THE MODERN HUMAN

What does it mean to be human in a technologically enhanced world?

We live every day being misled and deceived. In cases where we are not deceived, often we are the ones who are deceiving others...

Are you aware of the variety of things that are constantly numbing our consciousness?

Technology’s non-stop evolution is being used in order to make us consume more than we actually need to. Today, we are nothing without a smartphone, and on top of that, we are worthless if we are not using a popular brand! It is a system that makes us feel valuable only when we consume increasingly expensive technology.

Before we get used to the updated technological product that we bought, they release a newer version. That is the reason why a sense of anachronism always moves through the motives of Middle Eastern societies. What we call the Arab Spring is a scenario of creating a consumer society. Modern thought has transformed the idea of nature from being a living organism to a nonorganic mechanism, namely into a machine, and the same mentality is now planning to turn humans into a device: Human 2.0!

In parallel with the technological advancements our philosophical interests started to focus on post-human topics such as brain simulation, mind uploading, singularity, genobility etc. The idea that some people are superior to others due to their genetic or mental abilities is a recurring theme in this approach. In the next sections we will discuss how the transformation from ancient philosophy to modern philosophy took place with a focus and emphasis on the human brain. More specifically, one common claim of this point of view is that certain people have superior genes or transhuman traits and the benefits that go along withThis notion creates the concept of the “less superior” humans, like the unvaccinated, and they are awarded fewer rights in the society, leading to devastating wars around the world.

The slogan of liberalism is “Let them do, let them pass.” This system is based on exploitation, and it needs deception, and it needs to numb the human mind to exploit it. It emphasizes and invokes the indulgences that opiate the human mind. That is why the capitalist system hits people below the waist as much as possible when exploiting them. For the same purpose, this system of consumerism uses all kinds of media to educate people. Through this propaganda, the belief that we would not live without being promoted is awakened.

Akira Kurosawa’s movie “Dreams” (1990) depicts a village where modern technology has not been introduced yet, the only thing we see in the name of technology is the water mill. In the last dream of the movie, the wise person answers the question of why they do not have electricity:

“If we had electricity, how would we watch the stars in the sky?”

Indeed, every light that has been lit on the earth extinguishes countless stars in the sky. If your purpose is to go and seek the truth, you must turn off your light first! The world is no longer able to raise philosophers, and there are so few thinkers that it would be possible to point them out one by one. The world is ruled by

capitalists, technicians, and engineers. Humans, as the resources of production are turned into a market to sell what they themselves produce and they also are taken as prisoners by the same forces. While being taken as prisoners, false states of happiness are promised: If you buy this car, you will also have that woman; if you wear this outfit, everyone will desire you; if you use this cosmetic product, your aging will be postponed... We are constantly told to consume these foods, use those medicines, always this and that. This is a deception, as if our life would be longer as well as all of which are related to our body. Where is contemplation in this scenario, where is the witnessing mind?

So, what do all these signs of the head-spinning speed of technological development bring to us? What kind of knowledge background do we achieve? What kind of witnessing the process do we experience? What degree of evolution takes place in our souls? None!

It can be said that nihilism had an intellectual value, in the sense that it had a side that questioned accepted values. However, in the present, nihilism is nothing but burnout syndrome! High technological breakthroughs in communication technologies create the illusion that God is present in us, and that God is at our disposal wherever and whenever we demand, constantly and instantaneously!

By ending each other’s lives in wars and letting hunger spread everywhere, we are becoming like a God! Yes, we are, there is no doubt about it!

The technology captures not only our minds but also our bodies as well as our privacy. Even if you are in a distant corner of an unknown land, anybody can find out exactly where you are thanks to the signal on your mobile phone.

Protecting privacy, Mahramat, is a fundamental principle in Islam. There is a sense of a God who even “covers” sins. God (who is closer to His servant than that servant’s jugular vein) even enters between his angels and His servant’s intention. Privacy is so important that it is in the basic assurance of God. Whereas today,they are entering our bedrooms. All the ways you could avoid being continuously observed have already been closed. Living in a world surrounded by dead-end streets is maddening. While even angels decently withdraw themselves from your presence when you make love, in today’s world your intimate moments can be published on any website at any time! These “third eyes”, disregarding human dignity, are everywhere. The extent to which we are being monitored is scary.

These days, people can be manipulated so easily. There is such dense information pollution that you can convince thousands of people and influence their willpower.

Manipulation is a kind of magic, and the term magic refers to everything that guides the human will to any direction. Sometimes it is social media, sometimes it is television, sometimes it is a friend or a political group, it can be a community, a cult, or it can even be spiritual charlatans called contemporary Gurus.

And what we need to do is to stay independent and free by owning our will, mind, heart and soul.

So, in such an age that we live in, how can you talk about freedom when your mind is constantly occupied, and you do not have free will? And they will gradually increase the level of imprisonment to make sure that we cannot escape it. So, they put chips on us, they monitor our body and mind. The only part of us that they do not have access to is our Soul.

Question:

Are people unhappy in archaic societies which are defined as “primitive” by the West, with a cultural and racist arrogance, which live now in the rainforests of Australia, with sporadic examples remaining utterly unaware of technology?

Never! Watch the documentaries; you cannot see the slightest expression of unhappiness on the faces of those half-naked people. We can observe that they lead a charmed and peaceful life in full harmony with nature under the spiritual leadership of shaman-sorcerers and their spiritual protection without knowingany hierarchy, without putting any pressure on children, without establishing a domination over gender, without exploiting human beings and without violence.

Of course, even such human societies try to meet their needs from nature by using several tools, hunting weapons, and agricultural tools and they use some sort of technology. Therefore, our criticism targets not the technology itself, but the modern paradigm that produces this technology.

The transfer of technology to industrial production, the integration of philosophy and science, was first observed in the European continent. The problem is not that the technique has been transformed into technology. The problem is that the said technology is being used for the domination of nature and people. However, when we look at the intellectual and philosophical background in the creation of this domination, we can better understand the underlying causes of the destruction and demolition of nature as well as the human societies.

Before the white man put his foot on the new continent, the Indians lived peacefully in this world. They had a belief of “afterlife” and they lived surrounded by their relatives’ souls from the afterlife. They had no starvation problems, nor were they fighting against other tribes, unless they felt the danger of a trespass on their habitat. The Indian was careful even when walking on soil and did not press his feet firmly in order not to hurt it. They never hunted more than they needed. In case that they caught two rabbits in the hunting traps and the second was not required, they would set it free. An Indian apologized when picking a fruit from a tree, because he believed that the tree also had a soul and he did not want to hurt it. The rule was:

If you have taken something from nature, you should leave something new to replace it so that the balance never gets disturbed.

Whereas, the white man said, “Wherever my sword reaches, it belongs to me!” Moreover, while saying it, he waved his sword in one hand and the book of God in the other to make up a legitimate ground, an alibi, to justify his greed as the righteousness with the Word of God!

Let’s make a remark here; after the white man occupied the new world, there were children captured from both sides during all wars and genocides. Both sides released captives during the times of peace and the children who were captured by the white man begged to return to their tribe while the children who were captured by the Indian side did not want to go back to the white man’s side, to their own family!