Technology has fooled you, new doesn’t exist.
Technology does what our senses cannot, hence why humans are in constant awe of it. The reality of the situation is that new doesn’t exist. Or maybe it does.
Neuroscientist David Eagleman’s ted talk on sensory substitution talks about making a blind man see with his taste. Essentially Eaglemen tells the audience that the brain doesn’t see or hear anything. The brain sends information through data cable using a brain port.
Another study involves the deaf hears via their brain to substitute a hearing loss. As someone with a hearing loss, I understand the dependency of using technology to help the senses. Eagleman believes that sensory substitution signals can be sent to the brain to instruct it. By using a vest that sends vibrational frequencies to the brain.
At 12:20 Eaglemen displays a video of a deaf man wearing the vest writing words he can’t hear. Within three months of wearing the vest, Eagleman expects the subject to become confident like the blind touching braille. Unfortunately, things begin to take a turn for the worst.
Often visionaries are perfectionists and don’t realize when enough is enough. Eagleman later explains that he wants to create a “NEW” sense. Using his vest, he shows several situations were data from stock markets and twitter will create a new experience. But new doesn’t exist.
Speaking in front of an audience of thousands wasn’t enough for Eagleman. He wants to try to feel what anyone who tweeted #tedtalk2015 felt. This type of thinking will be the downfall of humanity eventually.
Online interaction will never replace human interaction. As a neuroscientist, Eagleman knows that our senses register human body language, which online can’t duplicate. Yet he’s being controlled by his desire to innovate and improve society. History shows there’s a thin line between inventions helping and hurting humans. Often what can protect or heal can kill.
The worst part is, there are so many issues going on — the division created by media propaganda and the inability to defeat our egos. Within every division is a plan, and within that plan is another division or quarrel. Our desire for “progress” intertwined with innovations sinks us further into the illusion of new experiences. Humans will never be satisfied as a collective despite having limited senses. Until we realize, new doesn’t exist.
America has always ignored the needs of the voiceless to promote its agendas. Blacks historically fought in wars in a racist country. Also, President Kennedy, who blacks love, told everyone to focus on what they can do for their country rather than what their country can do for them. We raised in society to neglect our deepest needs at the expense of our sanity and rational thinking.
Physically we’re created to have five senses; that’s it. Trying to come up with new experiences looks as foolish as trying to invent new dunks. There’s a limit. The internet and information age have made us numb to experiencing our senses authentically. We have so much information we don’t know what to do with ourselves.
As a result, extreme measures to reawaken our senses will become the norm. The truth of the matter is, while different things bring us joy, sadness, and pain, it’s all the same experience. There may be levels, but joy is joy at the end of the day, and nothing can or should change that. The same emotions people felt for thousands of years ago are the same today.
Anxiety production from overconsumption of social media is the same anxiety hunters had killing food — just different levels. Because the presentation looks different doesn’t mean the experience is.
The bible tells us to be in the world and not of it. Attaching our senses constantly to the world is being of it. Eastern philosophy tells us over and over to control our senses. Why wouldn’t this information be relevant today? A new presentation, in addition to technology, misleads us to believe otherwise.
In conclusion, people like Eagleman may have great intentions to help society. The reality of society, however, is that we’ve had any control over our senses. Technology is only going to loosen the little grip we have over those senses as well. Once we realize new doesn’t exist, we will have new experiences that technology can’t give us.Â
How are you controlling your senses? Let us know in the comment section below.