Technology and Humanity- What is humanity?

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What is humanity/ What makes us human? How are Technology and humanity connected?

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  1. The inexplicable essence. The essence of what is most naturally manifested.
    Humanity is:
    joy
    grief
    greed
    guilt
    passion
    fear
    anger
    disgust
    trust
    anticipation
    blended as fine powders – impossible to define their origins.

    Biologically, humanity is concerned solely with possibility of survival. Mentally, it is concerned with ultimate satisfaction. Or at least it feels that way.

    To adapt Octavio Paz’ between what I see and what I say. Humanity is a place between what we say and what we keep silent. When I think of the smallest demonstrations of intuition, logic

    Envisioning that technology is not manifested in the pragmatic realm unless through the intervention of humanity, then our physical selves act as proxies to the metaphysical.

    To be frugal with creativity or to extrovertly utilize it as if assumed of surplus?

    Do we enjoy making money more than the rush of intrigue and passion? The answer to this questions acts embodies the essence of ‘humanity’.

    1. I can relate to your comment regarding the biological and mental concerns of humans. One way I can directly apply this is what I read online regarding our nutrition. Our bodies have been developed to crave sugars as sugars were rare at the time (fruits) and were nutritionally dense, making it desirable for surviving. Now that our lives have changed in developed parts of the whole, these fruits are so readily availiable and furthermore, there are alternatives that are cheaper and sweeter (while not having the same nutrition) such as candy, juice, and other sweet foods. Because of this, we have a society that is subjected to the marketing of large companies due to our inclination to satisfy our desire for sugars that occurs within our biology.

  2. What is humanity/ What makes us human? How are Technology and humanity connected?

    Humanity is defined as “the human race; human beings collectively”. This definition highlights the fact that humanity is the grouping of all human beings. There is extreme variation among an entire species yet there are many things that connect us. One of the biggest things that makes us human is our emotions. No other species even remotely comes close to the complexity that humans have with their emotions. They govern what we do and how we do it. Technology was created by our emotions that we translated into needs. The need for completing things more quickly and efficiently were motivations for us to create technology. Emotions, motivations and needs are all so highly interconnected in humans and shape humanity.

  3. How are Technology and humanity connected?

    In my opinion, humanity is human nature, the quality of being a human. Being kind, mercy, and loving individuals. Cultural, education, language, and behaviour made human as human. Made us different from other animals. Society plays an important role in our civilization, we are educated to behaviour in the norm that satisfied society standards. Initially technology was created to serve humanity. Technology connected humanity as it improves our living.

  4. To me, being human is primarily based on the brain, and the products of higher thinking. While there are obviously biological differences between humans and other mammals in our anatomy, there is no doubt that our brain capabilities is the real definition of being human. This also separates us from the species that are most similar to us such as chimpanzees and gorillas. As stated in the Wikipedia page for human, humans have “relatively larger brain with a particularly well-developed neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes, which enable high levels of abstract reasoning, language, problem solving, sociality, and culture through social learning. ” This difference, is the main reason of how we differentiate ourselves against other animals as we have created so many physical (computers, cars, buildings, etc.) and social inventions (governments, business structures, etc.). This also implies humanity’s connection with technology. This relationship cannot be separated from us, as technology is how human lives. Our brains are programmed and well equipped to think and invent, always seeking new ways to improve our lives and not settle for any less. While this was definitely the case for the prehistoric humans, who were simply looking more for efficient ways of hunting and surviving, in the modern day, we apply this thirst for improvement in other ways such as more advanced medicines and power sources. Needless to say, our intentions are much more clouded and varied than from the past. While our species in the past was concerned with simply survival, a human’s goal for inventing new technologies may not always have the whole race in consideration, and may be something of personal gain. For example, the development of technology is warfare is not seen as a step towards advancement, as many lives could be negatively impacted or loss to the weapon. However, it can be justified by a small number of people as a necessity of defense for their country. Another example would be the production of snacks, which by a certain business group, can prey upon our ancestral and biological cravings for sugar in non-nutritious, artificial and processed foods which provide them with profits. Another example of our complicated relationship with technology is the over usage in social media that is spreading across the world. More and more people chose to communicate online rather than in person, affecting social relationships and our own perceptions of “self” and “real”. What was used as a form of long-distance communication, has turned into a product that could implicate our social skills and networks.

