Is Technology Dependency Really A Concern?

Technology has been developing at a rapid rate over the past few centuries, and technology dependency has been rising along with it. We have come to a point now, where some of our most difficult tasks are being outsourced to technology. However, over the past decades, things have started to make a further shift. The word ‘smart’ has started to come in: ‘smart’ phone, ‘smart’ TV, ‘smart’ watch, etc. What this means is that even basic human functionality is being outsourced to technology.

Of course, such a development makes our lives very comfortable. At the same time, it makes us all the more dependent on technology. People who are a little older might tend to recall that they had all their friends’ and family’s phone numbers in memory. I remember memorizing routes before making journeys. But these days, no one needs to do this, smart phones and map applications have solved these problems.

But What if we are put in a position where technology is no longer accessible or available to us? Could this technology dependency leave us less capable as human beings? Let’s find out.

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What if?

Let’s imagine a scenario where the ‘what if’ part comes true. What is a hypothetical scenario in which we lose access to our ‘smart’ technology? Actually, let’s pull back even further and talk about just plain old technology. Everyone has seen the scene in post-apocalyptic movies and videogames where people are trying to light a fire, but are unable to do so. If we have access to neither matches nor lighters, how would our lives change?

Let’s start with something more basic, which is lighting up a room at night. We all know that candles can be used for this purpose. However, let us assume that no one knows how to make candles (I sure don’t) or even have access to them anymore. How would you go about creating some form of artificial lighting without using electricity? What alternative methods could you use?

What if you suddenly found yourself faced with this situation? Could you cope? Would it be possible without any modern technology? Of course, there are likely other alternatives as well. Although, I am sure most of us would find ourselves rather unprepared and incapable of surviving without electric lights. So why exactly is this happening? It happens because as human beings, we are increasingly becoming dependent on things that we don’t understand or control.

Doesn’t Schooling Solve the Problem?

We are all taught the basics of science and technology right from the lower classes right up and until we graduate, and possibly, even further. But still, if you honestly answered the questions asked above, and felt that you would struggle to cope with the ‘what if?’ scenario, you would be in the majority, including myself. So, what gives? It appears to be the case that schooling doesn’t solve our tech-dependency problem. To be fair, schooling is aimed to integrate us all as contributing members of our respective societies. And it just happens to be the case that basic technological (survival) skills are not necessary to be a contributor in society these days.

The Heart of The Problem

It appears that the more complicated the technology, the lesser we are capable of surviving without it, and conversely, the more dependent we are on it. Over the course of the last couple of centuries, humanity seems to have been focused on developing specialists, and this has caused people to be extremely good at one thing, and just a consumer of the other things that others are good at. In other words, we seem to have an optimization problem here. We as a group have been focused on optimizing for specialists, and as one of the consequences, have made the majority dependent consumers of the work of other specialists. I’ve covered another aspect of this issue at hand in ‘A Grand Theory on Modern Market Slavery.’

Exploring Solutions

If we look at the issue at hand from a practical perspective, it is clear that it is not possible for everyone to be good at everything tech. However, we cannot leave things as they are either. We need people to be able to survive at least the most basic ‘what if’ scenarios we can come up with. People need not know how to generate electricity or make candles, but they need to be at least in a position to ask the right questions and ready to figure out to answers in order to help them survive.

One potential way of achieving this could be gamified survival simulations in parallel to conventional schooling as well as in adulthood. Certifications based on such basic tech skills requiring renewals every two years (to ensure that skills done wane) could be a solution without hampering current systems too much.

Another potential solution could be to form survival units within our local neighborhoods, where a group of specialists with different, yet complimentary skillsets are banded together to form a survival-team that is able to survive our most basic ‘what if’ scenarios. This way, we don’t disturb our current system of specialist-optimization that much, but use our social skills to take advantage of it. Again, we could also build a system of regular examinations (akin to fire-fighter drills) on top to ensure function-ready units at all time.

Conclusion

Are we currently too dependent on technology? Unfortunately, yes. Are there ways to solve this dependency problem? Fortunately, also yes. The key is for us to recognize that we have this problem. The ‘what if’ scenarios that we looked at seem far-fetched and very improbable. However, ‘improbable’ is very different from ‘impossible’. Murphy’s Laws and the Black Swan theory together ensure that when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong. Therefore, we should not wait for things to go horribly wrong due to react first. We should instead be preemptive in our approach; a sort of an insurance mechanism if you will. This way, we can enjoy the benefits of the most advanced technological developments of our age whilst being capable of building the most basic tech we need to survive or flourish at the same time.

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Further reading that might interest you: Is Higher Education A Scam? And Part II: Is Higher Education A Scam.