
Technology is Heroin (2009) - ISL
http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2009/02/technology-is-h.php
======
Malician
Learning how to deal with the effects of technology, the instant gratification
and the multi-sensory stimulation it provides is, indeed, one of the great
challenges of the modern age.

The writer's specific examples grate on me. I do not think that most of them
are supportable - they seem to originate from a mono-cultural understanding of
the world which muddles influences from non-Western cultures with the effects
of technology. His description of life in rural America is important, not
because of the similarities to life in other historical cultures, but because
of the differences.

Take the music. There are more cultures in human history than merely rural
America. Many of them have historically relied on drum-heavy music.

Not just African music, either. Rhythm based music (often with spoken words)
has been important to many cultures and is not some sort of new demon fostered
by technology. I would "blame" multi-culturalism on its popularity, not
iTunes.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxk7c38Q-lQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxk7c38Q-lQ)

I do not believe in the slightest that intelligence is going down - not unless
you compare the elite of the past to the failing students of the present.
After all, the vast majority of people either didn't have access to much
reading material or have the time to peruse it.

We now have access to an always-on research library through the Internet. Does
everyone use it to its full potential? No, but there are a surprisingly high
number of people who go out and read research studies and long-form articles
of their own volition. I do not think books are innately superior.

Does his suggestion that Indians and Chinese are writing the software, which
Westerners merely consume, really jive with your experiences?

The drug war saved our country?

I do not want to fall prey to middlebrow dismissal, but these arguments
unnerve me and I think the point could have been made in a better way.

------
erikpukinskis
The author goes into delightful depth about the history of addiction, but then
implies at the end ("things that take mor brain time win") that after all that
we haven't evolved any defenses against it.

But there _are_ checks and balances against addiction in our culture. Your
friends start to get concerned. You lose your job and can't pay your WoW bill
anymore.

And these events afford us a time for reflection. I specifically _don 't_ do
World of Warcraft (or amphetamines) _because_ I know they're good at capturing
my "brain time". My fear is bad for WoW's growth.

I do agree Internet addiction is a public health crisis. But I don't think
we're as powerless to take it on, both individually an collectively, as the
author implies.

~~~
frozenport
The moment you can't pay your WoW bill its too late, imagine how fucked up you
must be not to be able to pay $15 a month? Hell, Comcast is more expensive.

~~~
cdwhite
Perhaps "you lose your job and decide that your WoW bill is a non-essential
expense, and make the one-time, non-trivial-to-reverse decision to cut it,
which is much easier than every fifteen minutes crushing the urge to start
playing."

~~~
frozenport
Yeah, but you lost your job!!!

------
wavesounds
If you like this kind of Science Fiction check out Neuromancer by William
Gibson

But seriously saying Technology is Heroin is like saying Obama is Hitler.

Heroin is a serious fucking drug that will destroy your life. If your a heroin
addict you can't just stop doing heroin and go back packing in the forest for
a week.

Yet people take breaks from technology and the internet all the time and are
perfectly fine. Theres plenty of technology to be afraid of; dying in a car
accident, sitting in a chair too much, but Instagraming every meal you eat is
not one of them, thats just a little weird.

~~~
VladRussian2
correct title should have been "Technology is Dopamine". It is really
surprising to not see a mentioning of dopamine in an article on addiction of
technology.

Btw, dopamine is also key player in heroin addiction.

>Yet people take breaks from technology and the internet all the time and are
perfectly fine.

people take breaks from smoking, for example, all the time (i'm saying this as
a 10 years long smoker - i was taking breaks from smoking and i was perfectly
fine, just wanted to smoke the way i want to check email periodically. Quit
smoking 10+ years ago, still check email/stocks/news looking for the "rush"
though :)

------
hoprocker
Although I strongly agree with the basic premise -- namely, that many of us
could benefit from some reflection on our screen-gazing habits -- after the
Brief History of Drugs portion of this piece, it drifts off into speculation
that could be attributed to a William Gibson story. The comparison here might
be valid, but this piece could use some more info on how technology measurably
affects quality of life, quality of social health, and other factors.

------
normloman
This guy doesn't know shit about music. \- A music teacher.

------
p1esk
TV, video games, internet - information technology is evolving towards Matrix-
like virtual environment. It's not going to be forced on us by aliens, or
intelligent machines. We are going to build it, and we are going to like it.