    Thus, while the power of our minds as human is strong enough to imagine and to create technologies, the very systems that we have designed (governments, companies, social media, internet, etc) have caused humans to have a both positive and negative relationship with technology.

  5. From my point of view, there are a lot of characteristics make human as a unique and independent species – creatures of language, self-awareness, rationality, learning and etc. However, I believe that creativity is one of those keys. For instance, it’s creativity further derives languages, tools, and even more sophisticated tools or in other words the advanced Technology: people use their ingenuity, thinking and practical abilities to actualize technology, to achieve dreams, which further leads to the symbiotic honorable state that human and technology are in nowadays.

    https://newhive.com/rollingchen/humanity-and-technology

  6. In my opinion, technology has definitely changed the meaning and purpose of ‘being human’. Technology has consumed us, driving us away from humanity by taking away the quality and beauty of being human, but at the same time connecting us with each other. Its benefiting us but also taking away from us. Technology functions in a similar way in which the human brain functions, ironically it is beginning to over power the human brain. For example, it astonishes me when I see families sitting at a restaurant engrossed in their phones, oblivious to their surroundings being more connected with people through the machine instead of interacting with people around them. Technology has diverted our priorities, by giving gadgets more importance instead of human beings. I believe that feelings and emotions are being replaced and expressed through a machine, defeating the purpose of human interaction. Eye contact and facial expressions are part of human expression in which we use to understand other people or interpret an emotion, however human expression is being replaced with emoji’s. In my opinion, we have created something which is gradually destroying humanity, and what it is to be human.

  7. I believe that imagination makes us human, and thoughts makes us reveal the truth of the universe.
    Technology is one of the things that we have revealed a little bit in the short history of human, and we will continue to figure it out in the future. Technology is also one thing that seperates as from other creatures on earth. It is one aspect that we have and others don’t. It was the result of our imagination and our thoughts. It was the result of our eager and pursuance. On the other hand, technology also changes us as human beings. It helps, or in another word, promotes us develope in better shapes. Our life have been changed incredibly since the recorded time, which is due to technology. We also classify our generations in history by the key technology that we have used (eg. the Stone Age and Bronze Age).
    In short, technology is what we need for our life, what we use in our life, what we reveals as our fates, and what promotes and shapes us in return.

  8. I think that defining humanity is rather hard, if first had to look at the definition for the word.

    Humanity:
    1: compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition : the quality or state of being humane
    bespeaking humanity for the enemy in the midst of a bloody struggle — C. G. Bowers
    2
    a : the quality or state of being human joined together by their common humanity
    b humanities plural : human attributes or qualities
    his work has the ripeness of the 18th century, and its rough humanities — Pamela H. Johnson
    3
    : the totality of human beings : the human race : humankind
    a fierce compassion for the woes of humanity — Maurice Bowra
    (Merriam webster dictionary)

    The one thing that I noticed when looking for the definition in several places was that we as humans have created this specific word to mean something rather narcissistic. We attribute being humans as something that is good, unique, caring, etc. and while there are human beings that certainly have fit that definition throughout time I think that the definition lacks roundness. Humanity is also something that is destructive, greedy and selfish. There are may ways to look at what we are, but having created a definition that solely puts us in a ‘good’ light I think is what prevents us from actually being good. I think sometimes what makes us the most human is that we have good intentions but fall short because we see ourselves so highly. I also believe that we could change that definition if we weren’t so fixated on concrete terms, maybe shifting our view and being more honest about our faults/flaws would help us learn to create a better definition.

    In relation to technology it’s impressive how quickly we have created objects that have made our lives easier (although this is debatable on many points, as it is also proven that technology has also made us lonelier because of lack of physical social interactions). I think that the intentions that we have as creators will shape and has shaped the technology that has been invented. Because the objects we create are also a part of us they end up being imperfect the same as us.

  9. In high school, I learned about esse and essence in terms of St. Thomas Aquinas’ works. In a nutshell, essence is our nature (what and who we are, the paradigm of our beings), whereas esse is the act of being. Our esse is limited by our essence. Humans are essentially human and the act of being human makes us human. But what does it mean to be human? What attributes are intrinsically human? Aside from physical form, we must look into mental, social and emotional forms as well. A composite of all these aspects and acting according to them makes us human.

