What keeps us human in a world of machines?

We live in a hands- off world.

As technology advances, so does efficiency and production output; our society has become productive in ways never before thought possible. From self-driving cars and talking smart phones to robotic machines that can perform successful surgeries, we have found a way to increase output while decreasing effort.

We are an efficiency obsessed generation. And while this has proven successful in the consumer world; it has had a negative effect on the human condition.

Every day we are constantly and simultaneously moving in multiple directions. Technology has allowed us to complete tasks so rapidly that we rarely have the patients to connect with our inner human nature.

Pleasures like a hike along Lake Carl Blackwell or a picnic on Library Lawn has become less of a possibility and more of a romantic idea with each passing day.

The 2016 culture in much of the world is that of non-stop acceleration and continual frenzied competition. In this culture there is little room for relaxation, peace, calm and reflection. By losing regular contact with these elements of our soul, we have subconsciously lost a vital part of the human experience.

Technology increases efficiency by taking the work that we would have once done by hand and doing it for us, faster. From the medical field to photography and something as simple as driving a car, machines have slowly but surely replaced their creators.

Ironically, we are becoming increasingly like the devices that we create. And as productivity increases, quality has in-turn decreased. The more involved we become with our technological device, the further we grow from humanity.

This efficiency obsession has even become a measure of societal status.

The lower class do their taxes, bike to work, build furniture for their homes, mow their lawns and cook for themselves; while the upper class take pride in the ability to buy a machine that can do all of that for them. In this day and age hands-off is sexy.

Oddly enough one facet of pure human enjoyment has managed to remain. Regardless of technological advancement, the desire to travel and explore has remained an activity of wonder to many, especially millennials.

How, in a culture where people barely have the patients for fast-food lines and elevators are taken from the first floor to the second, did something as time consuming as exploring another city, country or continent remain popular?

This lasting glimmer of the human experience is a reminder that the desire to explore the unknown will always have a timeless pull. In an era of inventions that can do it all for us, we still have an undeniable desire to personally taste the foods of foreign places, walk the streets of a new city and make new friends out of strangers.

Travel taps into our childlike desires. It allows us to touch, feel, taste and see in a world where machines are expected to do all of that for us.

 

Voting – It’s time to abandon the booth

We can do just about anything online.

From shopping and dating to paying bills and gambling, almost anything can be done from the comfort of our couch.

Why not voting?

A CNN study found that a mere 57 percent of eligible citizens voted in the 2012 presidential election. Just 19 percent of the total turn out was under the age of 29.

How would those numbers have looked if voters were able to participate with the ease of sending a text?

Many would say drastically.

In a time when news is summed up in 140 character tweets, few will take the time to pick up a news paper, none the less drive to a polling location to stand in line and fill out a ballot. To make matters worse, we live in one of the reddest states in the nation.

Oklahomans view their vote to be about as valuable as a drop of water in the ocean; and they’re not wrong.

Unfortunately, when millions of voters deem their vote irrelevant, it becomes relevant.

Young people don’t care about politics.

To most under the age of 35 it is a dull waste of time and if they barely have the patients to wait for their next Netflix episode to load, they’re certainly not going to take the time to vote.

Because of this, elections are being determined by the votes of our parents and grand parents.

Switching to electronic voting is not only logical, but also necessary for an accurate representation of public opinion in future elections.

To begin this switch, we can look to our Estonian friends who have been using electronic methods for the past decade.

Since switching to online voting, the Estonian turnout has increased from a low 2 percent in 2005 to 30 percent in their most recent election.

That’s huge.

Those in opposition of making the switch fear that privacy will be compromised without the security of a polling booth.

Will people be subject to bribery?

Possibly, but if we can find a way to overcome that hiccup online voting will be replacing polling booths for good.