Is technology killing our humanity?

As Kenyans work hard to achieve Vision 2030, it is becoming clearer that technology is at the core of this drive. However, technological advancement is something that requires careful and strategic adoption and utilisation.

There is no doubt that more often than not, Kenyans are increasingly interacting with different kinds of technology in their everyday lives, a reality that has transformed the traditional context of human interaction or human communication and this is becoming problematic as more and more people are becoming anti-social.

The question keen observers would be compelled to ask is whether or not society is moving in a positive direction as a result of adopting a one sided view of technology, whether it is in the adoption of cellphones, computers and other kinds of media, that celebrates technological explosion without being critical.

Is the idea that technology is often a synonym for progress necessarily true? Have Facebook and Twitter made social life in Kenya much more authentic? To answer such questions, one must begin exploring the dangers of beginning from a narrow premise that celebrates the progressive conceptualisation of technology and its centrality to our culture and society.

One of the dangers is that humans risk rejecting humanism in exchange for technology in the hope that they become more effective and efficient. In reality, it is speed and efficiency attributed to technology that simply replaces God-given authentic traditional or esoteric knowledge.

We all know that humans are behind technological innovation and advancement and thereby, humanity’s role in technology is irreplaceable. Even computers rely on coded memory where codes must be painfully scripted by human brains and hands. So what is this digital fuss lately witnessed in most African countries all about? How has the e-world positively transformed the lives of Kenyans under the sun as humans? Is e-dating better than traditional dating?

Are cyber citizens better than organic citizens? Is e-voting better than the Kanu-era Mlolongo? Or in short, is virtual reality now replacing sensory reality?

The truth is that as we become more advanced in technology, we seem to act more like machines with the future certain that humans are beginning to transform into cyborgs and post-humans. Proponents of the latter philosophy argue that if technology can increase the lifespan of humans and double their intellect then it is something to celebrate.

Therefore, the extent to which Kenyans have embodied technology is a worrying trend. Biotechnology and non-organic technology, for example, have transformed the natural process of human evolution rendering the latter obsolete. Humans are slowly but steadily transforming into trans-humans aided by technology.

Even though technology can potentially extend the biological limitations of humans as argued by post-human theorists, the danger is that if technology is conceptualised as synonymous to progress then the future is guaranteed to be occupied by cyborgs spelling the end of biological humans.

Proponents of Konza City driven by ideas found in Vision 2030, should disembody technology as a matter of urgency to properly integrate machines and humans in a semi-traditional context that Kenya is, so as not to celebrate post-humans as guaranteed signifiers of species advancement and a necessary quest for an end that humans must collectively aspire to realise if they are to preserve not only their cultural authenticity as Africans, but also the authenticity of humanity itself.

This is why it is better to export technology and it is a good thing that Kenya exports innovations such as M-Pesa. A world where technology is not properly and positively backed by moral lessons on how it should be utilised and adopted by those who invent or import them, is more likely to be chaotic as humans behind technology have both good and evil tendencies.