In a world where
technology rises up rapidly, the nature fades into the background easily.
Though the nature is not only all creatures, including animals and plants, but also humans. And we all have a relationship of dependence. Also the human being is dependent on creature as well as on lifeless nature. Human being fabricates new machinery constantly to capture the nature and consequently to reduce the life on earth.
At that moment the closer connection between the technology and the nature begins. With the aid of technology we can get closer to the nature. For example with weather reports we can arrange our days and we can see into the future.
Certainly, the technology causes the opposite too: It veers us away from the nature.
While there are so many admirable natural phenomena in front of our doors, we are to busy and exited because of the new technical developments. That's the reason that we don't notice anything around us anymore. Mostly, we even don't have the time for the nature anymore. School, job, university and leisure activities - all these things occupies much time of our lives.
Especially it restrains us from relaxing and powering down, in the true sense of the word.
"Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway. I was reminded of the lapse of time." ( Thoreau 72)
Can you remember a moment, when you spent time a whole day in the nature?
I don't mean some hours in the park, while you have a conversation with you friend and you're playing with your mobile phone. I am talking about a moment, where you have nothing to do, nothing in your mind and you just enjoy the time in the nature.
To be honest, I don't remember a moment like this. More precisely I don't know if I can imagine a day without any technical influences. What would I miss during that time?
However, what do we miss from the nature while agitating day after day in our lives and while we want to be up to date regarding the technical progress all the time?
Though the nature is not only all creatures, including animals and plants, but also humans. And we all have a relationship of dependence. Also the human being is dependent on creature as well as on lifeless nature. Human being fabricates new machinery constantly to capture the nature and consequently to reduce the life on earth.
At that moment the closer connection between the technology and the nature begins. With the aid of technology we can get closer to the nature. For example with weather reports we can arrange our days and we can see into the future.
Certainly, the technology causes the opposite too: It veers us away from the nature.
While there are so many admirable natural phenomena in front of our doors, we are to busy and exited because of the new technical developments. That's the reason that we don't notice anything around us anymore. Mostly, we even don't have the time for the nature anymore. School, job, university and leisure activities - all these things occupies much time of our lives.
Especially it restrains us from relaxing and powering down, in the true sense of the word.
"Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway. I was reminded of the lapse of time." ( Thoreau 72)
Can you remember a moment, when you spent time a whole day in the nature?
I don't mean some hours in the park, while you have a conversation with you friend and you're playing with your mobile phone. I am talking about a moment, where you have nothing to do, nothing in your mind and you just enjoy the time in the nature.
To be honest, I don't remember a moment like this. More precisely I don't know if I can imagine a day without any technical influences. What would I miss during that time?
However, what do we miss from the nature while agitating day after day in our lives and while we want to be up to date regarding the technical progress all the time?
You present some interesting ideas in your essay! Still, in my opinion we shouldn't be all negative about the relationship between evolving technologies and nature. How would we know what it looks like on the other side of the Earth without cameras (and get curious to actually go there)? How would we enjoy "Lord of the Rings" in the mindblowing set of New Zealand without them? How would we be able to see these places wihtout airplanes (ships might be another possibility; but the idle inhabitants of Earth today mostly are not very keen to experience what the great explorers of the 15th and 16th century did for years)? How would soldiers all around the world hold contact to their families in their home contries without telephones and the Internet? No doubt that inventions always have two sides. For some of us the positive side is more visible, for others the negative one is influencing their lives heavily.
ReplyDeleteStill, do you think technology really increases our awareness of and connection with nature? Sure, seeing other places around the earth via technology, and then going there via technology, is a great thing. But then again, this helps us to admire certain famous, extraordinary places in nature, and I think that this is different from being what we would call "naturverbunden" in German. Who, except dog owners, ever goes for a walk in the forest round the corner? Just like that, without any purpose, simply because they like being in nature, listening to the sounds of birds and smelling the damp leaves? The only thing that might really be useful in a situation like this might be a pair of binoculars, and that has been invented more than 100 years ago.
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