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February 1 - April 22, 2023
technological people abandon human ends in favor of exclusively technological ones.
“Digital technology has the potential to become the end rather than the means, a lifestyle all on its own. Even though many will use the Internet to read, play music, and learn as part of their lives in three dimensions, the digital world offers the possibility, even the temptation of becoming a world unto itself.”
“Humans die due to some technical glitch. The heart stops pumping blood. The main artery is clogged by fatty deposits.”14 Furthermore, “Every technical problem has a technical solution. We don’t need to wait for the Second Coming in order to overcome death. A couple of geeks in a lab can do it. If traditionally death was the speciality of priests and theologians, now the engineers are taking over.”
morphological freedom means the ability to take advantage of whatever technology a person wants to in order to change their body in any way they desire.
“Online interactions aren’t just different from real-world interactions; they’re measurably worse. Humans learn empathy and understanding by watching how their actions affect other people. Empathy can’t flourish without immediate feedback, and it’s a very slow-developing skill.”
We, like the religious professionals in Jesus’ story, might pass by on the other side, neglecting our needy neighbor, not because we want to but because we’re scrolling through our Facebook feed or immersed in a virtual world, missing the need entirely.
The ease with which we can achieve these values in “relationships” with robots will change our expectations of our human relationships.
This is an increasing problem. Robots offer friendship without friction. They share our worldview perfectly and are always available and attentive. We will come to expect this from human friendships too and will be sorely disappointed when we do.
We do not experience the diversity we think we do in virtual worlds.
“Sometimes it is easier to invent a new technology than to start a conversation.”15 Conversation cannot be replaced.
