"Stare Into The Lights, My Pretties"

[Aragorn]

With special thanks to our sister Kathy, who posted this video at our sister forum Eye-Rise, here (http://eye-rise.com/forum/showthread.php?7849-Stare-Into-The-Lights-My-Pretties&p=17318&viewfull=1#post17318). ;)

Even though it's a long video, the information presented in it and its message about the evolution of our society are very important. :hmm:




DESCRIPTION


"We live in a world of screens. More of us would know this, if we look up, and look around. The screens are everywhere, pervasive: Fingers that are glued to the screen which are glued to the eyes which are glued to the screen. We use them for work, play. But it’s much more than that. The screens use us, too. How did we get here? And where’s this journey leading us? What does that even look like? And is it what we want? Is this culture’s technology changing us and our societies for the better? Does it empower all of us—like it claims to—or does it only empower a select few at the expense of the many? What’s the price we pay to live in this pervasive electronic world?

This era is unprecedented, and perhaps never before has technology been so prolific and shaped our lives so intimately. But there’s a dark side we don’t talk about. Why is that? Is it because we’re too busy being glued to the screen? Why do we shy away from questions about our collective addiction? What’s lurking under the surface?

Could it be that with this era, the stakes have also never been so high that we’ve got it all wrong?"



DURATION


2 hours 9 minutes





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBc8ZQQG85o

[Dreamtimer]

When my son was little they were already talking in school about limiting screen time. Back then it was TV and computers for the most part. No smart phones when he was little.

We refrained from the gaming systems connected to the TV. He was allowed some computer games and he had an early Game Boy. (hand held game device)

We hate the fact that restaurants and bars have so many screens. There's one place that has 67. No lie. Two of them are very large, covering most of a wall. :belief: We don't go there anymore.

[Aragorn]

When my son was little they were already talking in school about limiting screen time. Back then it was TV and computers for the most part. No smart phones when he was little.

We refrained from the gaming systems connected to the TV. He was allowed some computer games and he had an early Game Boy. (hand held game device)

We hate the fact that restaurants and bars have so many screens. There's one place that has 67. No lie. Two of them are very large, covering most of a wall. :belief: We don't go there anymore.

Well, while I fully understand what you're saying, this is not really what the documentary is about, Sister. ;) It's about how instead of being a tool for the people, the technology has become society itself, and as such, the whole of society is now fully controlled by the military-industrial complex, the bureaucracy and the corporate world. :hmm:

Anyway, this documentary touches upon so much more too, from neurological effects over a difference in human psychology, how we've become apathetic to being under constant surveillance — and the extent of this surveillance — to even one's awareness of what goes on in the world, and the difference between what's real and what's not. Like I said, it's a long watch — over two hours — but it's worth it, as well as that it's worthy of contemplation and discussion. ;)

[Dreamtimer]

Thank you. These were just my initial reactions, I have yet to watch. And I'm even more interested now. :thup:

[Elen]

With special thanks to our sister Kathy, who posted this video at our sister forum Eye-Rise, here (http://eye-rise.com/forum/showthread.php?7849-Stare-Into-The-Lights-My-Pretties&p=17318&viewfull=1#post17318). ;)

Even though it's a long video, the information presented in it and its message about the evolution of our society are very important. :hmm:




DESCRIPTION


"We live in a world of screens. More of us would know this, if we look up, and look around. The screens are everywhere, pervasive: Fingers that are glued to the screen which are glued to the eyes which are glued to the screen. We use them for work, play. But it’s much more than that. The screens use us, too. How did we get here? And where’s this journey leading us? What does that even look like? And is it what we want? Is this culture’s technology changing us and our societies for the better? Does it empower all of us—like it claims to—or does it only empower a select few at the expense of the many? What’s the price we pay to live in this pervasive electronic world?

This era is unprecedented, and perhaps never before has technology been so prolific and shaped our lives so intimately. But there’s a dark side we don’t talk about. Why is that? Is it because we’re too busy being glued to the screen? Why do we shy away from questions about our collective addiction? What’s lurking under the surface?

Could it be that with this era, the stakes have also never been so high that we’ve got it all wrong?"



DURATION


2 hours 9 minutes





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBc8ZQQG85o

My word....this is an important documentary...everybody should be advised to take the time to watch it! :bump2:

[Aragorn]

My word....this is an important documentary...everybody should be advised to take the time to watch it! :bump2:


:bump2:

And now, of the 14 people (myself not included) who've looked at this thread as I'm writing this — only 7 of whom have bothered to click the "Thanks" button on the original post — who has been patient and/or interested enough to watch this documentary in its entirety? ;)

The question is semi-rhetorical, though. Those who've looked at this thread but couldn't be bothered are only confirming that which is explained in the documentary. ;)






TEMET NOSCE

(As seen on the sign above the door inside the apartment of The Oracle in the movie "The Matrix (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix)". It means "Know thyself".)

[Dumpster Diver]

A weird quirk I seem to have is, I read the original post and then go on to the responses forgetting to thank the originator.

I’m a dummy.

[enjoy being]

Tldr






I was completely sure that at least one person surely would get the fine irony of typing Tldr here given the few contexts running. Oh wellll.

