To what extent are we going to let technology run our lives? I can understand wanting the Internet, a cellphone, even a bazillion-inch flat screen TV. But this latest gadget to come on the market, the iPosture, which screams at you whenever you sit in a hunched position, well, it’s just plain silly.
If you thought your parents were nagging you pretty hard at the dinner table, imagine a device that watches your every move (“beep I saw you hide your spinach in the napkin, eat it or no dessert beep“) without the ability to judge when it’s over-stretching its boundaries. Scores of children would grow up hating both the device and their parents, wishing they had received more attention from them, swearing not to raise their kids the same way.
Sure, most people won’t buy these products (at least in the near-future) since it seems so insane and counter-natural, but what about those few who will? For example, parents who think their own parenting techniques are faulty may well wish for a family butler that can help teach their children proper manners. Just imagine if Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes had his own personal assistant, or had been forced to do his homework by an ever-watching guardian…
There are some folks already clamoring for robotic teachers which will teach our kids for us, or even robotic nannies for when parents want to go out on the town and leave the kids at home. But what such adoption mean for us as a culture and species?
This kind of technology may eventually produce better results than we ourselves, but in the end doesn’t it mean a departure from that which makes us human? While striving for perfection is human, does the same go for attaining it in every aspect and crevice of our lives?
Image: genewolf (Flickr,CC-Attribution)
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