Thread: Are we starting to rely too much on technology?

I found out about an app that Google is going to be releasing that will allow people who carry around wallets, to have everything they own in their wallet, programmed onto a phone:

Google Wallet - a smart, virtual wallet for in-store and online shopping

I'm starting to wonder if everything we do is starting to and is going to start relying too much on technology and everything technology related. I mean, carrying a phone around is one thing, and being able to access the internet on your phone is another thing, but being able to access your wallet and all your personal items on your phone? Really?

Also, with this specific app, i've noticed a few flaws right away that could cause some distress with anybody who decides to get it:

What if your phone dies and you have no means of charging it?
What if someone steals your phone/you lose your phone?

I'm not exactly sure how I would assume the success/fail rate of this app, but I don't think it will get very far. But it's not so much about the app that's the issue, more than it is the fact that we are starting to rely on technology just a LITTLE bit too much. I may be young, but I know when something is getting a bit excessive.

We are indeed.
I mean, I dont want it to be that way, but I feel like something is missing if I dont have my phone around, or my computer or whatever. And that is already too much, its ****ing crazy.

How long will it be until you can buy a contact lens that allows you to go online, just by using one of your eye's?. It may even be safer that way, one eye on the road and the other eye on the internet, instead of both eyes on the internet and no eyes on the road. The speed technology moves at today would suggest that at some point in the future, we will be born and immediately hooked up to our own personal computer that will feed us and all the other stuff, we'll spend our entire life hooked up to this thing never ever going out, weather wont matter anymore and there's no such thing as physical human contact. We will turn ourselves into just another appliance, we'll be one step ahead of the toaster and two steps behind the computer.


We used to be in control and we aren't any more, we had no competition at all, no other living thing on Earth could have taken control from us we had it all sewn up. Only a human being could have been dumb enough to invent the very thing that was eventually going to take over the entire planet and every thing on it, and we still think we're sooo very smart don't we, we're all idiots and its not so bad when you come to terms with it.

Originally Posted by Yossarian

How long will it be until you can buy a contact lens that allows you to go online, just by using one of your eye's?. It may even be safer that way, one eye on the road and the other eye on the internet, instead of both eyes on the internet and no eyes on the road. The speed technology moves at today would suggest that at some point in the future, we will be born and immediately hooked up to our own personal computer that will feed us and all the other stuff, we'll spend our entire life hooked up to this thing never ever going out, weather wont matter anymore and there's no such thing as physical human contact. We will turn ourselves into just another appliance, we'll be one step ahead of the toaster and two steps behind the computer.


We used to be in control and we aren't any more, we had no competition at all, no other living thing on Earth could have taken control from us we had it all sewn up. Only a human being could have been dumb enough to invent the very thing that was eventually going to take over the entire planet and every thing on it, and we still think we're sooo very smart don't we, we're all idiots and its not so bad when you come to terms with it.

Definitely my favorite post in this thread so far.

Much of mainstream technology exists so that we can consume at greater and greater rates. much of the rest of technology exists to continue providing energy to us in order to continue to consume.

We're built with this preconceived notion that everything can continue to grow ad infinitum and that there will be an endless stream of energy to allow us to do so. Technology helps make this appear valid when, in fact, all it does is allow us to completely exhaust those remaining sources of energy.

Thus, I look at it this way: we have to rely more and more on technology because we really couldn't survive very long without it. Sure, there are certainly pieces of technology which would have little or no impact on our way of life if they vanished. For the most part, however, the fundamentals of technology are vital to our continued existence.

So, an app like this virtual wallet may seem completely frivolous. What happens, however, when it costs $5/L for gasoline? When the average car requires $200+ of gas to fill the tank and your average beast of a truck requires $800 to fill, we won't be doing much driving, if at all. These methods of virtually accessing currency, etc.. could prove to be invaluable if/when we are significantly limited in out ability to travel..