Slaves to our machines

In a way, we have become slaves to our machines.

Modern day technology has made life convenient for us. And we have grown to rely on that same technology so much, that we can't live without it. Technology sets the pace of our lives, and it is hard to keep up with things that move at the speed of light.

It is hard to find someone without a cellphone, and we expect to be able to contact anyone, anywhere, anytime. Computers have allowed us to save our work, so that we no longer have to retype the whole 200-page document just for minors changes on each page. E-mail has made time zones irrelevant; people can pass information to each other anytime of the day, and expect the other side to get it.

In short, technology has increased our work efficiency. They have either made the mundane tasks easier or irrelevant, or they have made communications time shorter so that more time can be put into productive work.

In effect, they have tied us to them. We are now stuck at our desks because people send emails expecting them to be answered immediately. we are tied to our phones because people expect to be able to contact us on a whimp.

Maybe we will become something as depicted by Frank Herbert in his Dune universe. Before the Butlerian Jihad, machines ruled the world, not humans. Machines control the lives of humans. Frank Herbert probably had a lot more foresight (or maybe even prescience, the central theme of his Dune books) than most of humanity heading down this road of enslavement to machines.

Machines need not rest. They can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But we humans cannot go on without rest. When our tools were simple, we set the pace of work. Now that our tools have moved on to become so much faster, can we keep pace with them? And when machines set the pace, who is the real master now?