Striving for Perfection

Humans are not perfect. To us humans, that is a very annoying idea. We are at the top of our food chain. We dominate the creatures and objects in the world around us. We are even searching for other forms of intelligent life. Yet we are not perfect. There are still things about us that we wish to change because they would make us fundamentally better. And in this sense, evolution is failing us. Our species has already reached the top so from a natural world, there is no need to improve. Yet we are still struggling to make everyone perfect. That is where technology comes into play.

Initially, we started developing and using technology in order to enhance the abilities and traits that nature gave us. We developed devices to aid the ill. We developed devices to communicate with each other. We developed computers to help us answer questions. And then, we realized that this technology can be improved. We moved from printing presses to typewriters to laptops. In everything that we look at, we see its imperfections instead of their innate benefits. Once we reached a plateau in technological advancements, we began looking at ourselves. We started to see the things about us that aren’t perfect as things that can and should be improved. Instead of improving them, however, we developed tools that made these imperfections unnoticeable. Instead of using “nature” to help strengthen our weaknesses, we relied on technology to do it for us. We thought that we weren’t smart enough, so we created computers that would think for us. How ironic.

For creatures with a “God-complex,” I find it funny that we don’t think that our creations can challenge or even surpass us. God created angels. From this creation, Lucifer, God’s favorite angel, questioned God’s authority and was expelled from Heaven. In the beginning there wasn’t good and bad, there was only good. The bad came from the good. God created his enemy. So then how foolish are we to think that we cannot create something that is better than us.

            I honestly think that we are heading towards a Terminator, Matrix, Total Recall world where technology either surpasses us or creates a false reality. I don’t think that it will happen within the next 50 years but I think that humans are too greedy and too naïve to believe that anything bad could ever happen. We picture a perfect world and believe that we can create it but fail to see the challenges and the consequences of our actions. Although people think that their phones and technology aren’t having an effect on their lives it is clear that people are changing as technology does. I hope that I am not around if this dystopian world where computers are smarter, faster, and stronger than us but if I am, I hope that I am able to see it coming instead of staring at a screen as my mind gets smaller and smaller.