Dialectic Two-Step – How Can Technology Minimize Suffering?

Dialectic Two-Step  is an ongoing series of my thoughts on questions that come my way.

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio Paz  

How Can Technology Minimize Suffering?

Question: How can the advancement of technology be used to minimize suffering around the world?

Response: I think there are two key ways in which advancing technology has always been able to minimize suffering.

1. Improve quality of life through advancements in science and the arts. We can reduce the impact of disease, increase safety, and promote a better educated society.

2. Spread the message that suffering can also be minimized by waking up to the world.

We continue to make steady progress on the first point. On the latter, we may be failing.

Minimize Ego, Minimize Suffering

Beyond disease, old age and death, much of our anguish is self-perpetuated. We are dissatisfied because the world doesn’t meet up with our expectations. When we recognize that any leverage we feel we have on the world is inconsequential, we can let go of our preferences, aversions, and disappointment. This opens a space within to appreciate the beauty, wonder, and mystery of the world as it is.

Ironically this message is often lost on the more technologically advanced nations. We might take a lesson from our more modest neighbors on this important point.

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