![]() We may have understood this in theory before, but now we have been forced to see it in action. Many people are now seeing how technological progress has enabled a world where work can be divorced from the office, and married to the home. ![]() To say that things have changed would be the understatement of the year. The mind was able to shift gears based on obvious environmental cues, and this delineation created some form of segmentation in one’s work and leisure life. If you found yourself within the four walls of your home, it was time to relax. If you were situated within the four walls of your factory or office, it was time to work. In both scenarios, however, labor and leisure were delineated by physical space. We’ve heard this argument in the era of offices, where rows of people were set up in cubicles, doing the same cognitive task over and over again until they went home to relax. We’ve heard this argument ever since the industrialized era, where rows of people were set up on assembly lines, doing the same physical task over and over again until they went home to relax. Humans and their ability to think become the source for labor, and it is commonly believed that this reduces people to mere task-completing drones, voiding them of any unique personalities or characteristics. Inherent in any technological advancement is the need for deeply laborious work, ironically to create products that make life easier for its users. If everything we touch in the material world has to serve some sort of function, isn’t it only a matter of time before humans themselves have to serve some sort of greater function as well? After all, we’re all a part of the material world too, right? If Condition #2 is taken to its logical endpoint, then things look even bleaker. Countless hours of manpower and thought will be allocated to this effort, searching for the marginal value one can get from destroying just a bit more. We will destroy acres of the forest to make a few more chairs. Martin Heidegger calls this the “standing reserve,” where nature is nothing but a reservoir for us to draw upon to make more shit. If Condition #1 is taken to its logical endpoint, then we will view the natural world primarily for its utility, rather than for its sheer beauty. However, we are all aware of the dark side of this progress as well. ![]() In this case, the always-on nature of the mind is a key feature of our species, creating products that hopefully increase well-being with each release. The fact that smart people all around the world are contributing a seemingly endless stream of ideas and insight is what powers technological growth. This is where the utility of thought shines. And it is only through curiosity and creativity where the desire to build a machine like this can come about in the first place. It is only through logistical ingenuity that we are able to extract materials out of the Earth, piece them together, and imbue the result with the attributes necessary to create an iPhone. Thought is the tool that allows both conditions to be satisfied. (2) It was created to serve some human function. (1) It was created using resources from the natural world, and In this case, we were using a simple cup, but whether it’s a cup, couch, lamp, or laptop, every material product shares two common threads: 1 Below is More To That’s first ever animation, which won’t be as mind-blowing, but hopefully is an enjoyable thing to experience. That must have blown his mind with the force of a million supernovas. For example, imagine the first person that was given a cup to drink from. All it takes is one look at your immediate surroundings to see evidence of this.Īlmost everything you can touch was once a cutting-edge invention. This endlessly growing web of thought has produced many brilliant things, but perhaps the greatest impact it has had on the material world comes in the form of technology. People are always saved after the death of him who saved them. This is why the words of dead poets, politicians, and philosophers grow increasingly influential as time runs its course. The moment one node dies, many others will learn from the ideas of that node, and those thoughts form the foundation of further ideas to come. There is no end to this march of human thought, as it transcends even death itself. Thought begets thought, and if you allow it to compound enough, it becomes an engine of innovation that produces all kinds of magical things. The mind’s superiority over the iPhone lies not in its computational power, but in its ability to continue thinking well after it has shut the iPhone down. Humankind holds power over its creations for one silly reason:
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