Is one more commentary on the waste our society produces necessary? Does the automobile symbolize our departure from a simpler less mechanized life? Is a rusting bumper or missing windshield the best analogy to many aspects of decay that surround us? Yes, three times yes! As is the case for many of our endeavors, there’s the good and the bad. The gargantuan benefits of mechanization go without saying. But we ought to say something. The essential underlying benefit of those machines is the lifting of the most arduous aspects of human tasks. While we have more time and energy for other pursuits, we also can be accused of becoming “soft” -- of forgetting how to perform those tasks ourselves, both in muscle and mind.
Not all of the evidence is visible. But the machines left to decay in plain sight are sufficient to remind us of the waste we negligently leave behind and the consequent long-term injury to the planet. I say long-term because, with our short attention span and our jumping from one hot topic to the next, the slow damage buildup is hardly noticed by us. The planet, however, has a very long attention span and will react on its own time scale to the accumulation of insults to the delicate balance of its systems, the systems that have evolved over eons with sufficient precision to support life, to support us. We may have an intellectual appreciation for things such as massive landfills, plastics trapped in ocean gyres, and invisible pollution of the atmosphere, but we have little motivation to remediate. The ongoing extinction of plant and lower animal species does not threaten us directly, not yet.
Credits and debits
We must credit efforts to save the environment, but they are minuscule compared to the size of the problem. Still, they may serve to slow an inevitable deterioration as we all wait for a few more cataclysms to awaken a massive effort. Expanding deserts, flooded coastal communities, gas mask requirements in cities, and conflicts instigated by food and clean water shortages ought to alert more of us to the urgency. (I omit energy shortages and iPhone-necessary rare-earth element hoarding as causes of conflict, as those are stories too long to include here.) A discarded broken-down car or bus or boat alone is only a symptom of our blindness to the global implications of leaving a trail of waste as we speed toward an ever more mechanized future. One of the culprits is engineered obsolescence. Perfectly useable tools are made to fail sooner than need be so they will be replaced by the new as manufacturers offer presumably better models to keep their bottom lines afloat. I am not saying that I would rather use a wringer washer in the laundry or a manual Royal typewriter now as I type. (I recall jammed keys and misfed ribbons not yielding under the attempts of my ink-stained fingers to restore productivity.) But how much is too much? Even the newest devices like repeatedly superseded smartphone models and tablets are piling up at electronic disposal sites and less appropriate venues.
Modern versions of waste
Those visible machines fail to reflect the newest trend. The past couple of decades have redefined the meaning of “mechanized.” First, the now ubiquitous social media and now, the impending AI revolution are additional paths toward relieving us of tasks that had been “manual.” This is not mere nostalgia decrying instant messages versus letters written with pen and ink on paper or books from the cloud read on screens versus those plucked from library shelves perfect-bound for fingers to peruse. The approaching AI is and will further reduce our need to think. If you believe the brain is a mechanism, then it's liable to suffer the fate of the car, bus, and boat. Its acuity will decline as we wallow in the generative preferences of the neural net, deep and machine learning, and artificial intelligence of the future. Will the AI be smart enough and selfless enough to generate a warning about its effects on our cognitive abilities? Or will those too be relegated to the wastebin of the future?
Awfulizing this way does no practical good, but it does get a few things off my chest, so to speak. Practical answers are hard to come by. Our ability to make the problem worse far exceeds our development of methods to counteract the trend. Not only does human nature stand in the way, not only does availability of funds limit options, but it is by no means clear that any technological solution is in the offing or even possible.
Living with it
Most likely will be the need to adjust to the ramifications. Move inland to higher ground. Check your fish and sea foul for microplastics. Go nowhere near the landfills and their effluents. Accept the forever use, until fully depleted, of fossil fuels. Cordon off and move away from factories and power plants that belch carbonaceous gases. Live upwind from all those sources, including nuclear, if possible. Avoid pesticide-laden farmland. Boil everything. Stock up on water purification and iodine tablets, canned foods, and antibiotics. Refurbish that underground bomb shelter from the 1950s just in case. And pray.
How much of this is exaggerated prophecy of doom and how much is realistic projection for the long term? I’d say a bit of both. Time and handwringing devoted to sorting that out are a waste. A miraculous solution discovered just in time to save us would be great but unlikely. I fear that the anti-cliché, The future is already written but cannot yet be read, applies here. A little perspective is needed. The planet Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old. That time span is divided into eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages.[1] Our rise and fall will comprise just one short age followed by many more until the sun itself expires. Near-term amelioration and adjustment is the best we can do while an accepting fatalistic attitude is probably best for maintaining sanity and the quality of life our “age” generously provides.
______________________
[1] https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/physical/ocean-floor/change-over-time
______________________
Nota Bene: Others may ruminate differently. But be warned: In my case, seeing or hearing something quite trivial -- a saying, a store clerk’s mannerisms, or bad grammar on a food product’s label – triggers a stream-of-consciousness extrapolation toward grander notions and generalizations. That is what often happens in these posts. ADDENDUM: Those subscribers who have been here for a while will have noticed that at times ruminations have veered into diatribes. I make no apology. I just want my readers to know that it’s quite intentional. When events come close to making the ‘blood boil,’ that discontent bubbles up here.
Disclaimer: Any and all opinions expressed here are my own at the time of writing with no expectation that they will hold beyond my next review of this article. Opinions are like a river, winding hither and yon, encountering obstacles and rapids, and suffering turbulent mixing of silts from its depths and detritus from its banks. But just as a river has its clear headwaters and a fertile delta, so do opinions, notwithstanding any intervening missteps and uncertainties.
Reminder: You can visit the Cycloid Fathom Technical Publishing website at cycloid-fathom.com and the gallery at cycloid-fathom.com/gallery.
Forthcoming posts (unless life intervenes)
The color of color
…What you see is what you see
Sched 4/22/2024
Repetitive Objects Found
…curiosity runs amok
Sched 4/29/2024
Conflict Zones
…Sticks and stones…
Sched 5/6/2024
Quantify me
…metiri, aestimare, iudicare aliquid* (…measure, estimate, judge something)
Sched 5/13/2024
The Last Resort
…Still searching for the magic nostrum
Sched 5/20/2024
Let me count the ways*
……Once, it was only love
Sched 5/27/2024