Technology: Promise And Peril

I love technology. Always have. Even though it has always been obvious that it could be used as a tool or a weapon. The first human who picked up a stick could use it to dig a furrow to plant seeds or to bash someone's head in. A stone could be used to strike sparks to start a fire for warmth or cooking or shaped into a spearhead to bring death to an enemy. Splitting atoms allowed us to light our cities and homes or make bombs with incredible destructive power that could flatten those cities and kill hundreds of thousands in seconds.

Now with the digital revolution comes the potential to usher in a truly golden age where most of the ills that have plagued humanity could be conquered. Some of us dare to dream of a possible world where disease, hunger, and poverty are banished to memories that fade to historical record. A world where all our energy and resources could go to realizing human potential instead of battling nature and our fellow humans for survival or mere advantage. But the perils posed by that same technology are terrifying to contemplate. Molecular nanotechnology could be used to repair human illness at the cellular level or in runaway reactions turn all matter on the planet to "grey goo".

Some weeks ago and again today on NPR I heard of the danger posed by the incredibly rapid drop in the cost of digital information storage. For example, every conversation you have on your phone for a year can be stored in a data bank for 17 cents. Every move you and a million other people can be tracked and known with an accuracy of a few feet and stored for $50. This could morph into the kind of Big Brother nightmare world that dictators and tyrannical governments could only dream of just a couple of years ago.

I have no idea whether we are going to get a Utopian world or a worldwide North Korea. But unprecedented change is coming and we better be figuring out how to do our best to steer this inevitable technological progress toward enhancing human happiness and liberty or face disaster on a scale undreamed of.

America Divided

The left-right schism that seems to have ballooned to monstrous proportions has me wondering if we have ever been so divided since the Civil War. It now seems to infuse almost every facet of daily life. I often read an article online that catches my interest and find when reading comments posted by other readers that seemingly no subject exists that can not be twisted to support a political view. Recently I read of the Alaskan town that got 18 feet of snow. One of the first comments on the article stated that Sarah Palin was a Jesus-loving anal whore of Satan (It was quickly, and rightfully, deleted by the commenting community). I'm certainly no fan of Palin, but wtf does she have to do with a story about a town buried under 18 feet of snow?

Having some moderate-to-left-leaning tendencies, I'm going to blame the right wing for much of the venom in the discourse these days. To some degree they seem to be winning the argument. They tell bigger and scarier lies. They seem to have sold the idea that "liberalism" is a dirty word, but "conservatism" is noble and desirable. Now it seems that "moderate" has become a dirty word. Recently, Newt Gingrich contrasted himself as a "strong conservative" with "Massachusetts moderate" Mitt Romney. Isn't moderate a very reasonable thing to be? 

A recent column by NYT columnist David Brooks, my favorite moderate conservative (A highly endangered species these days), wonders where all the liberals have gone. He says this should be a "golden age" for liberalism but notes, "there are two conservatives for every liberal". Since conservatives see enemies wherever they look, perhaps that explains some of the belligerence in daily discourse in America. A Tea Partyish bunker mentality and distrust of government and intellectuals seems to be typical right wing fare.

Have to take a moment to note my disappointment in another Brooks recent column expressing some positive sentiments about Rick Santorum, who, in my opinion, would like to see American Taliban and ayatollahs restoring American piety. Very, very frightening concept. 

Mourning Christopher Hitchens

A bright star burned out when Christopher Hitchens died from esophageal cancer. I hoped he would beat it even though I knew the odds were slim. There has been an outpouring of obituary type remembrances of him from authors, rabbis, and fellow intellectuals. He was remembered with considerable awe from fellow writers for his brilliant essays and articles. Some noted with incredulous envy how he could spend an evening that went late into the night carousing with his legendary capacity for large quantities of alcohol and cigarettes that would incapacitate the average human while holding forth on almost any subject with his customary deep knowledge and then go home and turn out an impeccably witty and brilliant article for Vanity Fair or some other publication. He was a fearsome debater with, as a famous author remarked, seemingly "total neurological recall of anything he ever read". His tongue was sharp and cut deeply, but without malice. We probably shall not see his like again anytime soon. Farewell, Hitch.

The Failed War On Drugs

This is the opening statement of the recent Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Fifty years after the initiation of the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the U.S. government’s war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed.”