[Aragorn]

Tldr



http://users.telenet.be/stryder/Humor/Worf_Facepalm.jpeg

[Dumpster Diver]

As one of the folks present near the creation of these things, personal computation, I always was interested in the creation of a computing machine to first, make my boring problem solving easier (personal calculators did this) then get something I could own to work my personal problems at home (personal computers) and then find me a ready opponent to play games, especially chess, when I am walking around my house or eating pizza at Whole Foods (iPhones, iPads).

Now that I’ve achieved all those things, you Jonny-come-lately guys tell me it’s evil because you can’t get your heads out of your a__ on Facebook.

Poo on that. :flame:

[Aragorn]

As one of the folks present near the creation of these things, personal computation, I always was interested in the creation of a computing machine to first, make my boring problem solving easier (personal calculators did this) the get something I could own to work my personal problems at home (personal computers) and then find me a ready opponent to play games especially chess when I am walking around my house or eating pizza at Whole Foods (iPhones, iPads).

Now that I’ve achieved all those things, you Jonny-come-lately guys tell me it’s evil because you can’t get your heads out of your a__ on Facebook.

Poo on that. :flame:

It doesn't say that the technology is evil, and I personally don't think it is either. I for one am still fascinated by computers.

However, there's a difference between that, and the fact that people have thousands of friends on Facebook while they don't even recognize (and won't even communicate with) the person sitting next to them on the bus or the train, or even somewhere out on a bench in the park. The person sitting next to them might actually be the one whom they are chatting with through their smartphone, and they wouldn't even know.

Furthermore, I have personally seen and experienced how my brother's children — and a few other children their age — were completely hypnotized by whatever was on the television that they didn't even hear it anymore when I called their name, and didn't even respond to physical contact intended to wake them up from their trance. They were about 7-8 years old at the time.

This here below is (among other things) what it's about.



http://users.telenet.be/stryder/Humor/assimilated.jpeg


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BofPOcgIMAEFf8q.jpg


http://users.telenet.be/stryder/Junk/nsa-states.jpg

[Dumpster Diver]

Well, while everyone else will be shooting the Armageddon asteroid, but I will be sending off my latest move in my chess game. :onthequite:

[enjoy being]

http://users.telenet.be/stryder/Humor/Worf_Facepalm.jpeg

http://thespiritualcoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Laughing-Dalai-Lama.jpg


:whstl:


teehee.Nevermind..
Yeah so a good doco.. along some of the same lines of topic to a few other ones over the years such as in Curtis's The Century of the Self, and/or The Trap. Or the Merchants of Cool, and its sequel, Generation Like.
It definitely describes something which pays to be an aspect in our awareness. And it re-raises the question regards the dash across the nomansland of the now.


And
..in tempting the thinker to wonder if it is all going to be plausible, the athlete to imagine the gap they traverse will be reached.

When is it that something will be fine and "do the best thing it could have done" without needing to be saved/supervised?

[enjoy being]

Trigger warnings will not be tolerated.

:-)

[Dumpster Diver]

...and I’m gonna share something else.

Again as someone present near the creation, we computer nerds thought the computer tech was for us, not the rest of the unwashed “cool people” who typically made fun of us. It was our creation, made for us, by us, and the rest of you clowns need not know we had caught lightning in a bottle. Then Steve Jobs, God love his rotten soul, among others, made it cool and useable for everyone while making billion$.

Now you’re whining about being a slave to it? Too bad. Obviously you are not nerdly enough to understand it, less be able to deal with it.

[enjoy being]

That one often quietens the crowds for some reason. It is quite intriguing as far as it goes, to recall how computers were received.
Watching how people went from patronising of those spending time on computers, to being that themselves and in cases, overly affected by them in comparison to the geeks and gorks.



Technology used to have a far bigger marvel to it while it was on the grand roll out. The advent of TVs or before. Which was before my time. I am at least just in the Gen X range, of vaguely recalling a time without TV.

As people brought gadgets home and became envies of the people in their street, the rush to keep up with the Jones's was well fed. People tumbling over themselves to eventually appear like they knew about it all along and had it all under control.

It was more obvious back then when you didn't own the latest gadget. Or apparently.

It has been a huge 25 -30 years of culminating change obviously more years in the bigger scope of things, but essentially, two and a half decades has been all it has taken, I am sure some would consider that to be within the honeymoon period still.

So we have seen people introduced to the anonymous communities of the internet and how the experience changes them. The way that the facelessness of the communicating creates positives and negatives to the activity.
The way it can show ourselves us, and vice versa.
All the tools are there to be 'capitalised' on? lol

[Aragorn]

That one often quietens the crowds for some reason. It is quite intriguing as far as it goes, to recall how computers were received.
Watching how people went from patronising of those spending time on computers, to being that themselves and in cases, overly affected by them in comparison to the geeks and gorks.

... And how the computer went from a fairly versatile but relatively speaking not very powerful machine, which was used by clever people for doing very interesting stuff, to an even more versatile and by now also immensely more powerful machine, which is used by dumb people as a mere household appliance for doing very boring stuff. ;)











“We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”


- Robert Wilensky -