Life was somewhat simpler during the pre-internet days. No disractions from stuff like internet chatting, porn and real news, not the doctored censored ones you find in the print media. Information was scarce. To obtain information on the economy for example would require one to collate newspaper clippings, or spend lots of money accumulating annual reports of BNM for example. To obtain diverse views and opinions on technical matters would require one to attend seminars at ridiculous prices or buy expensive books.
But at least those days, we were resigned to the situation and made do with whatever we could have. Life went on. We didnt worry much.
But with the internet over the past few years, life has been not been a bed of roses. Ones eyes are forced open by not only the amount of porn thats too easily accessed, but more importantly how unjust a world we seem to live in. We begin to learn how our lives are indirectly or directly screwed by the powers that be. That theres always a hidden agenda in whatever thats been decided up there in our gomen aka government. We learn how the police appear to be the licensed thugs in this country. How politicians have a hand in the economic pie. How percentages are what they live for. How almost every project in the country is done at such an inflated amount so that someone gets their percentages. How the bright are deprived of the chances thats due to them either career wise or education wise. How the colour of skin dictates how you progress in the civil service.
You also realise how the ones screwing this country, are the very ones getting screwed by smarter people overseas. You would also learn that there is a lot of talk but action of the opposite nature in the real world. For example, to have a brain gain program to encourage our smart ones overseas to migrate back, but make life almost a living hell with red tape when theyre here. And in the same breadth allowing our young smart ones being pinched by other countries all because the colour of their skin prevents them to have fair access to opportunities here.
I know i can go on and on. This morning it hit me. Wouldnt life be simpler if this technology wasnt around. Would i be not that distracted if i wasnt a bit enlightened by what i come across online. As exciting as its been, is the distraction worth it? Wouldnt i be spending time doing productive work rather than hammering out frustrations here. As usual, thats something i dont want to think about too much. Another few minutes wasted.
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3 comments:
I read Scott Adams's The Dilbert Future: Thriving on Business Stupidity in the 21st Century some years back. He noted that the pace of technology is too fast for human evolution. Only a handful of us are and will be able to grasp it. In a sense you could say that too much tech can only be detrimental for the rest of us.
For comparison, I read somewhere (maybe even from that book itself, I can't remember) that all the knowledge of an average farmer from the 18th century can be collated and printed on a normal newspaper size paper.
The mind boggles.
there's never enough information. its just that most of us dont have the capacity and intelligence to understand it.
i think if we dont have knowledge/information on how screwed up we are, we cant make better decisions for our kids.
well said.
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