Playing With Knives

I was reading an article in an excellent magazine this morning, dealing with the rapid rise of advanced technology and its effects on humans. Apparently we're evolving far too fast for our own good, and are suffering the consequences. I can buy this. One only has to compare society today with that of, say, two hundred years ago to see this borne out. In 1806 the Industrial Age was beyond the infant stage, but complicated technology and industrial machines were almost unheard of. Certainly these things would have no place in a home. People still had to interact and speak face to face with others to receive news, conduct business and purchase necessities. Conversation and debate were natural facets of a trip to the market or pub. Furnishings and complex tools still had to be crafted carefully by hand; if your clocks stopped working for no good reason people wouldn't buy from you again. But now we've created machines that enable us to accomplish our goals quicker, more convieniently and with less thought. Gone are the days when you needed a neighbourly chat to learn what's going down - CNN Online and Google News have taken care of that. We no longer have to (and therefore, much of the time, don't) speak meaningfully with people - txt and IM have made things ever so much simpler. And who cares about product quality as long as it's cheap and easily replaced? Humans are not becoming more selfish (we hit maximum on that a long time ago) - but the paraphenalia we've constructed around ourselves has allowed us to become more self centered. We're like kids playing with knives. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the things, but we're not ready for them. We're too immature.