Today I read a little article about children in grades 1 and 2 who were asked by their teacher to mark on a chart every time they consulted their cell phones, whether for email, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp or any other evil distractor found on a Smart Phone.
Excellent article—and much needed! As you pointed out, as we try to keep up with the craziness of the world, the industry keeps producing more and more alluring and tempting "things" such as phones, games, virtual reality, self-driving cars, computers, and appliances to keep the masses distracted and drunk on entertainment and primal satisfaction. Consequently, many of us remain absorbed (almost addicted) to short-term gratification without improving our critical thinking skills.
I think "addicted" is the right word...and it IS an addiction to "short-term gratification"...it IS human nature to seek out highly efficient solutions, which require the least amount of energy...back in the old old days that would be something like eating all the berries found and taking a nap because possibly no more berries would be found in a couple of months. Nowadays it is easy to be instantly gratified, everything produced is geared to that end, and we have no common sense about it and realize "this isn't like the original reason why humans sought instantly gratifying things" and then adjust to it, we just go with the instant gratification....
Another great article, Todd, thank you - and everyone for your comments. As much as I despise the new technology I must admit I find solace in my smartphone because I can research anything I want easily and also feel connected to the likeminded people I find here. My husband and I are on the same page with everything but it’s still good to know others feel the way we do. The mainstream would have us believe we’re complete nutcases and in the minority, but I think there are a lot more of us critical thinkers than we realize, maybe a lot of us are just too timid to spew. Thanks for being here for us, it’s a comfort and a joy.
Advancements in technology are a given. And many can be very useful. But we must take responsibility and understand their shadow side and compensate for it. We must be conscious.
If the new technology was all-bad it would be easier to halt its encroachment into the human experience. But even those resisting can see beneficial uses of it for others, if not us, to adopt.
Take baby crib monitors. Surveillance systems left in cribs to monitor baby when parents are sleeping, or aren't tending, babysitters are interacting, has medical conditions. Provides a useful service. Similar product is Elf on the Shelf with hidden video cam to monitor children. For their health and safety.
Downside being an entire generation, two...three...being accustomed to round-the-clock surveillance, a safety and security state of being, no risk tolerance, stunted human development of autonomy, feeds helicopter parent phenomenon. Result is population horde of oversized children. Who require lifetime government parents. Who require authoritarianism.
Where the pursuit of progress leads.
If baby crib monitors, Elf's on Shelf spies, all of the same types of technological progress inventions that make our lives easier, safer, more efficient didn't work as advertised and had no rational basis to use them it would be much easier to walk away and reclaim our connection to the natural world as autonomous, healthy, strong, resilient and free people. But they do work. And then some. That then some is capitalized on and weaponized against the people by arrogant, smug rulers of men who never believed in human freedom, who say it's dangerous and foolish, who believe themselves benevolent rulers tending to their flocks. Just like King George III thought of himself when he angrily received the Declaration of Independence, "How dare they? They love me! I protect them lovingly!"
Although impossible to entirely eradicate human technological creativity, essentially anything that makes our lives easier, safer, and free from suffering, has a serious downside that must be considered. No one considers a speck of it....well, not "no one"...people, for example, go to the gym every day and work out because they don't have to hunt for their food, or build rock walls around the cave they live in, etc. We CAN compensate for the negative...but few people do, and even the ones that do end up compensating really do not know why they are doing it.
My neighbor's great grand son who is 7, is getting a virtual reality headset for his birthday. They cost $500. She is very disturbed by it but the child's mother says all of his friends have one! Of course, they all have cell phones, tablets etc. One neighbor's 2.5 year old grandson is on his tablet playing games first thing in the morning while eating breakfast. I can't imagine what their adult world will be like. Thanks for this article. I completely agree.
My VR headset experience informs me of how dangerous they can be. Even in the hands of developers with good intentions. I shudder to think of the technology in the hands of developers with bad intentions.
VR headsets are capable of evoking physiological responses to the stimuli, elevated heart rate, shock/fear responses triggered - even though the user is fully aware it's a simulated environment. Could literally, not hyperbole, shock someone to death just tricking the mind.
