Recovering one’s Humanity in a Technological Age
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36, NKJV
We live in a world that actively seeks to dehumanize us — rob us of our very humanity — in order to boost the profit margin of a small handful of people. We live in a culture that seeks to commodify and mechanize everything — even life and the human soul — to serve the whims and fancies of a few people with seemingly limitless resources at their disposal. The small group of people at the very top of the totem pole of modern society may well have already relinquished their humanity to keep their grip on obscene levels of privilege, wealth, and status. It appears to suit them to rob the rest of us of our humanity as well.
The trend in modern society is to mechanize and industrialize relentlessly, because it maximizes short-term profits for these few. And this rule seems to apply even if adhering to it degrades and destroys the quality of life for the vast majority of the human populace.
Artificial Humanity
This relentless trend is apparent these days in the global push to develop AI (artificial intelligence). Huge investments are being made by mega-corporations to boost AI technology — even if it means undermining the quality of life for actual human beings. Water resources, the electric grid, coal and natural gas power plants, etc., are being diverted to maintain the absurd expense of running AI data centers and server farms, while living, breathing people are losing access to these same resources. We are having to settle for more expensive electricity and gasoline, and less access to a clean, potable water supply, so that giant technology companies can maintain AI chatbots that deliver cheesy animated graphics to tech consumers surfing the internet for cheap thrills.
At the core of this trend is a bizarre irony that makes apparent the degree of the short-sighted thinking and lack of strategic analysis underlying this push for AI. Indeed, some have suggested that it represents quasi-religious zeal in its illogicality. This irony expresses itself as follows. Live human beings are losing their livelihoods across all sectors of the economy on a massive scale so that giant mega-corporations can invest in AI, expecting the resulting cost savings to improve their long-term profit margins. However, when you destroy the livelihoods of millions of potential consumers worldwide, the question remains, for the corporate tech giants: who will be your future customer base? Who will be able to afford your products going forward?
Indeed, who else, other than machines and a few dehumanized, mechanized people, can survive the soulless hellscape that these mega-corporations seek to create — in the name of engendering a new techno-utopia?
Corporate Seduction
We have seen similar seductive, destructive industrial trends in the past. The promise of an abundant food supply enabled by the deployment of GMOs, soy products, and imitation meat yielded a reality of flavored refuse and granulated insects served up as haute cuisine! Fast-food and junk food products with zero nutritional value and loaded with artificial flavoring and synthetic preservatives are manufactured at scale and disseminated to the clueless masses. We have seen the promise of abundant medication for all being realized with a corrupt, predatory pharmaceutical industry profiting from pushing addictive opioids and untested vaccines on a panic-stricken public. We have seen Big Pharma corporations enjoying impunity from the vaccine injuries and medical complications inflicted on the population by their defective commodities.
We have witnessed the large-scale deployment of 5G and LTE cell phone towers, resulting in a 1000% increase in ambient EMF radiation levels, with no corresponding study of the long-term health effects of human tissue exposure to EMFs at these frequency ranges. We have looked on as greedy corporations push carcinogenic cigarettes and nicotine products, along with toxic agrochemicals like glyphosate, on an unsuspecting public. We have stared in incredulity as corporate CEOs in bizarre accents argue for the privatization of drinking water while flagrantly stealing fresh water from public water supplies to repackage it in cheap plastic bottles and resell it to the public at inflated prices.
All these practices, and many others, serve only to maximize corporate profits while demolishing and destroying human livelihoods and quality of life. Corporations have sought, and continually seek, to saddle people with unnecessary debt and hyperinflation, forcing the masses into poverty, along with a militarized police presence patrolling the city streets. This is destined to be the new normal, under the current corporate regime, it would seem. The overarching trend in society seems to be pushing human beings into a robot-like, mechanized, chemically fueled, substandard existence. Digital tracking, surveillance, “trans-human” synthetic chip implants, a grueling daily routine, and an inedible, unpalatable diet are likely to be our viable lifestyle choices while we remain distracted from our condition by bright lights flashing on video screens, headsets, and, very soon, chip implants.
Reclaiming our Humanity
What we need to do, at the very least, is to inculcate practices in our lives that reaffirm and reclaim our organic humanity and the spiritual dimension to our being. Simultaneously, we need to distance ourselves from the nefarious forces that seek to rob us of our humanity and reduce us to the level of disposable technology. We need to value our humanity again because, ultimately, that is what truly matters in this synthetic, mechanized world we call “modern civilization.”
We need to spend more time in nature, even in the wilderness. We need to learn to appreciate life’s simple pleasures — fresh air to breathe, clean drinking water, a walk in the park or at the beach. We need to practice writing in cursive with a pen and ink on paper. We need to play acoustic musical instruments tuned to the healing Solfeggio frequencies (A=444 Hz). We need to disconnect from our technology and devices and turn off the television and computer monitor. We need to read great classics in leather-bound volumes. We need to take vacations in beach huts and log cabins. We need to feast on fresh, organic produce. We need to spend time with family, friends, and community. We need to walk barefoot on the grass or sand. We need to spend time alone with our thoughts or in deep states of self-reflection, prayer, or meditation. We need to spend hours doing yoga asanas and qigong or taichi routines.
If we lose our humanity, our soul, there is simply no amount of money that can buy it back. Not billions, not trillions, not quadrillions, nor even zillions of dollars. Not all the gold or diamonds in all the asteroids in the solar system. We may imagine ourselves to be infinitely wealthy in material terms, but without a functioning human soul, without basic humanity, in our beings, we are merely condemning ourselves to an expensive, gilded tomb! All the treasure in the universe would only serve as decorations for one’s embalmed corpse.
