[yessirwhatever]

“The individual is in a dilemma: either he decides to safeguard his freedom of choice, chooses to use traditional , personal, moral, or empirical means, thereby entering into competition with a power against which there is no efficacious defense and before which he must suffer defeat; or he decides to accept technical necessity, in which case he will himself by the victor, but only by submitting irreparably to technical slavery. In effect he has no freedom of choice.”

― Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society

[Kaibeezy]

Nice play. I’ll raise you a Postman…

(W)e have been rather slow in recognizing that in solving the information problem, we created a new problem never experienced before: information glut, incoherence, and meaninglessness. … Like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, we are awash in information, without even a broom to help us get rid of it. The tie between information and human purpose has been severed. … it comes indiscriminately, whether asked for or not, directed at no one in particular, in enormous volume, at high speeds, disconnected from meaning and import. It comes unquestioned and uncombined, and we do not have, as (poet Edna St. Vincent) Millay said, a loom to weave it all into fabric.

- Neil Postman, Science and the Story that We Need, 1997

[agomez314]

postman is incredible. Recently finished reading "Amusing ourselves to death"

[chmod775]

In the Hayden War Cycle / On Silver Wings series by Evan Currie humanity is looked at with some concern for being heavy "tool users" who augment themselves. I don't think that in this case they specifically had GPS in mind, but rather the reliance on cybernetic implants, powered exoskeletons, and other more advanced technology.

One of the advantages of aliens in Sci-Fi is that they can provide such an outside perspective of humanity. I wish it was utilized more and to greater effect. It's rather interesting. Sadly most Sci-Fi either is so out there that humanity seems to dull in comparison and you'd not waste a thought reflecting on it, or it lacks peaceful interactions and alien perspectives.

[troyvit]

What does defeat look like in this context? It honestly doesn't seem so bad.