We often seem mesmerized by the marvels of technology.
Perhaps, as a species, we always have been, which if so may signal that much of what is seemingly new isn't...all that much.
Something about man-made technology seems to pull us away from the technology of the natural world.
I was on a walk early one morning and heard the blast of a train horn off in the distance. I remember having a feeling about it. It was cool. Cool, because of what it represented and the technology involved with building a device that can carry large weights and quantities of things over great distances. Cool, also, probably because of something nostalgic about it that struck a cord in me.
Meanwhile, birds were tweeting. Bullfrogs were belching. The leaves of trees were rustling all around me. There was nearly constant sound, multiple simultaneous sounds, as the world was waking up.
I read something recently that promoted the notion that you really have to look at something for more than a minute or two to actually see something. In other words, it’s not just staring at something, it is receiving what you’re seeing in a way that allows you to truly see what the image represents. In our scrolling-laden age, we look at millions of things and don’t really see very much of anything. We’re not, I suppose, really looking; contemplating what we're seeing, taking in their significance.
Whether listening or seeing, we’re missing so much of what is all around us, as we mesmerize ourselves with the latest man-made technology, largely fascinating, but not very enlightening.
And this, perhaps, is as much a function of the information itself. Not all information is of equal value. Some of it, just because it exists, is meaningless. It’s just there. It may be entertaining, but offers very little to life (not everything is 'life-changing', nor should it be). We seem to take great pride in our ability to process information when, in fact, we’re not really processing much of it at all, not to mention what of it is actually of any value to us.
This is likely why, time and again, distancing ourselves from the bright-and-shiny of technology, and returning to the basic environments, systems, and beauty of the natural world often reveal (not only the distinction) something more valuable to the core of who we are as human-beings.
