Posted by Raul on April 4, 2011
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So tired, so sleepy! She couldn’t keep up for the long term ahead and instead simply felt asleep over the tasks that had to be completed. Tomorrow will be another day, she said to herself; tomorrow everything will look different and from a new perspective, when better rested.
The scent of the words printed below involved her, while she enjoyed her dreams of peaceful rest and final abandonment. Surrounded by the knowledge, the ideas and the projections that could be extracted from the scent, she rested completely unaware of the changes already happening inside her head.
All she read, all she imagined, all she thought, everything was already inside her head, moving, forming new shapes out of the original created at the time of insertion. Every new knowledge that found home in her brain was morphing into a new concept, at the time it found connection with whatever knowledge, thought or idea was to be found already there.
Dreams!
She rested, she dreamed, then she grew up a little more. Good night little one! Have a pleasant rest and a wonderful awakening! You’ll be a little bit different tomorrow!
Raul
Posted by Raul on March 21, 2011
Before, we dreamed of seeing some place with our own eyes, but now it is possible to see it from our own place using technology, so no need to travel anymore. With the increasing technology that also becomes affordable to the masses, no longer we need to “go get” the information and the entertainment; now they come to us without the need from us to move anywhere.
It is an outstanding advance that allows us to embrace and do more in our lives. We can become very productive and knowledgeable in almost any field we decide to do so. What we cannot reach easily can be brought to us by technology, making possible to use our time in more efficient ways, leading us to have more productive lives.
But what if, instead of using these marvels of science and technology to increase our knowledge and productivity, we use it to reduce our speed and self pressure to grow? (Based on the instinct of always taking the shortest path)
For the children of the change, those who were young when all this technology still didn’t exist, it is easy to adapt to some of the benefits while still keeping the desire to do “some stuff” in the old physical ways, like traveling and “being there”; seeing with our own eyes; feeling the breeze in our skin and having the possibility to “touch” the place (like grabbing a handful of sand) and smelling the flowers, trees and ground on a rainy day.
But what would happen to the children of the future, who are being born immersed in this increasingly technology flooded medium, and start their first steps in walking together with their first steps in login in? For them it’ll be a natural thing to see a new place through a computer screen rather than being there.
At one hand we can understand the point of touring, lets say, Ireland, seeing what is too see in a screen rather than in person. In the shortest amount of time it’ll be possible to see the most places at different times of the year (each one with its individual beauty); listening to the sound of the country side and the cities; listening to the voices of the local with their unique accent; taking a quick look to the traditional cuisine and the newest preferences of the people living there.
We can do all this without the expenses of travel tickets, hotels, tours, etc. We also can avoid the “suffering” of temperature changes, wind, rain, and all the typical experiences associated with traveling. No lost baggage!
And with the new technologies to come, we will also be able to smell the scents, perceive the breeze and experience the place in a more complete way. Right now communication systems use the senses of vision and hearing, but I’m sure pretty soon they will find ways to add the senses of touch, smell and taste to the repertoire available to computer technology.
But if we extend the trend to the future, wouldn’t be possible to have a big number of people who has become adapted to this new society, where the external world that used to surround a person becomes an enclosed, climate controlled room that has all the connections and possibilities of remote interaction with the world?
Think of it like the highly technologic suit in the movie “Iron Man”, only this enclosed environment of protection and interaction with the external world just doesn’t move. Like becoming the yolk of an egg, surrounded by the technological feeding white, and protected from the world with a surrounding shell. A world and a society of separated “units” connected by technology.
I know there’ll be always the people who will prefer the actual physical interaction, leaving the technological resources as an aid, rather than an end. But what about the big majority that isn’t well guided while being raised, and becomes easy prey for the technology providers?
Looking around to young people who can easily find answers to the most strange questions and situations using a computer; who prefer to see a new place in the screen rather than having to “endure” a physical trip to the actual place, I can’t stop to wonder how the future society will be.
What trends do you see in the actual use of technology?
Do you identify more with the “Children of the Change” or the “Children of the Future”?
Raul
Posted by Raul on March 13, 2011
It is sad to see how more and more houses become empty, with a sign “For Sale”, waiting to be occupied again.
We could compare the economy of a society with walking. When times are complicated and the economy is bad for the majority, it’ll be like walking uphill -lots of efforts to cover very little ground.
But for the past several decades in the US the economy was at continuous growth, becoming a slight but increasing downhill walk for the people.
“Only a slight amount of energy is required to get in motion when walking in a flat, level surface. Once in motion, the amount of energy required is even smaller”
By the simplification and increased efficiency in many areas of work by the companies leading the economy, more and more was imposed the “learn at the job” structure and mentality. It worked well for several decades, but the price tag is a society that doesn’t consider or even hold, the need for a strict and pushing educational system.
“A downhill walk requires us to reduce the amount of energy applied in order to remain in motion. Less energy to acquire the same original intended result”
By consuming, thus generating movement in the market, the economic growth became independent of the production needs. A system that feed itself in its own circular motion, based in buying and discarding to buy more. The temptation of reaching dreams by credit became the flag and promotional tactics of corporations in search for bigger profits.