    Technology is a by-product of humanity – as our minds develop, so does technology. Technological advancements are a result of the ever-growing imagination of humans, often serving the mental, social and emotional needs of our beings. I would say that technology is made to serve humanity but today, often see humans working for technology instead. Continuing down this road could be dangerous for humans especially if it takes over the aspects technology is initially supposed to aid.

  10. In my opinion, humanity means feeling. It means being able to feel of excitement, joy, delight, sadness, loneliness, pain, etc. The ability to communicate with other humans through language.
    I think as we get close to technologies we are moving away from being human. We are being satisfied to experience feelings through technologies around us! Feeling excited about someone sending us a friend request instead of talking to the person and become friends with him. We are no longer experiencing the feelings the same as our parents used to and that is very scary. But I think only for us!

    I believe we are in a shifting phase. We have the experience of playing outside and not having a smartphone, not having any video games and we enjoyed spending time with our friends. Now we are saying less and less of those moments, however, our kids who won’t be experiencing what we did when we were little will never miss those things because they do not know how it feels. So it might be hard for us but for the next generations it’s technology that’s their life not their activities or the way those activities make them feel! They will be happy with experiencing those through technologies.

  11. I want to explain humanity from three aspects.
    From sociologists, humanity is among all the nations counties and is the prerequisite for understanding different nations. Like sometimes even if we are from different countries, we all know moms love their own children and we can tell it from their behavior. Motherhood can also be seen in animals. This is because human nature is a result of evolution.In the human nature, there is a desire for survival, a desire for victory, a desire for a similar companion, a concern for his or her own status, Empathy and the impulse to help with the same kind. From the structure of the human brain, these are directly affected by the frontal lobe, but can be changed by memory or environment.

    From philosophers, humanity is associated with different societies and social classes. We all desire for democracy but the ruler will think their own benefit. There are wars, battles. That pushes the society to develop.

    From Pyschologists, Humanity is based on evolution of the biological features and shaped by the society. It is shown from people’s spirits and how their physical form interact with outside world. And the individuality and group’s relationship.

    I think humanity is based on the animal’s evolution. Human are born with some natures that are similar to animals. However, because our labor and creativity, we developed and become a huge group ” human”, we take over and rule the earth making it become a civilization. The societies we experienced also changing our spirit and mind. We have different culture, different countries. We discover new technology which lead the development of the society. We advocate the virtue, love and nobility. And the world, in a way, influence our spirits and thoughts as well.

    Technology is a result of humanity and society’s development. If there is no human civilization, there won’t be advanced technology just like the period when dinosaur lived. Technology comes out of creativity and innovation, which depend on human’s brain. And we need to control the usage of technology according to what we think is moral.

  12. I think that what separates humans from machines and other living beings is this essence of “humanity” which I guess includes some innate sense of morals and the notion of the spirit/soul (which perhaps gives us a sense of individuality and a complexity to think for oneself). And of course I think this definition of what humanity is has changed throughout the years and we as humans are thinking more complexly about ourselves and the world around us and I think that our technology and how that has evolved is testament of that. I think that technology is an extension to or a result of our humanity because throughout the years it has been a tool to help us survive, make our lives better and even assisted us in expressing our thoughts and ideas.

    However I feel as though our ideas of humanity are so diverse and simplified, and I feel as though the human mind and our “humanity” is something that is so complex and I wonder if it can be something that may never be fully understood or explained.

  13. Humanity and technology

    We can give long lists and descriptions about what makes humans unique and different from other entities but it doesn’t do justice to my fears of the possible future relationship between humans and technology.

    Technology is usually about extending human capabilities. A knife is an extension of our hand, a phone is an extension of our mouth and ears, computers are an extension of our brain and etc. As we develop more technologies that are extensions of human capabilites, we can merge these technology to create something similar to humanity.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlhMGQgDkY
    walking humanoid robots
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSHZ_b05W7o
    AI generated music

    here are examples of how multiple technologies can be merged to create aspects of humanity. I fear that someday that we could create some form of a human replica.

  14. https://newhive.com/soshi/humanity

    what makes us different from other living creatures

    The arts (writing, painting, dancing etc)
    Preparing and eating food (eating not just for the sake of eating)
    agricultural revolution
    self awareness
    spirituality (religion)
    clothing
    eroticism (I think human is the only animal that kiss)
    technology
    altruism
    conquering

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