The evolving gearwheel

The world we live in is filled with technological marvels, a plenty of which we couldn't even conceptualize had we not witnessed them already. This world is a new world, having existed barely for a hundred years, during which the massive scientific development led us to leave behind our old lifestyle and proceed on to the era where the machine tells the man what to do. But this age isn't where the development ends by no means, we will keep on producing more marvels of science and see where they take us as a species. An educated guess would be that we're living in the last century where the man can still be described as an entirely biological being.

Attempting to guess precise things about what the future will bring us is futile and would eventually bring us the same ridicule as the estimates of how humans would, by the 21th. century, eat pills and drive flying cars. Therefore it is best to keep at vague guessing for through it we can tell the general direction of development relatively well. Some would go as far as to say this is all but stating the obvious, a statement which I'm partially inclined to agree with.

So, what can we expect to happen in the future? Machines. Mechanization has been a continuous trend in the history of man. The more we can have something else than a man do, the more time we have to indulge ourselves in whatever we please. The problem we still have to live with, however, is that the machines are incapable of doing everything we'd like them to do. But all this is slowly changing as the time goes by and the advances in machine automation and engineering allow for much greater independency. Life will get easier and the machines will get smarter. What could go wrong?

I'm sure everyone that has digested their Terminator-series can see dozens of different problems with the growing machine involvment in our lives, but personally I wouldn't worry about that. What I'd rather worry about is the affect the increased free time will have on our culture and psyche. Assuming we keep our consumeristic attitudes and keep on minmaxing our efficiency, we might come to a point where we develop an urge to constantly immerse ourselves in some kind of entertainment, just to keep the thought of boredom out of our minds. That's the flaw with us humans, we want to feel good. I fear the dystopian depicment of transhumanism where we've become but bodies linked to a great video feed while being pumped full of euphoric stimulants may be closer to the reality than we might think. I just can't see us getting over our craving for pleasure and entertainment, the things that will lead us to our death as thinking species.

The way we perceive

Beauty is a peculiar thing. It is what we like to surround ourselves with, what we hope to be and what we think is good. Now bear in mind that I do not refer to beauty in the traditional sense, the examples of which would be pretty women, landscapes and constructions. Instead I consider beauty to be the collective value of astonishment, pleasure and enjoyment these things can provide us.

Think of a pretty woman. The one that is pleasing to the eye and appears nice when viewed from a distance. Now think of a beautiful woman. Is there a difference? For me, the difference between the two would be that while a pretty woman may be aestethically pleasing, her prettiness doesn't tell anything about what kind of a person she is. She might be cheap and stupid or just have a horrible personality. However, while a beautiful woman would be aestethically pleasing as well, her beauty wouldn't be limited to the exterior. She would be classy and sophisticated, while retaining a certain level of cuteness. One could probably list a whole lot of attributes for a beautiful person, but that would only be appropriate. Beauty is, after all, personal.

The human will to surround ourselves with things we consider beautiful is a notable driving factor in our daily lives. Problems arise when a multiple people begin to desire the same thing. You cannot duplicate beauty even though you may try, for it arises from so many small things and experiences which led you to it. Competition exists, always. Nowadays many a people acquire money for the sake of acquiring money and are despised for that, but since the whole point of money is to sustain an easy system of trade, you could say that money is beautiful for it allows you to acquire the things you desire, the things you perceive as beautiful. But then again, is striving for acquisition of beauty a morally acceptable goal or just an excuse to deprive others of the things they appreciate as beautiful?

The vibrations within our heads

A man can derive his pleasure from a multitude of subjects. Each of these may be very important to the person in question, even though someone else can't see any sense with his fondness of whatever he finds pleasing. One could say this lack of global fondness of similar things is a fundamental flaw in all human interactions.

Take music for an example. Even though the physical structure of our ear canals is, neglible differences and major deformities aside, almost exactly the same, we perceive music in different ways. I can say for sure that amongst you readers there isn't a single person whose taste for soundwaves would be equal to that of an another. For this we can thank the most beloved mystery of science, the inner workings of our brain.

In fact it is our brain, or more precisely our ability to think, that is responsible for all the major problems that we now perceive. If you compare the workings of a human civilization to that of an insect colony, this difference can be capitalized. In the insect colony, each member has an assigned function to which they suit the best. In human civilization however, though striving to perfect it's efficiency, nothing really fits in it's place as it should. This is the byproduct of our mental independence - the final independence we're allowed to have.

So when people want you to become more efficient, to perform mindlessly like an insect following the will of the hive, keep in mind that in the end you're an individual thinker, one that can't ever be fully submerged into an external system. Learn to question the will of the hive, for through that you can find true meanings in your life. True freedom cannot exist without freedom of thought.