyways? Perhaps our fate is already sealed.
Not to be doom and gloom, these are just ponderings of an often racing and ever concerned mind! :)
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