Charles Blow, a New York Times OP-ED columnist, had this to say about it in today's column:

 

"So began a war that has waxed and waned, sputtered and sprinted, until it became an unmitigated disaster, an abomination of justice and a self-perpetuating, trillion-dollar economy of wasted human capital, ruined lives and decimated communities. An effort meant to save us from a form of moral decay became its own insidious brand of moral perversion — turning people who should have been patients into prisoners, criminalizing victimless behavior, targeting those whose first offense was entering the world wrapped in the wrong skin. It feeds our achingly contradictory tendency toward prudery and our overwhelming thirst for punishment."

 

The June 20, 2011 issue of Time Magazine also noted the "War on Drugs" has failed:

 

"A high profile commission led by a number of Latin American former Presidents released a report that found that nearly a half century of global policies to combat drugs has backfired, only driving rates of drug use up and creating a black market run by lethal cartels. Ther report suggests a total rethinking of repressive strategies in use for decades, urging the legalization of substances like cannabis."

 

Atheist Arrogance And Not Collecting Stamps

A recent Gallup poll found that 92% of Americans say they believe in god. Apparently, when Gallup first asked the question in 1944, it was 94%.

Also recently, Michael Nugent, an Irish writer, activist, and chairman of Atheist Ireland, spoke to an atheist convention in Dublin. I watched a YouTube video  http://youtu.be/THcLFZik7Dc where he addressed the question of why atheists are so arrogant. He answered by quoting someone who said, "Atheism is the arrogant belief that the universe was not created for our benefit". He went on to say, "That contrasts with the humble religious belief that the most powerful creature ever created the entire universe of over 100 billion galaxies, each containing over 100 billion stars like our sun, and then waited about 14 billion years and then picked one of those 100 billion galaxies, and then picked one of the 100 billion stars in that galaxy, and then picked one of the planets circling that star, and then picked one of the millions of species that existed on that planet, and then picked one individual of that species and said, 'I really have to tell that guy to stop gathering sticks on the Sabbath' ". He went on to note, "It's an extraordinary set of priorities for such a busy individual."

Another question he says he gets asked is why there is a need for atheist conventions. He answers it by saying atheism is like not collecting stamps. And there isn't a word for not collecting stamps. And there aren't conventions discussing not collecting stamps. And in an ideal world we wouldn't need a word for not collecting stamps. He says, "But atheism is like not collecting stamps in a society where almost everyone collects stamps. And most people believe the post office created the universe. And we have to examine our stamp collections before deciding what's right or wrong. Or deciding what laws to pass". He goes on to note that if we did live in such a stamp-collecting world there would be a word for not collecting stamps and a need for conventions discussing not collecting stamps.

A helpful audience member offered "aphilatelist!" to appreciative laughter. Which was the perfect word to describe that heretical non-stamp-collecting person from that imaginary world where almost everyone collects stamps.

A Victim Of Hate Finds Forgiveness

Rais Bhuyian was shot in the face by Mark Stroman shortly after the 9/11 terror attack as part of a claimed revenge spree. Since these events took place in Texas - a deep red state which loves to kill people to show that killing people is wrong - Mark Stroman is scheduled to die for the deaths of two South Asians during the shooting spree that left Bhuyian blind in one eye.

Bhuyian is a Muslim immigrant from Bangladesh who is now working hard to save the life of the man who shot him in the face.Stroman sounds like pretty much of a low life. He boasted from prison in rhyming verse about being the "Arab Slayer". He now says he was wrong and "made a terrible mistake out of love, grief and anger". Cynic that I am, I suspect it was born out of hate, bigotry, and stupidity.

Whatever you think of Rais Bhuyian, he adds a rare and refreshing example of being better than the sum of our parts.

A Mother Forgives Her Son's Killer

A week or so ago I heard on NPR's Morning Edition a story from the Story Corps section about a mother who lost her son to violence and her embrace of the man who, as a teenager, got into a fight and killed her son at a party. Normally this type of tale is shamelessly manipulated and calculated to wring the maximum amount of emotional response from the listener as part of an agenda. In this case, cynic and skeptic that I am, I did not detect any of that. It seemed an honest account of an unusual capacity for human forgiveness. It spoke of a mother's pain that led her to attempt contact with her son's killer near the end of his sentence when the 16-year old had spent half his life in prison. They now live next door to each other and seem to think of each other almost like mother and son. The young man is in college and she is anticipating seeing him graduate. She speaks of hoping to see him get married someday. Inspiring stuff indeed.