“Walking in a downhill, taking more and more ground at a faster speed becomes a temptation due to the very small amount of energy required”
Having the possibility of acquiring more and expensive items no longer was a privilege of the wealthy. Every one with a decent credit could “afford” by credit the possession of luxury items that would reinforce his/her image and self esteem.
“At first, gaining speed and covering more ground faster becomes intoxicating and motivating for having more”
By the time momentum has been gained, the elements of luxury became a standard need, rather than the luxury they suppose to be. The need for reaching then the next step became the norm in a cycle repeating itself time and time again.
But the economic system, relying in the continuous movement of a circular process of consuming, like a wheel spinning faster and faster until it reaches speeds that set it out of control, started to fall apart, disintegrating the basis of the economic system.
“Running downhill then becomes scary and the realization for the need of slowing down to a safer speed takes in”
The level of expenses incurred in became too much for the capabilities of the transforming economic system, so people had to adjust to new standards already forgotten, or simply considered “sub-standard”.
The amount of credit taken, based in an economic system that didn’t suppose to change, created a burden on people living at a dreamed social level. But credit incurred in (mortgage, car payments, etc) couldn’t be discarded so easily.
“Running downhill we realize we are going to fast for safety, but it’s too late to regain control, and only the attempt of just not falling while running scared by the situation is the only option”
The once high life by credit became a continuous struggle for survival. Deterioration of the luxury elements by not being able to renew as often as the economic system suggested, became the first signs of the end of the party, the awakening of the dream.
From then on, for many it has become just a continuous fight to remain “alive” financially, not knowing when the personal situation will finally collapse, and throw them into the unknown.
“Running downhill at an uncontrollable speed, waiting for the moment were we know we will fall and get badly hurt, but also know it’ll be the only way to stop this runaway situation. We just don’t want to face the moment, so we keep trying harder to keep up, until we succumb by exhaustion and total lack of control”
Raul
Posted by Raul on March 5, 2011
Picture: “Salar de Uyuni” – Bolivia (about 12,000 feet altitude)
This picture somehow reflects for me what is to be traveling in the internet: Amazing and scary at the same time! Someday I’ll have to visit this place 
I’m back…and happy to say that it wasn’t a hack but just a flood of spam that came even through the ears! Little by little I’ve been changing things here and there to prevent such flood, like placing sand bags all around Alien Ghost blog; so my apologies for any inconvenience that you might step on within the next several days.
I also changed the personal picture for a newer one; taken on March 04 this year 2011 (I don’t even remember how old the previous one was!). And as you might notice, I added a third one (no, it’s not about apocalyptic times!).
The first one is “Who”; the second one is “Under what name”, and the third one is “About what”. To me, that picture reflects very well the human mind…complex, scary, yet beautiful! We can stop and observe our own mind, and we’ll see how wonderful it is.
For a long time I’ve been fascinated with the human brain and mind for all the capabilities, gifts and chains it provides, making possible to become who we are and what we do, in a personal level and as a race.
So, after the flood and many off-line activities, finally there is some time left to visit again the on-line world, to live in the extension of the mind in a non-physical world, as the dream land we all have become addicted to.
Thank you for your patience and understanding (only one person unsubscribed from Alien Ghost!)
I’ll start visiting you all again and posting new weird thoughts for you to get confused once again (he-he)
Raul
Posted by Raul on January 10, 2011
When I see high school teenagers driving a fairly new sport car, having lunch at a restaurant, meeting at a Starbucks for a friendly chat while sipping a coffee or some surfing in a modern laptop, it makes me wonder how their lives will be in the future.
What would happen when, from an early age, a teenage kid gets accustomed to experience and enjoy some “pleasures” of life that are supposedly reserved for an adult that already have accomplished something in life?
The first time can be magic, but the time number twenty is not that much, and by the time number fifty, it has become a routine that classifies as a standard necessity instead of a pleasure to enjoy.
Parents provided and children had an easy life. Asking for a car at the age of fifteen; having money to eat at restaurants, having a coffee at Starbucks and using the latest cell phone in the market; living the life of a well paid professional when still going to High School and sometimes not even getting good grades!
How much money they will have to generate in the near future to sustain a higher life that has become just the base for them? What could be a nice honeymoon trip when graduation from high school with a “C” implies a cruise to the Bahamas?
I can understand the concept of giving the “taste” as a motivational way, but when the results in school don’t reflect constructing the base to reach the presented image and standard to achieve; then the good intentions become a misleading guidance.
Instead of earning every little advantage, that should create the mentality of working hard to supply the needs and enjoy a small luxury from time to time, the concept generated in teenagers these days is that they have to be surrounded by the expensive and the latest, and disregarded the part of generating the income necessary to supply such luxuries.
It is acquiring prestige by the possession and continual use of the latest material elements, rather than the pride of being good at something.
And then, what would happen when the material possessions are lost due to…let’s say…a falling economy. Those who have lived a life of pride based on owning material luxury would become lost and without identity when loosing the material elements; while those who acquired pride by the sense of knowledge and expertise will still have their pride, even if is under a new, deprived economic situation.
Something to think about…
Raul
