Has commerce stolen our reality?

Question

It seems more and more that with the progression of mankind we move further and further away from actual reality and more toward the theoretical. Everything is going digital, even this message I am writing is not physical and I will probably never meet anyone who answers or reads it but I am still capable of responding for instance. I am wondering what your opinions are about this. Is this the real natural evolution of mankind toward a better clearer communication or could this just be a distraction away from humanity toward a robotic cyber hell of theory?

I forgot to add how this relates to commerce...Commerce is what is behind the digital progression.

Alright, you are just wrong Doctor smarty pants. I could ask this question easily in reality so...wrong. It isn't misguided either, it's a logical and perfectly acceptable question to ask in this day and age. It is misguided and glib to sit back and passively watch the world change and never ask why.

Answer 1

First of all, I would like to commend you on asking such an intelligent question (vis-à-vis "what color should I die my hair?" for example). I could write an essay on this subject, but I'll keep it pithy. First of all, we must differentiate between the various forms of "reality," i.e. the way in which we perceive the world and our surroundings. Particularly those contemporaries of ours who reside in the developed areas of the world have moved or are moving evermore from an "analog reality" - which rests on the senses being offered a tangible representation of the world - to a "digital reality" which rests on a representation of the world via, ultimately, varying arrangements of 0's and 1's.

In my humble opinion, reality cannot as such be stolen, but it certainly can evolve and be altered. To my dismay, people have created their own digital or "online reality" while blocking out or only showing a minimum or interest in the "real reality" outside of the digital matrix we lovingly refer to as the World Wide Web. There is an awful lot of psychology behind this which I won't get into here.

With respect specifically to commerce, humankind's innate passion for improving its economic situation undoubtedly drives the expansion of communication networks, as this enables it a level of inter- and transnational trade never hitherto heralded. A loss of or a diminishing "analog reality" for the sake of global trade and communication is a price we are seemingly willing to pay.

Summa summarum, we each have and create our own reality which is precisely why we perceive certain aspects of the world different from others, which itself gives rise to conflict. To be quite honest, I do, in fact, believe that we are moving towards a completely digitalized reality, and that robotic technology will eventually make much of humanity virtually obsolete. This is not only a digital reality but also a sad one.

This response has been given completely ad hoc and is not to be treated scientifically. Just food for thought, I guess ...

Answer 2

Commerce has created the reality that gives you the time to ask this misguided question!