That's just for thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies. In the hands of evil it's possible to make VR technology trick untold numbers of users to self-terminate with sophisticated enough content programming that's dangerously physiologically responsive. Not just for those with heart conditions.
It's not the technology itself. It's who's in control of it and what their intentions are.
Remember the movie “Brainstorm”? A terrible movie overall because Natalie Wood died in the middle of production, but again a very interesting idea, particularly considering when it was made (around 1980?)
Remember the movie Matrix? The main character, Neo, sold VR experiences without guardrails for adventure junkies. With safety protocols removed the technology was more thrilling, but could harm or kill. VR. It's not just futuristic sci-fi. It's here. How much do you trust the programming?
I don't remember that about Neo! I believe the agenda's drive is twofold, get rid of as many humans as possible, and zombify the remaining 500 million or so left.
"Doctors have long known that beliefs can be deadly – as demonstrated by a rather nasty student prank that went horribly wrong. The 18th Century Viennese medic, Erich Menninger von Lerchenthal, describes how students at his medical school picked on a much-disliked assistant. Planning to teach him a lesson, they sprung upon him before announcing that he was about to be decapitated. Blindfolding him, they bowed his head onto the chopping block, before dropping a wet cloth on his neck. Convinced it was the kiss of a steel blade, the poor man “died on the spot”."
If you've ever tried on VR headsets with a high-quality program running you will understand how just *believing* you are being killed can kill you.
And the popular and very profitable stock play these days, NVidia is a major player and necessary component of VR technology, AI technology and human-computer interface technology--->transhumanism technology. A long, winding Stack I shared last August that delves into NVidia and a whole lot of tangential subjects:
Virtual reality, in any form, video games, virtual headsets, even Zoom to a degree, is death to the soul, and death to humanity. Anything that attempts to synthesize the "real thing" falls into that class, the war with nature.
I must say, Todd, that this is one of the most excellent reads I have read in a long time by you or anyone else. Of course it could be because I am not a big cell phone fan. They haven't turned people into Walking Dead yet, but definitely has Zombified most users, or is that one and the same? Linking as usual @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Ironically, used my phone to read and like your comment. Access to great content such as yours is part of my rationalization of the excessive time i spend in front of screens. How to escape that conundrum is a tough question.
Todd, you move to the head of the class again! All of this technology actually replaces the soul of a person, especially a child. There is little soul left. There is a near total absence of nature, poetry, and the like. Children have been targeted from infancy. My 2.5 year old granddaughter has a 'pretend' cell phone. Because the parents are often brainwashed and addicted to the beast (phones, social media platforms), so too will the children be given a pass on it. It is a monkey-see, monkey-do and it isn't pretty!
No, it is not pretty at all. Access to our soul has been all but eliminated. I think many people still have access, you and I and those among us. "The Elite" no longer have any access, or so it seems. Maybe they don't even "have" a soul...
I have not yet read this book (on a "to read" list a mile long) but it looks to be very interesting along these lines...(this is Canada Amazon, just get the title)
Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done. Most of the "advances" should have never left the drawing board. People are sleepwalking into a totalitarian nightmare. You described it perfectly - "mind rotting apps".
Modern Moron Slaves are just behaving as expected. So far the MAIN CODES aren't generating too much glitches so there is no real need for an UPGRADE.
Current tech is like the old tech... https://postimg.cc/D4VtsGQv
We are all part of this madness. We create it and we Sustain it. Clearly we don't want to CHANGE it.
Excellent article—and much needed! As you pointed out, as we try to keep up with the craziness of the world, the industry keeps producing more and more alluring and tempting "things" such as phones, games, virtual reality, self-driving cars, computers, and appliances to keep the masses distracted and drunk on entertainment and primal satisfaction. Consequently, many of us remain absorbed (almost addicted) to short-term gratification without improving our critical thinking skills.
