Silicon Valley is Chasing a Godbot. Do we need it?
“Weak minds are incapable of grasping great ideas but are eager to accept trivialities and nonsense.”– Euripides
If you think about that quote, it’s true. It’s also thousands of years old. It makes me wonder with all our fancy inventions and technology has the human character changed at all?
Evolved?
I don’t think so. I read texts like Tao Te Ching, written thousand and thousands of years ago and their truth can still guide me today. It rattles me when I’m faced with willful ignorance, and there’s so much of it today. There’s another old myth I think about—Pandora’s Box.
Pandora’s Box is like Adam and Eve. The first woman created by Zeus released all the evils we live with in the world. A woman taking another hit for our troubles. What is it about men that they need these stories about women? But to me Pandora’s Box reads like a prediction of social media.
The thing I’m holding in my hand releases gobs of negativity into the world. Is my smart phone a manifestation of an ancient Greek myth?
Sometimes I think it was easier to think clearly before the tsunami of communication that sweeps over us daily. It’s so tempting to find a house in the woods or on the edge of the dying sea and just live in the day. Drop out. Tune in. Just like the old hippies used to say. The ancients lived under quieter skies.
The end of the myth of Pandora’s Box goes like this: Pandora was shocked at what she unintentionally let out when she disobeyed Zeus and looked inside the box—the sorrows and pains and evils set loose into the world. She quickly shut the lid, but trapped the last thing, hope.
The myth of Pandora’s Box is often interpreted as a cautionary tale about the dangers of curiosity, disobedience, and unintended consequences. However, it also conveys the enduring presence of hope, even in dire circumstances, symbolizing resilience and the potential for redemption.
A happy ending. We’re suckers for it then and we’re suckers for it now.
I wish the boys of Silicon Valley read more Greek myths. Back in the early days of our digital exploration nobody knew what they were doing. It led to a lot of incredible advances and leaps. And there was a real hands on approach. Break things.
The Valley has also nurtured some of the great salesmen of our time. Everything became overhype. Hype led to investment which led to outrageous wealth. Until today, where we have billionaires roaming the world telling us what to do, who we are, and we better listen.
But these new gurus of wisdom haven’t changed our essential truths. Those remain timeless. There are no new insights. No need for any of the technology, or pearls of wisdom from digital wunderkinds. We don’t need to go to Mars or invent Godbots.
We are human. We are the energy of the universe. We are a miracle. We are the hope in the box. Our life is our gift. Our planet is precious. If we lived each day that way it will be enough. The world of things is a distraction. It’s fun to play with toys, but at the end of the day it’s best to tidy up and put the toys back in the box. All this invention and we are the same. We always have been and always will be.
That’s important to grasp. If we understood our human character better we’d understand our world better. We’d understand our neighbor is no different than ourself. There’s is no flag to follow, or need for a wall. A wall simply separates us from ourselves. We all have the same flaws, the same needs and wants.
Otherness is a tool of power, not real or even relevant to who we are as humans. The fact texts thousands of years old have so much to teach us about ourselves shows us how we simply don’t need the technology we crave or the history we’ve lived. We haven’t gained more insight into human nature. We are who we are. We are prone to violence. We get greedy and complain, and dwell in negativity. There are no cultural differences. Every human is the same with the same challenges to overcome. Close the lid on the box and keep hope inside.
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