{"id":13263,"date":"2019-06-04T08:25:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T22:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=13263"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:38:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T06:38:57","slug":"are-you-afraid-of-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/are-you-afraid-of-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Afraid of Technology?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" src=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Body-Chip-300x183.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13264\" srcset=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Body-Chip-300x183.jpg 300w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Body-Chip-768x469.jpg 768w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Body-Chip-150x92.jpg 150w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Body-Chip.jpg 810w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com.au\/swedish-people-embed-microchips-under-skin-to-replace-id-cards-2018-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Business Insider (opens in a new tab)\">Business Insider<\/a>, thousands of Swedish people recently embedded grain-sized microchips under their skin to replace ID cards. Following the trend of wearable technology and interconnected devices like watches and rings, the idea is to make people\u2019s daily lives easier \u2013 users can waft a hand over a machine to unlock doors, pay for services, even travel by train. Sounds convenient, and fun \u2013 like being Darth Vader!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Possible\ndownsides of course include a risk of infection, the body reacting to the\ndevice, hacking and unauthorised surveillance \u2013 although users claim not to be\nconcerned because the data collected and shared is \u201ctoo limited\u201d. Bionyfiken\nfounder Hannes Sj\u00f6blad told Tech Insider in 2015 that, \u201call of the wearables we\nwear today will be implantable in five to ten years\u201d. Are we excited or\nconcerned about this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zena-Shapter-reading-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13266\" srcset=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zena-Shapter-reading-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zena-Shapter-reading-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zena-Shapter-reading-1024x682.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zena-Shapter-reading-150x100.jpg 150w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zena-Shapter-reading.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyone who\u2019s\nread M.T. Anderson\u2019s near-future dystopian novel \u2018Feed\u2019 might be concerned. I\nread the book recently while tutoring one of my high school students HSC\nEnglish, and loved it \u2013 especially its opening line: \u201cWe went to the moon to have fun, but\nthe moon turned out to completely suck.\u201d With a satirical humour, the book deals with issues like consumerism,\ntechnology, environmental decay and data mining. In particular, characters have\na \u2018feed\u2019 implanted in their brains to give them constant access to the internet\nand social media. Needless to say, things don\u2019t go smoothly!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pandora.nla.gov.au\/pan\/10063\/20181220-0000\/www.antisf.com.au\/the-stories\/the-final-squeeze.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Zena-Shapter-The-Final-Squeeze-693x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12967\" width=\"173\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Zena-Shapter-The-Final-Squeeze-693x1024.jpg 693w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Zena-Shapter-The-Final-Squeeze-203x300.jpg 203w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Zena-Shapter-The-Final-Squeeze-768x1135.jpg 768w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Zena-Shapter-The-Final-Squeeze-101x150.jpg 101w, http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Zena-Shapter-The-Final-Squeeze.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it\u2019s\nokay for things not to go well in fiction, where we have the opportunity to safely\nexplore possible consequences of the way we live and the technology\/science we\ndevelop to improve our lives. I love writing science fiction for that very\nreason. What if machines\nbecome sentient? Would human clones have human rights? What if we could live\nfor centuries, erase or alter our memories, or tamper with our DNA? What if we\nreintroduced dinosaurs into our ecosystem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Jeff\nGoldblum\u2019s character Ian Malcolm says in \u2018Jurassic Park\u2019, \u201cYour scientists were\nso preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn\u2019t stop to think if\nthey should.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Countless\nbooks and movies offer different perspectives on this, exploring the\nconsequences of scientific or technological \u2018progress\u2019, questioning whether\nit\u2019s progress at all. Take for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns has-2-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Matrix<\/li><li>Terminator<\/li><li>Transcendence <\/li><li>Minority Report<\/li><li>Ex Machina<\/li><li>AI Artificial Intelligence <\/li><li>I, Robot<\/li><li>Westworld<\/li><li>The Net<\/li><li>1984<\/li><li>2001: A Space Odyssey<\/li><li>Total Recall <\/li><li>Black Mirror<\/li><li>Frankenstein <\/li><li>The Island<\/li><li>Planet of the Apes<\/li><li>The Man in the White Suit<\/li><li>Inception&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/li><li>Her<\/li><li>Blade Runner&nbsp;<\/li><li>WALL-E<\/li><li>Gattica<\/li><li>The Martian<\/li><li>Arrival<\/li><li>Never Let Me Go<\/li><li>Altered Carbon<\/li><li>Ender&#8217;s Game <\/li><li>Jurassic Park<\/li><li>I Am Legend<\/li><li>The War of the Worlds <\/li><li>Frankenstein <\/li><li>The Time Machine <\/li><li>Brave New World <\/li><li>Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zena-Shapter-dragons.