“Skull Castle” — the last bastion
High beyond the ramparts, within the bone and
beyond the sinew, the flesh, and the pulsating blood: red,
blue, violet, pink. Beyond the throbbing, pulsating, quivering
mass of flesh, the last remnants of individual expression
resides.
It isn’t so much the magic, the mystery of existence
arguably metaphysical naturalism or teleological in form,
the perfidy of life itself; but rather the transformation of being
— the advancement of culture — in short, the impact of
technology. This advancement, from the first discovery of
fire, the harnessing of its power, the invention of the wheel,
all rudimentary technology by our standards of today,
nonetheless vital to our very existence, undeniably — but, as
technology has a nasty habit of doing, it advances, and with
this advancement comes many things great and fearful —
for some.
The advances made in that nice little exercise we call
“Science” has within it all the trappings of deceit. It leads
us forward into technological milestones on the one hand
but damns us with faint praise in removing the spirit from
our natural beings, leaving us as hollow shells that once
contained the fruits of happiness, rapture, a oneness of being
— in fact: pure and unadulterated existence itself. That
existence which would have been, a veritable Golden Age of
Man.
Man is a social creature by nature, and as a collective
we sublimate our own will for the good of the “group”; each
bringing skills, and knowledge to bear and within this unit
of force, we advance our gathering by means of technological
advancement. Technology, on the other hand will also reduce us to
a common denominator, a level playing field set apart only
by those few who hold some advantage though means of
power, economic, emotional or various other blatantly obvious ploys.
Technology has the power to free us and make us
slaves all at the same moment. This contradiction is a perfect
conundrum for without any sort of technology, mankind
as a species would have remained on a simple level not
much above the dumb beasts he exploits for his own pleasure
and gain.
Now, the other side of technology brings to aus an
ease of living, a myriad of choices in which we may enjoy
the comforts and refinements in our day-to-day existence,
heretofore unimagined and undreamed of. With each generation
of advancement brings more leisure time for more
pleasurable pursuits and away from the drudgery of day-today
necessities for our existence.
The advent of this newest technological marvel:
computers, has fine-tuned this release from the bondage
of numerous tasks in research and communications. This
opens a veritable Pandora’s Box. While the ease of communication,
the sophistication of gadgetry and toys at our
disposal gives us ammunition for creative growth, mental
stimulation and should by its very existence improve the
quality of our lives, it also presents us with a cocoon that
envelops us and separates us from our fellow man.
Thousands of years of evolution taught us to come
together as a group, ultimately beyond the family unit to
a larger society upon which we network and integrate our
lives. But now what is happening is we are becoming more
isolated with the technology even as we reach across cyberspace
that ultimately shrinks the real world for us, in a manner
of speaking.
This double-edged sword of technology may eventually
lead us to a point where we won’t have to settle for a
spouse or even a family that nature would present to us. We
may be able to custom order one in the form of some sort
of biologic cybernetic manufacture. So, the technology can
work for us and against us, depending upon how we choose
to allow it.
