Introducing the Technojungle and the plan for our safari.
“It’s a jungle out there!”, exclaimed an imaginary person in my dream as they came trudging through the door. I awoke suddenly with the idea that our world is just like a jungle. “It’s a Technojungle!”, I yelled in my head. “That’s what this technology-filled world we live in is.” It was a revelation!
Are you asking, “What is the Technojungle? Where is it?” The revelation above was just the start. I asked myself the same questions. Just look around. You are already in the Technojungle. You always have been. You were born into the Technojungle. The alternative would be a senseless, mindless meandering naked in the natural jungles of planet Earth. Could you exist for even one day without technology? How about an hour? How about without certain technologies?
Unless you are Tarzan joyfully swinging from the trees in a jungle of nature, everything around you made by humans is some form of technology. Even Tarzan had a bit of clothing and swung from vines, so he used technology.
Have we, or you, already lost control of life—that is, being a human being and living in this world of technology? What if the techno-breaks fail and we crash our lives—the world? You simply can’t leave your, our, human fate in the hands of some self-declared experts who think they know what is best for you and what you desire your life to be. Usually they have ties to, or are part of technology corporations and have a vested interest in profiting from your technology dominated life and particularly your attention and information. We all need to use some critical thinking, or we may risk losing control of our lives, if we haven’t already.
Unless you are Tarzan joyfully swinging from the trees in a jungle of nature, everything around you made by humans is some form of technology.
So welcome to our journey, a safari through, and examination of the Technojungle and how we can protect our humanity and be more human in the future.
The Technojungle, a jungle created by humans, can often dehumanize you without you even realizing! Just look around you and see that our technologies were made using other technologies. Have you thought about how our lives sit on technology that is piled higher than we can imagine; technology on top of technology for thousands of years? All these technologies are supposed to make our lives more comfortable, but do they?
Can you think of anything that may or may not be a technology when used by a human? Does any fire, or anything, when utilized in some way by a human, become a technology? Sometimes it seems we are getting so used to being surrounded by complex electronic and computer technologies that we forget, if we strike a match to light a fire, we are using many technologies. Can you list some of the technologies that possibly went into making a match?
Sometimes I get concerned that the Technojungle is changing faster than I can write about it. The Technojungle is huge and complex; we certainly can’t cover everything on this short, safe written journey. As a guide, it is my job to point out some of the important jungle sites to visit and ask some questions to get you thinking. The truth is that this is only the start of your journey and you need to learn to ask your own questions.
Home assistants are listening and recording everything in your house, someone recently told me. One thing I have discovered while on safari is that everyone seems to have something to say—a story of their own. As I journey daily along my Technojungle paths, I often stop to tell people I meet a personal story. The stories are based on my Technojungle experiences and observations from life as a boomer (someone born post World War II). Stories can be interesting and engaging distractions, but they can also teach and help in understanding—they are humanizing. Stories can be like metaphors or parables, often with some hidden meanings.
The Technojungle can rob you of your freedom. There are dangers out there that you may have never noticed or realized are actually dangerous. You are always continuing onward with your own safaris and, if you are not careful, you can fall into traps. We are all in this jungle together, but we may not actually understand what is going on out there. You are going to learn to spot many of the Technojungle dangers.
I’m purposely leaving out references to current technological and corporate trends to keep the book relevant in the future, have a longer shelf-life, and appeal to a wider audience.
Though I have taken years to write this book in my spare time, the factor of relevance remains. Not much, if anything, has become outdated. The truth is that the points I make and the questions I asked have become ever more important to us all.
It is good to know what other people think about a topic, however eventually, isn’t what really matters what you think, believe and understand? It’s far too easy these days to turn to one of our many Internet-connected devices to dig up what other people say about any particular topic or question. This is a problem we face living with easy access to such huge expanding piles of information we know of as the Internet. Internet searches have become standard procedure these days for most people seeking information—even information they may actually already know.
If you mindlessly and thoughtlessly adopt without question what others say, it will not be part of you, so couldn’t that dehumanize you? I encourage you to take every question, idea, concept, notion, in fact everything in this book, to your own mind. If you arrive at your own understanding, isn’t it true that you will own it and it will become part of who you are? Won’t that make you even more human?
There is certainly a lot of buzz about technology. What is some of the latest buzz you have heard? We do need to understand the Technojungle better. However, even more important, we need to keep in mind that our main goal on safari is to eventually begin to learn what we might do about being better human beings and living in this world of technology—the Technojungle.
This is our journey—safari. Hopefully you have a better understanding of what this book is about. There’s more about the book coming up, but first, a look at a bit more of my life as author of this book and my safari trek to becoming Bwana.
The Technojungle Safari 