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Human and technology, who is the master of this age?
Eales Stan raised the question in his work Human Evolution Cartoon. Obviously, the cartoon drew its materials from the evolutionary theory of Darwin that the evolution of human has gone through different stages, from crawling to standing (Darwin,1871). The cartoonist added one stage after the industrial age, in which a guy immersed himself into the world of computer. Undoubtedly, the meaning behind it is more than information age.
The cartoonist use symmetry in the description of evolution, which not only caters to the requirements of aesthetics, but also corresponds to scientific law. At first humans did not rise to their full height due to incapability. After a long period of evolution, at the end humans did not stand upright again, this time not because of physical weakness, instead, it is because we do not need to do it.
Nevertheless, the symmetry also indicated that the cartoon is not a chant for modern civilization. On the contrary, the curve, the symmetry of heights of humans in different stage seemed like a regression, ringing the alarm bell for those who are overwhelmingly addicted to internet: do we take advantage of the high-speed development of technology, or are we just enslaved by technology? Just as Neil Postman(2006) said in Amusing Ourselves to Death, “destroy our is not something we hate, and it is precisely what we love”.
Besides, the gradual change of color is another technique in this cartoon. From left to right the color get increasingly shallow. Maybe one of the reasons is that humans are decreasingly likely to be exposed to sunshine due to the growing number of indoor activities. This is truth. But we can also regard the behavior of being exposed to sunshine as getting close to nature. And “nature” also refers to human nature. In the first few stages, without being civilized and rationalized people tended to connive at their emotions and feelings. Today we behave indifferently just like a part of machine. Maybe the cartoonist also intended to inform us that we walk too far away from our nature.
Therefore, this cartoon push people to reflect on ourselves: do we suffer from internet syndrome too much so that we forget the truth that we are humans, who is defined as creature with independent thinking?
Reference:
Darwin, Charles (1871. This edition published 1981, with Introduction by John Tyler Bonner & Robert M. May). The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02369-7
Postman, N. (2006). Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business. Penguin. 201.
ZENG, Zilu
SID:54017720