So you like high-technology. But do you like Totalitarianism?

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by Voice of Truth, May 23, 2011.

  1. Voice of Truth

    Voice of Truth Member

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    I'm not working for a spy agency, law enforcement, trying to start a cult and I don't have acccess to software that allows me to have thousands of different propoganda promoting identities.

    I suppose that as a father and a grandfather I've developed a dislike for impoliteness. Perhaps it's arrogance or perhaps it's the crankyness of old age. But I did not write something just to receive adolescent accusations of having a hidden agenda or to be insulted. The only agenda I have is that of an old man who doesn't get to see his family as much as he used to.
     
  2. etkearne

    etkearne Resident Pharmacologist

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    Good post. It is a bit long-winded, but I think I understand what you are trying to convey. I personally just try to live my own life, which only utilizes the modern technology that genuinely benefits me.

    I rarely watch TV, except for the occasional news and baseball game (both available in the 50s). I don't own any video games. I have a bookshelf as large as that of some small libraries. I have three or four friends, but they all are like brothers and sisters to me. We know everything about each-other and spend hours talking about REAL topics like "What is morality", "What is the nature of spacetime (I have a degree in Math/Physics and am a grad student in Math)?", "Why are people more keen on grinding with strangers at clubs over sitting around, genuinely talking?", etc.

    I don't get mad that society has spawned a bunch of robotic people and useless materials. I just choose to reject most of it, and happily go my merry (but tangential and perpendicular) way. Most people think I am weird. But most people who think that wouldn't be any fun to talk to.

    It isn't a sense of superiority, just of difference. I feel different, but I am not going to quantify it as 'better' or 'worse.' It just exists.

    One technology I think is amazingly valuable is the internet. Simply because it enables people to research subjects with so much more ease than in the past. Things like wikipedia.org and sites like this (although this site is not a research site haha) allow people who would have otherwise been 'in the dark' to become educated about things. Of course, the internet is mostly used for vain purposes, but to an academic, the fact that, for example, all of Springer Publishing's books and journals can be accessed by me (since I am a graduate at a research Uni) at home, is amazingly important.
     
  3. Voice of Truth

    Voice of Truth Member

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    I know I'm long-winded. Being long-winded used to work great for magazine articles but it tends to be really discouraged on the Internet. So I'll just say you kind of missed the point.

    As far as your comment about the Internet,
    Allow me to say that I think it was the worst thing ever created since the atomic bomb. It is both the weapon that will finally turn our young into illiterate serfs and the chain that Big Brother will use to keep our prison doors locked.

    And yes, I'm aware that this conversation is made possible by use of the Internet.
     
  4. etkearne

    etkearne Resident Pharmacologist

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    Well, then, what is your point? Being long-winded is never a good thing, despite your romanticized opinion of it.

    The internet is simply a tool. If people want to be stupid with it, so be it. Like the many benefits of it that I mentioned, there are more, and I enjoy utilizing it for these purposes.

    Again, please, in a straightforward manner, explain your "point."
     
  5. Voice of Truth

    Voice of Truth Member

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    What I wrote is pretty straightfoward and readily understandable by any layman. But to be even more blunt, technology isn't improving our lives; it's enslaving us.

    Now I'm a very polite man. However you started your message with a statement that I was long winded. Now I've agreed with you as a matter of politeness. But obviously you didn't read most of what I wrote. Or if you did, you spent very little time considering your thoughts before commenting.

    Now I don't necessarily have a problem with that because I know a lot of people will be turned off by the length of what I wrote. Howerver and having said that, I'm not about to write a text notes or synopsis for those that don't want to spend 5 mintues reading and comprenhending before commenting. Afterall, I took the time to write it. The polite thing would be to read it before voicing an opinion. (And if you don't understand what was written, it's polite to ask questions for clarification)
     
  6. etkearne

    etkearne Resident Pharmacologist

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    Yeah. I DID read every word of it. And I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out what you were really getting at. See, I know your main argument, but you have some sort of hidden agenda that I can't quite understand. So, yes, I am politely asking for clarification. But, saying that any layman would understand this is quite insulting to me, and being polite is becoming difficult. However, seeing as I am the only person actually discussing this, it would be to your advantage to explain all of this. Don't confuse my terse demeanor with rudeness. Like i said, I dislike excess wordiness.
     
  7. Voice of Truth

    Voice of Truth Member

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    I'm too old to do "hidden agendas."

    So best of luck to you.
     
  8. RooRshack

    RooRshack On Sabbatical

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    I do nothing of importance over the phone.

    I greatly value the internet and PC.

    Hipforums is the only thing I do on the internet that singles me out, and the only place I voice opinions.
     
  9. HermanDaVermin

    HermanDaVermin Banned

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    :smilielol5:
    :rofl:

    Answered like a true agenda driven person whom when asked to expound on the half-thought through ideas folds and as a means of defense bids a hasty retreat. The whole time so convinced of the superiority of their own ideas that they are blind to how ludicrous they actually are.

    If you can only come up with 4 technological advances in the last half century that have impacted everybody's lives, and no positive ones from your perspective, then you either are uneducated to the extreme, willfully ignorant, or Amish.

    Voice of Truth.....hardly.
     
  10. The Chinaman

    The Chinaman Member

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    Without a doubt.
     
  11. etkearne

    etkearne Resident Pharmacologist

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    I will also say that I now, exclusively use this site as my voice. I closed my FaceBook account a week ago simply because it was all getting way too creepy. I simply wanted "Out", so now I post here, but removed any photos of myself, so that I remain relatively anonymous, but can still voice my opinion on things.
     

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