Saturday, April 25, 2009

Physical Health in the New World of Technological Modernity


I fear humankind is headed to creating our own dreaded Star Wars Death Star through the inventions of technological modernity.  Honestly, I don’t know why human life expectancy has increased so much in modernity, because historically our ancestors were lucky to live past 30yrs old, and at the same time they were probably in better physical shape.
Our success is probably due to health zealots.  Everywhere you go people are reading labels, trying new diets, and buying local.  People are showing concern.  They want to know where their food comes from, what kind of pesticides where used, where GMOs used, and does it have gluten.  This probably adds up with new healthcare technologies to produce people that at least live longer happier lives.
Despite the good news, I do foresee some obstacles to physical health in the modern world.
  • Many of us in the 1st world are overweight and suffer from diabetes.
  • Many of us go from watching television to the internet or video games and back again exercising minimally each day.  That is, we go from watching one box to another box with no physical improvement.
  • Many of us leave our houses in order to travel in automobiles, rather than walking.  That is, we go from living in one box, such as a house, to another box, such an office, to another box, such as a car getting virtually no exercise.
  • Rather than traversing to a person’s house for communication, we talk on cell phones.  How many of us can honestly say that we know our neighbors?
  • Musicianship has been replaced by gadgets that resemble toys more than musical instruments.
  • Though we may live longer now we need to do some self analysis.  We need to ask; who can walk a few miles? Because proportionately more of us probably can’t than in the historical Dark Ages, and medieval period, despite all the concern about diets, and health.As technology increases, is the world of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator coming or is it a reality now?  What of machines making other machines with a program of how to take over the world, a threat mention by Stephen Hawking.

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