As IF Times

Source: New ‘Wearable Chair’ Allows You to be a Sit Down Slave at All Times – Summit News

Ingenuity and inventiveness are traits peculiar mainly to the human species. Most other living animals simply make do with what they have available and exist as well as their environment allows them.  The human species has managed to leverage the use of opposable thumbs to create all kinds of life aiding devices throughout our history.  Well, let’s say most of the species.  There are still those for whom living in a hut with a dirt floor is a big deal. For most of mankind however, starting from the time when someone figured out that fire made food taste better, created more comfortable homes and repelled wild animals, the path was set to discover and create new things to further enhance the experience of living.  As an aside, imagine if patent laws were in existence back then.  That guy would be getting royalties from all fires ever in existence.

Fast forward through generations of human history to our present day and we observe that the advance of technology continues to enable all kinds of ingenious inventions.  The TV remote comes to mind as does the mute button for watching certain news channels. On the other hand, we also see inventions that are created in dire search of an actual  need or that serve very questionable ones. Coloring book apps are an example.  Also the ones that superimpose cartoon features on a photo; they’re amusing for 12 seconds, sort of like a shiny light to a kitten. However, the market for phone apps continues to be robust beyond the essential map function that is probably by far still the most useful application.   Nowadays, there is an ‘app’ for most everything that purportedly makes living easier for us.  The smartphone has become the default resource for answers to any and all of life’s questions.  You can even talk to it, somewhat reminiscent of the HAL computer from the film, 2001 A Space Odyssey.

It has supplanted even the need for personal interaction.  Next time you are at a gathering of your friends, observe how many are glued to their phone screens even as conversations are occurring around them. It’s not just an affliction of the young; people of all ages are mesmerized by that little 3-1/2 by 5 inch bit of screen. The phone has transcended from being an information device to become a surrogate for social interaction.

And why not?  Phone apps are available now to serve virtually every need of modern people.  You can order food, hail a ride, book tickets, order maid service, turn off your home lights, check football scores, watch the front door and get a date for Saturday night, all with a few flicks of the finger.  We didn’t realize how crude and base our lives were before these apps. Laziness is at a new all time high.  Ironically, having all problems solved for you reduces one’s necessity to be creative. All of these ‘advances’ in the human experience may seem harmless, but there is a very dark side to this device dependency apart from the zombie like hold they have on people.

That of course  is groupthink.  Being a passive consumer of information that is anointed by mass consensus on these devices creates the real risk of dulling people’s individual initiative to think critically and objectively about big issues.  Their opinions and worldview are shaped unwittingly to reflect those conveyed on their phones.  As in all things, there is always a vanguard of those that set the tone for everyone else, people of influence for whatever reason or circumstance.  They set the narrative and everyone accepts it. We can cite numerous examples of this, including just recently with the explosion of support for a 16 year old girl barely articulate enough to order a hamburger who magically became a renowned authority on the weather.

We will continue to see ridiculous narratives getting support purely because of originators having the ability to press their message virally to the accepting  masses no longer inclined to think for themselves.  As critical thinking atrophies in humans, we risk devolving as a species and become like most other animals; subject to the random vicissitudes of life or worse, to the whims of those more in command of their conciousness.  Life may be made more convenient by the use of some inventions and apps, but the risk of losing the human experience is very real.

Source: Greta Thunberg | Speaker | TED  

If nothing else, you have to hand it to Greta’s handlers for pushing her front and center as an advocate for the Global Warming cause. Just 16 years of age and probably not yet finished her grade 10 math, she is nonetheless able to expound  and extrapolate the purported evils brought about by global warming.

Sure, we may believe in the old chestnut about wisdom from the mouth of babes, but that was before babes had handlers and sponsors and a wardrobe crew. Certainly it’s admirable for young people to have a sense of purpose and ambition beyond being an Instagram sensation, although she has accomplished that.  At least she always has clothes on.

I can think of the last famous young girl who gained notoriety for her courageous position on something and that was the legendary Joan d’Arc in France during the 15th century. Like Greta, Joan apparently heard voices, er had divine guidance, which told her how to overthrow the English during the Hundred Year’s War with France.  In a time when women, much less teenaged girls, were hardly considered worth paying any attention to, she was able to convince King Charles to give her an audience.   The court likely thought she was a nutter, but since the people supported her, he thought, what the hell, and gave her some armaments and horses.

This didn’t work out that well because she fell off her horse in battle, was captured by the less enlightened Brits and then there was that famous bonfire.

Our recent heroine Greta is unlikely to meet the same fate on a burning stake; it’s more likely her handlers will be torched for their vapidness in foisting Miss Thurnberg as the modern day Joan D’Arc.  Unable to demonstrate scientifically that the fantasy of Global Warming exists despite billions of dollars spent on marketing and propaganda, they now turn to the appeal of the children to plead their gossamer case. Why bring forth learned scientists when a 16 year old girl will do?  Heck if this works, they can copy this model for virtually any cause in society which can’t be swayed by sound logic and reason.  And it’s genius.  You can assail an adult, but you can’t be seen to be dissing a kid. Why do you hate young girls? Are you a misogynist?

Greta will play well in the primary schools where she will be admired as a role  model for kids to follow her path and convince their parents that the Earth has only 12 years left and therefore they should eat plants, ride bicycles and pay as much tax as the government wants.  After all, don’t their parents love them enough to give them a better future?

The path of this tack is predictable. Soon we’ll have Greta clones emerging as earnest voices to influence community policies ranging from straws to power stations. And also to not be rude.  Except that the voices that these kids hear will not be from within their heads. It will be from their handlers.