Technology and People Cannot be Separated

Perhaps they could have been, at one time - but not now! Let me explain.

The Industrial Revolution changed who we were - and very quickly. In only a few centuries we became machine people - strange beings that had never existed before. And the most amazing thing about these beings, was that they were not aware of how much they had changed, and what they had changed into.

What they were, as people - was separate from what they were, as machines. They felt comfortable with this separation - and, indeed, insisted on it. They were not their machines, and didn't want to be!

This clever decision (it seemed to them) was the worst one they could have made. And was one of the causes of a series of disasters - WWI, the Depression, and WWII - with its Holocaust.

Perhaps we could have recovered from this, but we were hit by new technologies - TV, and then the Computer. We became a different kind of people again, but (once again) - were not aware of this!

Just this morning, I was watching a video explaining how a new software company (Slack) was making a better world. What it did not say was this better world only consisted of Software Developers - whose world has improved dramatically - and made them rich, in the process.

The separation between software people and ordinary people - is as extreme as it can be. And has produced another crisis we do not have a name for yet - where most people resent the latest developments (even though they have no idea what they are) and are reacting to them, in some very strange ways.

Such as the election of Trump.