“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.