The Computer: Friend or Foe?

Sometimes I wonder about how much easier the computer has made my life and others. The computer, along with your friends and family, have become one of those things we try to "get away from" when we take a vacation, or, go to a retreat. If computers made life so much easier and enriching, wouldn't you see it at Buddhist temples and campgrounds? We take computerized gadgets with us everywhere, it seems, but as soon as we talk about getting away from it all, we're talking about doing something that involves using our physical body, like knitting (hands), swimming (arms and legs), reading a book (eyes), meditating (whole body and mind), walking (legs), canoeing, camping, and so on. We want to do things that involve human interaction with their physical world. We steer clear from sitting and typing, and surfing the Internet.

I find it quite amusing, too, when people who can't get away from computers, start to give the computers human traits. Suddenly the computer is mocking you, won't do what you're telling it to do, you get angry with it, you love it, you can't stand it, it's sympathetic to your needs, and so on and so forth. So, what is the computer to us? It causes us stress? Or rather, we allow ourselves to become stressed through our use of it. The computer, allowing us to do several tasks more efficiently has convinced us that it also plays an integral part of our emotional lives. And with that, it has become a source of fear, stress, and yes, love.

My view is that the computer is neither friend or foe. It is a tool that we use to accomplish tasks. Any stress it causes us is put upon ourselves to ourselves. We are, in essence, our worst enemy. We know how to push our buttons and we know how to hide behind the objects that are our scape goats. Indeed, Man vs. Machine, is, at least on the emotional level, Man vs. Man (Himself).

Now, I must say, I enjoy a good horror movie where a mad scientist or engineer creates an object or a monster that chases down and creatively maims or kills people, but that, again, is Man vs. Man, on the basis of intellect versus survival instict. What the mad antagonist is doing, is using the machine, or monster, to do her bidding. The machine is not friend or foe, it is the tool of the antagonist. The threat, as you may notice in the movies, is (most of the time), to stop the mad antagonist behind the machine or monster. Otherwise, like Jason, the machine or monster keeps coming back.

Which reminds me, I have something to fix....