I think "addicted" is the right word...and it IS an addiction to "short-term gratification"...it IS human nature to seek out highly efficient solutions, which require the least amount of energy...back in the old old days that would be something like eating all the berries found and taking a nap because possibly no more berries would be found in a couple of months. Nowadays it is easy to be instantly gratified, everything produced is geared to that end, and we have no common sense about it and realize "this isn't like the original reason why humans sought instantly gratifying things" and then adjust to it, we just go with the instant gratification....
Indeed. I appreciate your wise insight.
Another great article, Todd, thank you - and everyone for your comments. As much as I despise the new technology I must admit I find solace in my smartphone because I can research anything I want easily and also feel connected to the likeminded people I find here. My husband and I are on the same page with everything but it’s still good to know others feel the way we do. The mainstream would have us believe we’re complete nutcases and in the minority, but I think there are a lot more of us critical thinkers than we realize, maybe a lot of us are just too timid to spew. Thanks for being here for us, it’s a comfort and a joy.
Advancements in technology are a given. And many can be very useful. But we must take responsibility and understand their shadow side and compensate for it. We must be conscious.
If the new technology was all-bad it would be easier to halt its encroachment into the human experience. But even those resisting can see beneficial uses of it for others, if not us, to adopt.
Take baby crib monitors. Surveillance systems left in cribs to monitor baby when parents are sleeping, or aren't tending, babysitters are interacting, has medical conditions. Provides a useful service. Similar product is Elf on the Shelf with hidden video cam to monitor children. For their health and safety.
Downside being an entire generation, two...three...being accustomed to round-the-clock surveillance, a safety and security state of being, no risk tolerance, stunted human development of autonomy, feeds helicopter parent phenomenon. Result is population horde of oversized children. Who require lifetime government parents. Who require authoritarianism.
Where the pursuit of progress leads.
If baby crib monitors, Elf's on Shelf spies, all of the same types of technological progress inventions that make our lives easier, safer, more efficient didn't work as advertised and had no rational basis to use them it would be much easier to walk away and reclaim our connection to the natural world as autonomous, healthy, strong, resilient and free people. But they do work. And then some. That then some is capitalized on and weaponized against the people by arrogant, smug rulers of men who never believed in human freedom, who say it's dangerous and foolish, who believe themselves benevolent rulers tending to their flocks. Just like King George III thought of himself when he angrily received the Declaration of Independence, "How dare they? They love me! I protect them lovingly!"
https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/blog/september-kings-speech
How do we control technology instead of it controlling us with this understanding of how insidious and poisonous it is for free peoples?
Although impossible to entirely eradicate human technological creativity, essentially anything that makes our lives easier, safer, and free from suffering, has a serious downside that must be considered. No one considers a speck of it....well, not "no one"...people, for example, go to the gym every day and work out because they don't have to hunt for their food, or build rock walls around the cave they live in, etc. We CAN compensate for the negative...but few people do, and even the ones that do end up compensating really do not know why they are doing it.
My neighbor's great grand son who is 7, is getting a virtual reality headset for his birthday. They cost $500. She is very disturbed by it but the child's mother says all of his friends have one! Of course, they all have cell phones, tablets etc. One neighbor's 2.5 year old grandson is on his tablet playing games first thing in the morning while eating breakfast. I can't imagine what their adult world will be like. Thanks for this article. I completely agree.
My VR headset experience informs me of how dangerous they can be. Even in the hands of developers with good intentions. I shudder to think of the technology in the hands of developers with bad intentions.
VR headsets are capable of evoking physiological responses to the stimuli, elevated heart rate, shock/fear responses triggered - even though the user is fully aware it's a simulated environment. Could literally, not hyperbole, shock someone to death just tricking the mind.
That's just for thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies. In the hands of evil it's possible to make VR technology trick untold numbers of users to self-terminate with sophisticated enough content programming that's dangerously physiologically responsive. Not just for those with heart conditions.
It's not the technology itself. It's who's in control of it and what their intentions are.
Remember the movie “Brainstorm”? A terrible movie overall because Natalie Wood died in the middle of production, but again a very interesting idea, particularly considering when it was made (around 1980?)
