The Robotic Technophobic Sloth

The Robotic Technophobic Sloth is us. It is you. It is me. It is our culture. Now let me explain.
The title typifies portions of our culture and certain cultural attitudes towards new media. Our society is becoming increasingly dependent upon technology. Similarly to what Marshall McLuhan stated about media being an extension of our selves and part of our bodies, a large part of our cultural identities and our humanity is contained within computers. In fact, I would go as far as to make the analogy that if there were to be a major computer attack within our country (we'll call it "cancer") against the infrastructure that governs our communication systems (we'll call that "the lungs") there would significant maybe even devestating disruption to our lives. We have become, in a sense, robotic, or at the very least cyborgs.

But where all this stems from, as well as the idea of us being technophobe's, is from Nicholas Negroponte's book Being Digital. The book is full of "predictions" about the future of media that, now, 12 years later, we are seeing many coming true. Because of the accuracy of his insight, we must take a look at some of the "predictions" that either did not or are slow to pass. Take for instance what he has to say about education. On page 220 he writes that classrooms and teaching in general are one area that have remained relativly untouched by the advancement of digital technology and that "84 percent of America's teachers consider only one type of information technology absolutely 'essential': a photo copier with an adequate paper supply." Now I understand that there are many different factors that determine why the arena of education has not "kept with the times" and an area such as the medical field has. But it is subtly indicitive of where the mentality towards new media and technology lies. Given that technology is an extension of ourselves and one must use to learn that technology at some point in their life, it could certainly be understood why certain members of our society are afraid of or at the very least resistent to new technology.

Technological advancement is coming whether people want it to or not. Due to cultural resistence to the "next next thing" in technology it is proceding at a pace no faster than that of a sloth. This pattern is cyclical: technology is released, people adjust and adapt and endure the growing pains. Just as soon as they begin reaching their stride with the new technology, something else new is released and the whole process begins again. I do not know whether Steve Jobs made the chicken or Bill Gates laid the egg, but technology developers weigh heavily the proper time and distribution of what they create so as not to have our bodies (society) reject what is being put into it.

Then again maybe this all just circumspection and I'm just getting to be an old robotic technophobic sloth.