It's interesting how you mention how technology has reduced poverty yet what I'm hearing in my part of the United States is prices going up and not enough income to pay necessities like rent and food. Yes, we are better off with cars and things many parts of the world don't have but technology usage can help or twart human flourishing. If we only use technology to feed ourselves entertainment and confine ourselves into isolation we will be lonely. It is noticeable to me that even my age group, the elderly, have cell phones but they Choose not to answer texts, calls, emails until it is convenient to THEM. Even my coffee group do not treasure or protect our meeting time by showing up on time, keeping the time open for relationship events. I personally think greed and selfishness have resulted in isolation more than technology. There are many things that need human hands to improve such as visitations to the truly sick and home bound but we are opting out of helping make the world better. It's not a natural thing to replace leisure and fun with mingling with the masses. Sandy
Thanks, Sandy. I agree with this: "greed and selfishness have resulted in isolation more than technology." I'd also add the simple tendency to follow the path of least resistance. But I think technological change has made it easier to indulge these human tendencies. If we were all angels, technological advances would not produce the fruits they have.
John, I attended one of your classes when you challenged the group to give up their technological devices for a week. I remember doing so and the first couple of days I didn't think I could do it, but I persisted and went a week without the computer, my cell phone, TV, etc. It was a great exercise! I seldom watch any TV anymore; I only check my email once a day; I no longer use facebook; and my smartphone is just for emergencies!
Makes me think of something you wrote about before. As a society, we don't have a shared understanding of what human flourishing (or "the good life", as I think you called it), is.
As humans, we can make decisions to try and optimize towards anything. But almost any good thing that we choose to optimize towards becomes a bad thing when pursued in perpetuity, or at the expense of other good things (we end up on the Axiom, perhaps).
The ancient Greeks would say the solution is to enforce moderation in all things. While you, and other Christian thinkers, would have us look to Jesus. That seemed to me like a simple and impractical thing for a long time. Not today, especially when the limitations of alternative approaches are so glaring.
You bring up an important connection. Without a coherent picture of human flourishing, I suppose we're bound to optimize the wrong things, as you put it. In the 1800s under the influence of Utilitarianism, people came to see human flourishing in terms of desire satisfaction and money as its most basic enabler. This way of thinking leads naturally to an emphasis on growing the economy since, in doing so, you grow the power of individuals to satisfy their desires by buying what they want. But if human flourishing isn't really about desire satisfaction, then the whole direction is wrong.
I spend more time with live people instead of electronic stuff!
John,
It's interesting how you mention how technology has reduced poverty yet what I'm hearing in my part of the United States is prices going up and not enough income to pay necessities like rent and food. Yes, we are better off with cars and things many parts of the world don't have but technology usage can help or twart human flourishing. If we only use technology to feed ourselves entertainment and confine ourselves into isolation we will be lonely. It is noticeable to me that even my age group, the elderly, have cell phones but they Choose not to answer texts, calls, emails until it is convenient to THEM. Even my coffee group do not treasure or protect our meeting time by showing up on time, keeping the time open for relationship events. I personally think greed and selfishness have resulted in isolation more than technology. There are many things that need human hands to improve such as visitations to the truly sick and home bound but we are opting out of helping make the world better. It's not a natural thing to replace leisure and fun with mingling with the masses. Sandy
Thanks, Sandy. I agree with this: "greed and selfishness have resulted in isolation more than technology." I'd also add the simple tendency to follow the path of least resistance. But I think technological change has made it easier to indulge these human tendencies. If we were all angels, technological advances would not produce the fruits they have.
John, I attended one of your classes when you challenged the group to give up their technological devices for a week. I remember doing so and the first couple of days I didn't think I could do it, but I persisted and went a week without the computer, my cell phone, TV, etc. It was a great exercise! I seldom watch any TV anymore; I only check my email once a day; I no longer use facebook; and my smartphone is just for emergencies!
That's interesting. Do you think that makes any difference? If so, how?
Makes me think of something you wrote about before. As a society, we don't have a shared understanding of what human flourishing (or "the good life", as I think you called it), is.
As humans, we can make decisions to try and optimize towards anything. But almost any good thing that we choose to optimize towards becomes a bad thing when pursued in perpetuity, or at the expense of other good things (we end up on the Axiom, perhaps).
The ancient Greeks would say the solution is to enforce moderation in all things. While you, and other Christian thinkers, would have us look to Jesus. That seemed to me like a simple and impractical thing for a long time. Not today, especially when the limitations of alternative approaches are so glaring.
You bring up an important connection. Without a coherent picture of human flourishing, I suppose we're bound to optimize the wrong things, as you put it. In the 1800s under the influence of Utilitarianism, people came to see human flourishing in terms of desire satisfaction and money as its most basic enabler. This way of thinking leads naturally to an emphasis on growing the economy since, in doing so, you grow the power of individuals to satisfy their desires by buying what they want. But if human flourishing isn't really about desire satisfaction, then the whole direction is wrong.