Remember the movie Matrix? The main character, Neo, sold VR experiences without guardrails for adventure junkies. With safety protocols removed the technology was more thrilling, but could harm or kill. VR. It's not just futuristic sci-fi. It's here. How much do you trust the programming?
I don't remember that about Neo! I believe the agenda's drive is twofold, get rid of as many humans as possible, and zombify the remaining 500 million or so left.
The Matrix scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjoad6gcRzs
Neo worked for MetaCortex:
https://matrix.fandom.com/wiki/MetaCortex
Interesting dive into MetaCortex in the Matrix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giQYwDHQrY0
Associated with Metacortechs. An ARGN - Alternative Reality Gaming Network
https://www.argn.com/tag/metacortechs/
Is *all* of the research being conducted/been conducted for good? If so that would be a first for technological innovation:
https://www.livescience.com/37590-5-crazy-biotechnologies.html
https://www.livescience.com/37938-how-human-brain-could-be-hacked.html
They had it figured out in the 1700's:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150210-can-you-think-yourself-to-death
"Doctors have long known that beliefs can be deadly – as demonstrated by a rather nasty student prank that went horribly wrong. The 18th Century Viennese medic, Erich Menninger von Lerchenthal, describes how students at his medical school picked on a much-disliked assistant. Planning to teach him a lesson, they sprung upon him before announcing that he was about to be decapitated. Blindfolding him, they bowed his head onto the chopping block, before dropping a wet cloth on his neck. Convinced it was the kiss of a steel blade, the poor man “died on the spot”."
If you've ever tried on VR headsets with a high-quality program running you will understand how just *believing* you are being killed can kill you.
And the popular and very profitable stock play these days, NVidia is a major player and necessary component of VR technology, AI technology and human-computer interface technology--->transhumanism technology. A long, winding Stack I shared last August that delves into NVidia and a whole lot of tangential subjects:
https://freedomfox.substack.com/p/curiouser-and-curiouser
All I can say is "yikes"...
I don't remember it. But now you have me curious!
Virtual reality, in any form, video games, virtual headsets, even Zoom to a degree, is death to the soul, and death to humanity. Anything that attempts to synthesize the "real thing" falls into that class, the war with nature.
I must say, Todd, that this is one of the most excellent reads I have read in a long time by you or anyone else. Of course it could be because I am not a big cell phone fan. They haven't turned people into Walking Dead yet, but definitely has Zombified most users, or is that one and the same? Linking as usual @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Cell phones are definitely one of the most effective gateways into zombification.
Ironically, used my phone to read and like your comment. Access to great content such as yours is part of my rationalization of the excessive time i spend in front of screens. How to escape that conundrum is a tough question.
Todd, you move to the head of the class again! All of this technology actually replaces the soul of a person, especially a child. There is little soul left. There is a near total absence of nature, poetry, and the like. Children have been targeted from infancy. My 2.5 year old granddaughter has a 'pretend' cell phone. Because the parents are often brainwashed and addicted to the beast (phones, social media platforms), so too will the children be given a pass on it. It is a monkey-see, monkey-do and it isn't pretty!
No, it is not pretty at all. Access to our soul has been all but eliminated. I think many people still have access, you and I and those among us. "The Elite" no longer have any access, or so it seems. Maybe they don't even "have" a soul...
That is why they can do what they do. They are soulless and with that there is no conscience.
I have not yet read this book (on a "to read" list a mile long) but it looks to be very interesting along these lines...(this is Canada Amazon, just get the title)
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1855841789/?coliid=I2SS9FLOUCMGZN&colid=1T6NB5XLGSWKW&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Oh I do like Rudolf Steiner's work. It is always very deep.
Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done. Most of the "advances" should have never left the drawing board. People are sleepwalking into a totalitarian nightmare. You described it perfectly - "mind rotting apps".
People will never stop "doing" until a moral issue stops them, and since there is no morality anymore, then there is nothing to stop them.
I hear that about Cell Phone‘s in media and all other text devices just indoctrinate children into this new world order.😡
Yep
This was an excellent article.
So many of my family and friends think everything is just normal and fine.
Like you say... just progress.
Thank you...I was one of those people at one time...