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13267\" width=\"300\" height=\"263\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And there are so many other stories \u2013 there are an easy 100 science fiction books listed <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"over here (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/reedsy.com\/discovery\/blog\/best-sci-fi-books\" target=\"_blank\">over here<\/a> \u2013 stories that resonate with us because of the terrible scientific or technological doom they forewarn us to avoid, stories that help us understand where we are and where we\u2019re going, stories that also offer hope\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, stories might be the very things to save us, because it\u2019s through exploring concepts and dangers in the safety of story that we might predict dangers to avoid, and act accordingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/we-are-all-stories-in-the-end-Zena-Shapter.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13270\" width=\"300\" height=\"375\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A friend recently told me the story of how his car keys stopped working down the beach one day, due to saltwater getting into the batteries; it meant he couldn\u2019t start his car. Did you know you can insert the key fob into a slot in the dashboard of those types of car to start the engine regardless of whether the key\u2019s working or not? His story might save me from being stranded if I\u2019m ever in the same situation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another\nfriend recently told me the story of how she dropped her smartphone into water,\nbut because she buried it in rice and the rice absorbed the water, it continued\nfunctioning. That story might save my own phone if I ever do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What about electric car windows? In the movies, passengers trapped inside cars sinking slowly underwater can never buzz their windows down, and there are no longer handles to wind them up or down manually. So if you\u2019re ever in a car heading into water, buzz the windows down in mid-flight! Now there\u2019s a story that might literally save your life! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stories can\nsave us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So when friends talk about the dangers of unrestrained technological innovation, of creating AIs (Artificial Intelligence) that understand us better than we understand ourselves (and might use that against us), or of &#8216;singularity&#8217;\u200a \u2013 \u200athe point at which machines become so powerful no one can predict the future \u2013 I turn to stories for reassurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s harder jogging with a bulky Walkman\nfor music, rather than a smartphone. I couldn\u2019t operate my mobile office\nwithout the internet. I love stuffing clothes in my washing machine, pressing \u2018start\u2019,\nthen walking away. So technology definitely plays a substantial role in my\nlife. But am I concerned? Not while I have stories to guide me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Business Insider, thousands of Swedish people recently embedded grain-sized microchips under their skin to replace ID cards. Following the trend of wearable technology and interconnected devices like watches and rings, the idea is to make people\u2019s daily lives easier \u2013 users can waft a hand over a machine\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"continue-reading-button\"> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/are-you-afraid-of-technology\/\">Continue reading<i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Are You Afraid of Technology? Explore these dangers of innovation and let me know!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[2123,2124,2111,2118,2138,2136,2106,2126,2132,2142,2100,2104,2109,2139,2130,2116,2108,1328,2134,2105,2131,1373,2140,2113,280,2103,2112,329,2107,2110,2117,2137,2143,2128,2120,2144,2101,1807,2127,2129,2135,2122,2121,2141,1747,2125,2115,2133,2102,2119],"class_list":["post-13263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writer-advice","tag-2123","tag-2001-a-space-odyssey","tag-ai","tag-ai-artificial-intelligence","tag-altered-carbon","tag-arrival","tag-bionyfiken","tag-black-mirror","tag-blade-runner","tag-brave-new-world","tag-business-insider","tag-darth-vader","tag-dna","tag-enders-game","tag-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind","tag-ex-machina","tag-feed","tag-frankenstein","tag-gattica","tag-hannes-sjoblad","tag-her","tag-i","tag-i-am-legend","tag-ian-malcolm","tag-inception","tag-interconnected","tag-jeff-goldblum","tag-jurassic-park","tag-m-t-anderson","tag-machines","tag-minority-report","tag-never-let-me-go","tag-nineteen-eighty-four","tag-planet-of-the-apes","tag-robot","tag-singularity","tag-swedish","tag-terminator","tag-the-island","tag-the-man-in-the-white-suit","tag-the-martian","tag-the-matrix","tag-the-net","tag-the-time-machine","tag-the-war-of-the-worlds","tag-total-recall","tag-transcendence","tag-wall-e","tag-wearable-technology","tag-westworld"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zena-Shapter-dragons.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13263"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13293,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13263\/revisions\/13293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}