High beyond the ramparts, within the bone and beyond the sinew, the flesh, and the pulsating blood: red, blue, violet, pink. Beyond the throbbing, pulsating, quivering mass of flesh, the last remnants of individual expression resides. Locked away in bone and tissue, blood and nerve synapses hidden from our prying eyes.
Considering one’s very voyeuristic inclinations. Thus, even the ministrations of mere psychoanalysis or the attempts at high technology CAT scans can never reveal all. Nor should it reveal all! That individualized reaction, that response, the emotive electrical impulse jump. Are these not hidden away in this pulpy mess of juices, tissue, sinew, bone and nerve impulse?
A resounding yes should be the response!
It isn’t so much the magic, the mystery of existence, arguably metaphysical naturalism or teleological in form, perhaps the very perfidious nature of life itself; but rather the transformation of being the advancement of culture - in short, the impact of technology. This advancement, from the first discovery of fire, the harnessing of its power, the invention of the wheel, all rudimentary technology by our standards of today, nonetheless vital to our very existence, undeniably but, as technology has a nasty habit of doing, it advances, and with this advancement comes many things great, and for some, many things fearful.
The advances made in that nice little exercise we call Science, has within it all the trappings of deceit. It leads us forward into technological milestones on the one hand, but damns us with faint praise in removing the spirit from our natural beings, leaving us as hollow shells that once contained the fruits of happiness, rapture, a oneness of being, in fact pure and unadulterated existence itself. This existence would have been a veritable Golden Age of Man.
Man is a social creature by nature, and as a collective we sublimate our own will for the good of the group; each bringing skills, and knowledge to bear and within this unit of force. We advance our gathering by means of technological advancement. Technology, on the other hand will also reduce us to a common denominator, a level playing field, a perfect conundrum. For without any sort of technology, mankind as a species would have remained on a simple level not much above the dumb beasts he exploits for his own pleasure and gain.
Now, the other side of technology brings to us an ease of living, a myriad of choices in which we may enjoy the comforts and refinements in our day-to-day existence, heretofore unimaginative and undreamed of. With each generation of advancement brings more leisure time for more pleasurable pursuits and away from the drudgery of day-to-day necessities for our existence.
The advent of this newest technological marvel called computers, has fine-tuned this release from the bondage of numerous tasks in research and communications. This opens a veritable Pandora’s Box for us all. For good and for evil, as it has begun to demonstrate already. While the ease of communication, the sophistication of gadgetry and toys at our disposal gives us ammunition for creative growth, mental stimulation and should by its very existence improve the quality of our lives, it also presents us with a cocoon that envelops us and separates us from our fellow man. Thousands of years of evolution taught us to come together as a group, ultimately beyond the family unit to a larger society upon which we network and integrate our lives. But now what is happening is we are becoming more isolated with the technology even as we reach across cyberspace that ultimately shrinks the real world for us, in a manner of speaking.
This double-edged sword of technology may eventually lead us to a point where we will not have to settle for a spouse or even a family that nature would present to us. We may be able to custom order one in the form of some sort of biologic cybernetic manufacture. So, the technology can work for us and against us, depending upon how we choose to allow it.
It will be as though we can look online at websites featuring custom-made creature to do all of our mundane tasks. Free labor, no resistances, and in fact depending upon our personal needs, someone or thing, to watch over us like a guardian. This would free us up to devote all of our precious time to pursuits of pleasure. Indeed, even these custom-designed creatures could satisfy the more primal urges seething beneath the surface. There is no limit to the possibilities offered. It is just a question of when and how this process of technology will become available to us.
It’s all a matter of time…
It all returns to the axis point, the focus, the very center of our perceptions of ourselves, others and how we respond, react, relate to the palpable existence we cling desperately to in the complete knowledge that the void, oblivion is just over the next horizon. Now we near the point where the physical realm that we call into question, becomes more and more the object of our manipulation and to the abilities of our minds to take us into these new realms of thought and substance. It is within this realm that we give vent to our most secret needs and desires with technology facilitating the ride.
Richard Misiano-Genovese
(2008)