Humans as Machine Batteries
I am amused by the perception that there might come a time when machines would overpower humans and rule the world. Amused because we haven’t noticed that it has already happened.
In the movie “Matrix“, there was a scene there where humans were used as batteries to power the machines, complete with tubes attached to the human bodies. This was after the machines realized that the human body itself is an endless source of energy for as long as the body is alive.
These are all figurative of course. For in reality, humans have indeed been the energy source of all machines. And whether we believe it or not, it has indeed overpowered us already.
Here’s an example. During a storm with all the energy turned off, all appliances and electronic devices cannot be used. And what we crave the most during these circumstances, would be these appliances and electronic devices. The more days these very gadgets are deprived from us, the more we become restless, distracted, impatient and very annoyed. It would seem we could not live without them. And that by itself is a manifestation that machines have overpowered us.
But not only that, our constant need to create more kinds of machines to make our lives easier and more comfortable, or for defense and offense, or to help build more things or destroy them, or to gain more control of what’s around us or to let go of that control.
It is this need to make more machines in whatever form possible that has turned us into batteries, the endless energy source of machines.
Is it wrong? Not really. Having to be able to pass through the tollways with just the RFID inserted in your body and get the toll fee paid is surely a useful kind of machine. Or to be able to tag endangered species and monitor how many of them are still alive anywhere is an amazing type of machine at work.
And yet, as we develop more machines to make life so-called “better than before”, we forget one thing.
To teach our successors, the next generation, what it is like to live life with just the basic necessities. So that when we are not around anymore and they are the generation in charge of the next generation, and something happens that would make all the machines they rely on unusable or unreliable, they would be able to return to the basics and continue to live without the machines.
What would happen if a century from now, a big natural calamity would occur that would wipe out the very source of energy of most machines that are needed in all types of households and industries? Then the generation then would have nothing but candles and matches to light their surroundings, would they be able to handle it? Or would there be so much chaos because they do not know what to do when all machines are turned off.
Sometimes I think that being in a developing country makes my children a little stronger. For them to be able to use a broom to sweep the floor instead of a vacuum cleaner, or to manually close the gate instead of just pushing a gate control button, somehow helps me keep the basic instinct they were born with in them longer. I would love to see them playing street games too instead of their video games, but it’s something I couldn’t muster anymore. Where we live there are cars whizzing on the streets everyday and there isn’t really any place to play street games in. But those street games would help them build their muscles and at the same time their strategic thinking while on their feet. Something they would not learn as well while making their thumbs move the joystick around to move virtual bodies.
Maybe in the future, there would be more machines to help live life
better, made by the next generations. But knowing that there would always be developing countries like ours to continue to be developing countries would mean there would always be groups of people who would still be exposed to the basics. And if they are still exposed to the basics, they would always have that yearning to improve things around them. And the developed countries would always have the resources to make more machines to improve things indeed.
In the meantime, in my country, we need more machines to help rebuild their homes after a natural calamity has once again ravaged us. Many of the people who have been ravaged in storms before are still continuing to rebuild using machines that many people from both developed and developing countries have helped made possible. I personally thank all those who have helped. And if you would like to help in making machines work for people who would like to return to their normal lives after being devastated by a natural calamity even more, kindly click here.
If you help us rebuild these homes, I’d gladly give you an ad space to say thank you.
(Note: I am not affiliated with them in any way. This is just my way of helping)
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