About me
In constant progress, technology keeps us informed and aware. It can save our lives with scientific discoveries and offers the possibility to share worldwide information. Today, is there a single thing that technology can’t do? More evolved than ourselves, this poisoned gift has quickly replaced human relationship. The glaring consequences of this isolation are not only towards society, it tends to affect our natural world as well. In a society where individualism has been an ideal for decades, should we be alarmed by this lack of communication?

Researchers have shown that our brains haven’t evolved as fast as technology, at least not enough to make the difference between what we see on screens and what we see in front of us. In other words, virtual “is” reality. Since we are not able to make the difference between real and unreal, we might prefer to be hooked to a screen where everything seems to be better... What about a new life to escape from all these messy and akward relationships, where you don’t have to worry about any social pressure? No formalization, no discipline, no need to perform. Furthermore, you can build the entire world the way you want it; you can have a new body, new friends and a new home. How easy it is to fall for this cutting edge reality, even more when the outside world seems to be destroyed.

But which came first? Is it the destruction of nature that bought game developers to create new and fantastic worlds? Or is it the ascent of digital imagery, our immersion into this new reality that caused us to devalue real nature and lead us to destroy it?

As iHuman, we’ve became anesthetized to eachother and the world around us, immobile and unable to think for ourselves. Cynical, ignorant and unable to create; this is what we’ve became by abandoning the natural Earth in favor of an artifical and digital world.
“It’s possible to imagine a new generation of tourists who skip backpacking in Europe because infinite (and safer) pleasures can be had by tapping at keyboards.’’ I can easily imagine people sitting near Machu Pichu with there iphone ready, taking pictures of this Inca site and sending it to hundreds of buddies by sharing it on Facebook. I wonder if someday we’ll forget to value the simple pleasure of walking, of feeling wind, rain and sun. By underestimating the natural world that much, it follows that we’ll destroy it.

Don’t be confined to this 1.5 cubic meter environment. The outside world is wide and even more real than anything you can see on your high definition computer screen, which is actually made of plastic components and Liquid Crystal Display. Keep in mind that it’s way better to realise and react towards our suffering Earth than try to escape a reality that will catch us up sooner or later.

(Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, www.fantasyfreaksbook.com) In constant progress, technology keeps us informed and aware. It can save our lives with scientific discoveries and offers the possibility to share worldwide information. Today, is there a single thing that technology can’t do? More evolved than... (more)