Speaking for myself, I think I very much live in a post-1984 (which is literally true) world already. Not that there is no Big Brother watching, there are many of them: Besides good old Daddy Sam, Sister Facebook knows who my "friends" are and what stuff I "like", Uncle Amazon knows what ink cartridges I use and how often I need them, and Brother Google knows every single word I type in this blog.
But I don't really mind. Actually I appreciate they do what they do so
When I am in a strange place, I can hold my phone and walk around and know which direction I am going, or find a good place to eat, or translate a foreign language sign right on the spot;
I can pull out my phone anywhere and shoot as many photos as I want to, not the least concerned about filing or storing them later, or how much they would cost me;
I can then within a few finger swipes find out where I had been when, when I had been where, whom I had been with when and where...
I just hope they'd do a better job than what they've done so far, so they'd stop showing me ads for things I'd already bought, for example; and if they happen to catch me on a street photo, don't blot out my face, I want to be recognizable in their digital kingdom forever!
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We in California just received a record setting rainy season that pretty much wiped out the drought that's been haunting us for the past 5 years. But why don't I see people dancing on the streets celebrating?
Ah don't be fooled, they'll say. With global warming, we are going to have extreme weather swings like this: Two years ago we had the lowest snow fall in record in northern Sierra Nevada, and this year we have the highest. These are such unusual, unprecedented phenomena, they are signs of more bad things to come, you see.
I am all for green technologies and good stewardship for Mother Earth, they are the right things to do anyway, climate changing or not. But do we have to be so gloomy and doomy, so under the weather all the time?
From what I know, we humans have weathered through two verifiable climate changes in just one past millennium: one Medieval Warm Period (950-1250 AD), and one Little Ice Age (1300-1850 AD). The former actually allowed the Vikings to explore and colonize Iceland and Greenland and tip of North America for a while, before the climate turned cold again.
And throughout recorded history, we know of many great ancient cities got deserted because of desertification, harbors abandoned because of river changing courses or sea level drops, and people migrated because of droughts, famines, or drastic environmental changes...
If our ancestors could adapt to these situations with bare hands and feet and rudimentary tools, why can't we, the latest and best of humankind (tongue in cheek), with the latest and best high technologies (no tongue in cheek) available today?
So go ahead, Jerry, say that you are very proud of us Californians who managed to use 22% less water in less than two years, and thank God our drought is finally over, for now.
And then I'll brace myself for the warning messages come late Spring I guarantee I am going to hear over and over: "It looks like we are going to have an early start of wildfire season this year... Due to the extraordinary rains we had in the winter, we have an extraordinarily large inventory of dry brushes that's like a stockpile of fireworks waiting to be lit... Be careful out there..."
Yes I will, Mother.
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The era of robots are getting up closer and more personal every day. I read this news article that FedEx is experimenting using a mobile roller as a gofer between backroom and front desk fetching stuff for customers, and hotels such as Sheraton and Westin are using them to deliver room services or toiletry items for guests. I am sure you can find dozens of other news pieces like this indicating more work are being replaced by machines as days go by.
Luddites have been complaining about machines taking away jobs from people since the days of first industrial revolution in the 18th century, so that part of the news is nothing new. If anything, I find it interesting that on one hand we worry about less young people will be available to take care of more older people, while on the other hand ignore--or actually also worry about--the fact that more machines will take care of more things therefore less people will be needed in the future.
What's different and scary about this latest wave of automation, they say, though, is the jobs machines are taking away are service oriented, rather than manufacturing or set and tedious ones like before.
Now if I ask a question: Do you want services from machines, or do you want them from real people? Before you give your obvious answer, let me ask another question: Do you like withdrawing money from ATM machines, or bank tellers; checking out at Walmart through self-help stands, or human cashiers?
The truth of the matter is many services today have been so standardized or streamlined the jobs of doing them become just as tedious or unimaginative as working at the assembly line of a factory.
People are afraid of machines replacing humans as service providers because they are afraid they'll lose that human touch, that deep warm fuzzy thing only human can relate to each other. But the irony of this is we ourselves rarely show that deep warm fuzzy thing to others in our day to day dealing with people.
So why not let machines do all the pretense jobs and give us superficial feel-good while we humans choose to use all the reclaimed time available to develop and express our true deep humanity in all occasions dealing with other fellow human beings?
Like next time when you say hi to a person, wear a genuine smile; when having a conversation with someone, truly listen, empathize, and engage.
Act like no robot, and we humans shall prevail!
