Alone and sorrounded
NPR is never missing from my drives
I'm listening to a professional talk about this subject as the "crisis to come", as the new thing we should all be thinking about. Humanity and its nuanced complexities has always had a seemingly undefeatable challenge to overcome and for all the advancements we have made in the medical field, the new ailments threatening our existence come not from a viral or genetic source but within the human mind.
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At first glance, it does not make sense
Its not like population has eroded in a significant way. We are not living miles away from each other and for the most part our interactions are in most cases just as casual, just as normal as they were decades ago. Establishing the differences, attempting to study the reasons as to why we may feel lonely, requires allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and that, that is something none of us like to do.How can we claim to be alone while being surrounded by people? If I'm constantly having conversations with my spouse, with my neighbor, with my co-worker, How is that even a valid question?
The need to be vulnerable
I actually believe one of the many appeals of music is that its socially acceptable to surrender to it, to be vulnerable to a love song and to embrace its lyrics and message as our own. If you think about it, not being the author of something that describes your reality allows you to detach from the guilt that comes with acceptance. Along the same path, if one day we have moved on from those emotions, evolved into a different person to be more exact, the abandonment of an emotional identifier we did not create becomes a little bit easier.This may all be speculation, because I could not possibly make the assertion that everyone feels music in the same way I do or that even uses it as an emotional band aid as I have. But if life has revealed a truth here or there, is that our similarities as sapiens are most obvious when it comes to emotions.
Why are we here?
I will steal a line from other thinkers and say that this new ailment is a direct reaction to the modern world and its excessive accessibility. Allow me to hurt the overly sensitive and propose the following negative outlook.
"Facebooks makes us believe we have many friends, Twitter makes us think we are all opinionated thinkers and Instagram that photography was our calling, but how much of that is true?"
I will admit I'm being a bit insensitive about the subject but I promise I'm not doing so to kick anyone that is down. The idea behind and my intention sharing this today is to evoke some reflection on the matter, so that we (because I will include myself) can attempt to remove some smoke from the room and stand on a somewhat solid ground of sensible truth.
Am I bashing Virtual Interactions?
Not in the slightest and I happen to believe that some of the people I've grown to love in my life have avatars attached to them. My point is really that in the apparent safety of virtual interactions, in the choice we make to show only the best, only the emotional face with makeup, we might be forgetting to share other important parts of our true self. The sad, the confused, the sometimes insecure person with different opinions and life experiences.
The emotional shield gets heavy and for all the apparent toughness ASCII characters can convey, once the laptop is closed and the computer is turned off, we must face the harshest critic we know, ourselves....
(signature by @bembelmaniac )
Other posts by yours truly
● Join me tonight for a special edition of Songwriter Shop talk with @luzcypher
● Manipulation at it's best
● Gibson Guitars, the end of an era
● have you ever tried sleeping on a boat
● Helpienaut Meeting 4/30/2018
Another beautifully written and thought provoking post @meno! So many interesting reflection material in there. Emotions, we have so many, they are ever so present in our everyday lives but yet it seems every time they appear we don't know how to deal with them. Like you said, we carry heavy shields to protect ourselves from the outside world, all for different reasons but mainly to avoid pain. You're right that we should open up more to others and share our less pretty side, but I guess sometimes having a bit of reserve is also good. Eternal balance... But virtual world or not I think it makes no difference, I think that when feeling alone it dosen't matter how many real or virtual people are around, like you said it's in the mind. Anyway, keep up the great work! ;)
thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts Philo... well In my view our merry group is a little act of rebellion against this tendency. I derive its value from such a fact or at least It represents this to my life.
We are in the early age of virtual communities. In the future I think we will see humans that never leave a room for years, because they are in a virtual world. Playing games, or just enjoying different planets, and interacting with other humans and AI programs in generated 3D environments. Then the mind won't have any issues because it is all so real. the issues will be health issues due to lack of exercise. The mind will be fine. We should design some gym machines to exercise inside the room, which are connected to that virtual world, and their blockchains, that generate essential tokens to continue living in that virtual world. Then the players earn their tokens by exercising so they can continue to live in the virtual world, otherwise, leave and go to the dying warming planet outside.
Sorry... I got carried away a bit :D
You both shared a great idea and a grim vision, but I happen to enjoy both thoughts.
Gotta say, I agree with your initial premise. Humanity will certainly devolve into a chair-bound species of interactive goons... but not for long. Though exercise machines would help, eventually people would simply start to wither as their bodies broke down from a thousand illnesses (infections, vascular collapse, etc) each more tenacious than the last. Simply because humans just aren't evolved for such, and never will be.
It's like microgravity. Folks think the most dangerous part of space travel is lack of food or oxygen... but it's not. Though those are tremendous primary concerns, even if supplies of both were 100% stable, people don't do well. It's not muscle atrophy either, everyone has heard of that. It's that Every. Single. Cell. has been developed specifically in (and for) a Gravity 1.0 system. Going outside of that for long, even to something as mild as a Grav 0.95 environment would likely be disastrous, longterm.
So I don't think the virtual reality scourge, as I put it, will carry on so far as you think.. Probably a good generation or two (including the millennials) will be lost to it, but if civilized folks ain't got their shit together after then, there's a whole rest-of-the-planet waiting to step into their place in line. =)
I prefer to think that the people that will live on Mars for example, or travelling to other stars, will be able to adapt and evolve differently. Of course it is not easy. But it will be possible. They won't be able to go back to Earth and live with that strong gravity. Many will die, but some of them will evolve. Look at all the diversity of animals on the planet constantly evolving. Humans are no different. It's like telling a minnow... you are never going to be able to live outside the sea, in that solid rocks out there... don't go there you will die !!! You will never be able to breath out there or have legs to walk. One thing is sure... a minnow cannot become a whale in just one day hehe Give it time... a lot of time ;-)