A Beautiful World Without Empathy: Exhibit A Texting

Texting

So I’m sitting in an average size living room watching a couple of people texting each other rather than carry on a conversation. Isn’t that weird?

Apparently it’s becoming common practice. Texting is everywhere.

Why is it that a growing number of people prefer to text rather than converse, or to make phone calls, or to even leave voice messages?

And why is it that ever since texting has become the preferred one-way method of distance communications (anything beyond 2 feet), no one but old fashioned fools bother to directly answer their phones anymore?

Well I had a hunch but I decided to do a little internet research concerning texting vs. talk. The many comments I read confirmed my suspicions.

"It's more straight and to the point.”

“I can ignore or respond at my own leisure.”

“It is so much more easily accomplished through a few words of text without all the niceties and formalities of a phone call!”

“Texting is direct, to the point without the small talk involved in phone conversation.”

“I hate talking on the phone.”

“I know some people who keep me on the phone way longer that I'd like.”

“If I don't have time to have a full attentive conversation, I have to text.”

“It’s so easy to flirt and exchange small bits of banter. It's playful and possible that someone might find it easier to text risqué thoughts than saying it face to face or on the phone.”

“It's just convenient and quick.”

“I can keep in touch with people who I don't see often but don't want to call.”

“The only con for me with the texting is sarcasm gets taken for seriousness and it offends people. Soooo I gotta watch what I text”

“When I text, I just want to bark or whisper my message. I want to make you laugh or smile, but I don’t want to get into anything complex or time consuming. I don’t want to listen to you at least not right now. I want to share something quick, easy, and right at my finger tips.”

“It’s all about me. That’s what it’s really all about. Me, me, me and what I want when I want it and I really am not interested in what you want when you want it. God forbid that I would have to perform niceties and endure formalities for your sake!

If I called you I’d have to listen to you because you would introduce into the conversation something you wanted to talk about. I just don’t have time for that. Life is too short and I’ve got a really cute Avatar sweetie in Second Life that will do exactly what I want when I want it. And I don’t need to sweet talk or small talk my honey Avatar. So just text me back when you have a chance and it better be important because I’ve got a life! Really I do.”

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This is a guest post from Hunter Richards of Software Advice, which provides reviews of project accounting systems and other software.

...and wealth has shifted toward the highest earners.

The less-educated workers who manage to keep their jobs are falling further
and further behind in the national income distribution as the relative value of their services declines.

Alas, high-tech industries are growing...

So how can you avoid being replaced by a machine? You’ll need to be one of the people who work in an advanced field that still requires highly-skilled human capital. Take the IT field, for example. The Tech Pulse Index tracks the growth of national economic activity in technology by combining data on employment, investment, production, shipments, and consumption. The Tech Pulse Index has risen sharply (with the exception of the dot-com bust around the year 2000), reflecting continued demand for high-tech workers. The same is true in other engineering disciplines, healthcare and finance.

...but an advanced education is required.

Your cell phone calls are not private. The reality is that your cell phone calls, your personal conversations and even your location can be tracked constantly by your cell phone company, by the government and even by enterprising stalkers who are able to get spy software on to your phone.

For any of you who doubt this, please start by watching the incredibly shocking news report below.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCyKcoDaofg

Have we got your attention now?

The truth is that cell phone conversations never have been and never will be private.

Not only does the cell phone company have access to your phone whenever they want, but the government has access to all of our calls in order to protect us against terrorism.

If you doubt this, just see what happens if you make a joking remark about airport security over a cell phone while you are headed to board a plane. You will likely be picked up within minutes.

But as you saw in the video above, an even scarier scenario is that stalkers or criminals could have complete access to your calls if they can get spy software on to your phone. And with more phones than ever connecting to the Internet, that little hurdle is now easier to overcome than ever.

Not only can stalkers and criminals listen to your calls, but they can also listen to your personal conversations even when your phone is turned off.

They can even listen to you at home in your private moments.

And thanks to GPS tracking, they can follow your location 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Isn't technology wonderful?

The video clip below is a trailer for a film entitled "Transcendent Man".

This film examines the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, a world famous futurist who travels the world promoting his vision of a future in which humanity will merge with technology and machines.

Kurzweil believes that by doing so, humans will be able to live forever and will be billions of times more intelligent than we are now.

All within the next thirty years.

Does all of this seem fantastical to you?

The truth is that there are a LOT of scientists out there who believe this, and the number is quickly growing.

They call this being of the future "the Singularity", and today there are many futurists, philosophers and scientists who are talking about what it will mean to live in a "post-human" society.

Check out the trailer for this film. What you see should chill you to the bone.....