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On the Modern-day Pandora’s Box: 0. An Introduction

What it Means to be Human in a Technological World 


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

[Arthur C. Clarke] 

HAROUN DUGSIE

Consider a criterion originally proposed by, and often attributed to, esteemed author Arthur C Clarke: the belief that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. This belief is one that governs a world where such magic frequently occurs, and occurs with an alarmingly increasing prevalence. We are living in a world governed by this very belief.  

We live in a world where Clarke’s idea of magic is enchanted all around us. And woven into this magical membrane are strings, threads, and seams spooled from the fibres of ancient and modern intellectual ideas, forming a technological tapestry granting, concocting, and conjuring unimaginable and seemingly magical spells and enchantments: the power and dominion of the seas and the skies, telecommunication, long-distance transportation, and the twin gifts of prophecy & foresight. 

Some people might reasonably be forgiven in comparing or equating our newly-crafted powers and abilities with the powers and abilities ordained and bestowed by the Old Gods of the Ancient World. Others, however, might see these powers through the various familiars and forms they take: mobile phones, email and social messaging apps; aeroplanes, buses and trains; and meteorological forecast software used to predict weather patterns for the upcoming future. 

But like one of Nietzsche’s more infamous adages, when one tries to control these technological tools, one “should see to it that, in the process, one does not become” controlled by these tools themselves. And make no mistake, these technological tools are rapidly gaining power, covertly weaving their threads of influence into the very fabric of human life itself. 

So in this essay series, we will endeavour to explore how these various forms of technology have changed, influenced, and defined our behaviours and beliefs across the span of human development and across all different fields and aspects of our life. These essays will strive to explore the developing forms of various technological spheres affecting all of us throughout our collective history, and thus the influence of technology upon: politics and political theory, culture and societal structures, and our own unknown future. And these essays will try to understand what it means to be human in a technological world through the progression and development of human politics, culture, societal structures, and the unknown future of human life and civilization. 

So to begin this essay series proper, we will start our far-reaching exploration with the delicate tiptoeing and cautious crossing of a volatile minefield that we call politics.

WBGS Looking Glass will be serialising Haroun's work over the coming month, so please return next week for the first installment. 

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