The Acceleration of Culture

[r3port3r66]

The Acceleration of Culture.

This is a very new phrase in our society. What does it mean to you?

[Sexy Celebrity]

Society on EX-LAX.

[Golgot]

The Acceleration of Culture.

This is a very new phrase in our society. What does it mean to you?

The worst sides of humanity are being exaggerrated distructively through the worst sides of the technologies that amplify these aspects IMO. Time to stop the dream-non-fulfillment quick-fixes people.

And even tho this stuff is happening relatively fast (since the industrial revolution really) - the effects are so spread-out and hard to trace these days, that we don't see them for what they are - and assume that technology can fix 'em anyway. "logical deconstruction" and scientific advance have got us where we are - but is it where we want/need to be - and have ignored the place of intuitive and cooperative faculties in sustaining things too? Where there should be doubt is whether the changes we bring about to the world, and hence to ourselves, are as all-round positive as some would have us believe.

I'm not counselling going "backwards" - i'm suggesting we need new ways of going forwards and affecting our environment. There's a lot of short-termism going on. Changing things to suit our limited perception is a problem.

Some examples of negatives where the positives don't bring about a state of equilibrium:

-pesticides/herbicides push up the cancer rates - while cancer-slow-downs [not cures] struggle to do anything positive about it.


-nuclear technology gives us energy for now [as well as some horrific cancers/mutations from accidents over the last 50 years] - but ignore the long-term detrimental effects of nuclear-waste.

-GM (potential: mutation of human genome, destruction of variety/local biodiversity, creation of super-bugs etc etc etc) [just had to point it out :rolleyes: ]

-the emphasis on speed has meant we as humans have had to adapt rapidly too - leaving only time to pop a pill [or visit a therapist?] to deal with the lacks in our lives [notice how vitamins pills have been shown to be negative in many areas - i.e. the universalisation of the principal "we need these vitamins as we understand it" has led to the idea that taking them in condensed form can only be good - but that's never how we absorbed them before. Betacarotin and others have been proven to be detrimental when taken intensively. And this is before i even get to stupid applications of ritalin, librium, or whatever mind-altering drugs etc]

-the ability for a new technology to be applied broad-scale can suppress context-suitable solutions when thoughtlessly applied. This broadness has also allowed us to slip away from seeign the effects of our actions in society and lead to a competition-over-cooperation mentality that is most unhealthy ("survival of the fittest" means survival of the most fitting to your environment y'all - not survival of the strongest/most-predatory. The more we change our environment, the more we still have to adapt to fit it - tho now we're trying to fit to a fairly artificial model. Recognising cooperation-potentials is vital for sustainability and quality of life.

-ENERGY is a huge dilemma concerning new technologies - they all require more. Concentrating on making older ones might be wiser (we can only bow to the guy who made the wind-up radio. Now that's thinking :yup: ) - and focusing on how to lessen our consumption/demands as well as increase our potential sources is vital. The theory of all-out-expansion-powered-by-ever-increasing-power-availability just has to stop. Simplistic social equations like this are unsustainable.

-Even "memes" can be included in this - i.e. the concept of capitalism or scientific-100%-certainty can be argued to be the quantative-over-qualative cause of much modern social unease

-Money money money too? A universalised construct gone a bit mental: GNP isn't a valid measure of quality of life - yet so many of our social/political decisions are based around it. A system that sees a man on life support going through an expensive divorce as a happy man is not a very accurate system at judging such things it seems.

So unfortunately, to my mind, with all the good advances have come even more bad ones. Time for some equilibrium.

That was the short version. Time people woke up and became communities again (where possible ;))

Solution = change of heart/attitude. At the heart of it humans haven't changed - just the ability for our negative sides to be exaggerrated through negative aspects of technology. I've said that haven't i ;) :yup:

[sunfrog]

It means nothing to me, it's just some fancy catch phrase. What is it supposed to mean?

[Golgot]

It means nothing to me, it's just some fancy catch phrase. What is it supposed to mean?

Sure. But you think life is a test whereby all "advances" take us closer to god, don't you froggy ;)

[sunfrog]

Sure. But you think life is a test whereby all "advances" take us closer to satan, don't you golgot ;)

[Caitlyn]

This life is a test. It is only a test. Had this been an actual life, you
would have received further instructions as to what to do and
where to go. You may or may not be issued an actual life later.~ Anonymous





I couldn't resist ... ;)

[Sir Toose]

The information age accelerates everything. Why not culture as well?

cutemsgeeverycute ;D

[sunfrog]

Because culture already exists. If anything it's being destroyed, replaced by Americanism. May as well say The Acceleration of Ham & Cheese. :licklips:

[Django]

If life is a test, how come we don't get a chance to study for it? And why can't it be an open book test? And how do we know what grade we get?

(Just being facetious! ;D)

[Sir Toose]

If life is a test, how come we don't get a chance to study for it? And why can't it be an open book test? And how do we know what grade we get?

(Just being facetious! ;D)


Consult the dots under your avatar.

[Golgot]

Sure. But you think life is a test whereby all "advances" take us closer to satan, don't you golgot ;)

No silly - i think bad-science takes us closer to destructive and unsustainable practices. Not the same thing. You won't even admit there can be such a thing as bad science. Most dogmatic behaviour :yup: ;) :p

I object to the blanket idea of "all-new-things-are-an-advance" that smothers too many people's thinking. And makes them blind to the build up of negatives in our societies and environments (like the multiple carcinogenic and neurologically-disrupting chemicals constantly pumped out into the world, unregulated for the most part, and still used when they are supposedly under control. And still multiplying in number and inappropriate usage)

The "precautionary" approach is called for people - concerning the effect of new technologies on our societies and behaviours. Quite literally before it's too late. History suggests it'll take us about 200 years and a lot of suffering and death to fully realise the necessity of controlling some of these things far more stringently. That's far too long.

Time for the human race to do those things we claim make us better-than-animals etc - i.e. act based on observation - mentally and socially adapt. It's time for change.

(man i love a good rant ;))