Cochlear implants and artificial retinas can already inject information
directly into our brains, bypassing our senses. Artificial skin is being
developed to provide a sense of touch to prosthetic limbs. Direct brain to
brain communication was demonstrated, where one person was able to move
another person's finger as if it was his own finger.

A virtual reality technology has been pretty lame so far. However, if
traditional input/output devices are bypassed, people can experience it in a
natural way. A brain does not care where the data came from - a computer, or
your eyes - it's all just electrical signals. As long as that data is
realistic enough, your brain will believe it. Every sensory experience from a
real world can be recorded, analyzed, modified, and recreated in a virtual
world. Sound, touch, smell, taste - they are just patterns of electrical
activity to our brains.

After the technology is available, people are going to gradually migrate to
this new social environment. Your physical body remains in the real world,
where it can be connected to a sophisticated life-support machine, but most of
the time you spent in the "Matrix". Virtual reality will be interfaced with a
real world. There's no reason why it should be a closed, isolated environment.
Anyone will be able to perform their jobs in the real world from the virtual
one. A doctor can monitor your health as you lie down strapped to your life
support machine. Even a surgery can be done remotely. If people don't want to
leave the virtual world to do something in the real one, the technology will
appear to make it possible.

Now, back to the entertainment - can you imagine being a god? Anything you can
imagine will be possible. More than that - anything that anyone can imagine
will be shared and experienced. Just like in the real world, people will
create, buy, and sell good designs. A design can be anything - from a new pair
of shoes, to an entire planet, to a weird feeling, to an experience of being a
spider.

Your brain will believe it's real. Any you're going to like it.

~~~
a3voices
Would most people want to be gods? Video games are more fun without using
cheat codes.

~~~
p1esk
I don't see your point. If you don't want to do something, then don't do it.

My point was you'd be free to create your own reality, limited only by your
imagination.

~~~
a3voices
Well your reality might conflict with other people's, so you're not 100% free.

~~~
p1esk
Nope. If it's your reality, then you can do absolutely anything you want.
Other people will have to play by your rules (if they want to be in your
reality). This is the same as if you created your own private video game.

If you actually want to interact with other people in a 'shared' reality, then
of course you would have to follow rules set by whoever created that reality.

------
0xcolton
Seriously? What arbitrary metric of cultural value is this guy using other
than nostalgia? He makes a truly fascinating comparison, but like many of you
have said, his statistics are dubious. Technology's influence on evolution /
selection in modern society pushes us towards efficiency, connectivity,
knowledge, and truth. Its influence on art/music is profound, too, but we
can't qualify art anyway

~~~
VladRussian2
>Technology's influence on evolution / selection in modern society pushes us
towards efficiency, connectivity, knowledge, and truth.

it is really fascinating statement. Is gen X more efficient than boomers? and
Millenials more efficient than gen X? I'd agree with more connected. The next
2 are also doubtful - more knowledgeable (vs. baseline of available knowledge)
and more truthful.

------
frozenport
Heroin brought euphoria reading Wikipedia has made me knowledgeable on many
diverse subjects and those video games might have increased my focus and
problem solving skills. Video games and to a lesser extent television are
stimulating, while most drugs are not.

~~~
contingencies
_Video games and to a lesser extent television are stimulating, while most
drugs are not._

What about 'stimulants' then, mmm? Oh wait, you were only talking about mental
stimulation? Many actually do sharpen the mind. Nootropics? What about
psychadelics or lesser psychoactives then? Oh wait, you don't consider those
experiences 'stimulating'?

You put television above drugs? Psychoactives and similar experiences (eg.
sensory deprivation) really are critical to the history of human cultures...
in particular the emergence and development of visual art[1] and other forms
of communication (glyphs, writing, dance...). Television and radio, for all
their wonders, historically speaking do represent a johnny-come-lately,
distributed programming channel for an (a)pathetic population of pliant,
endebted, time-poor, couch-dwelling wageslaves subsisting on artifice and an
everpresent supply of tangential mental wankery.

I agree fully with 'all things in moderation, including moderation' as
suggested by your first sentence, but I disagree strongly with your
conclusion.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtymYxADpnE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtymYxADpnE)

------
matthewcford
Some good points, but Technology is a stimulant not a depressant (unless you
spend all your time on facebook looking at your friends' pictures), so it's
more like Cocaine.

------
Sagat
I think the problem is that there is too much content available, and it
paradoxically reduces interest.

