Do We Really Need Technology? Question: I believe that it is important to be completely attuned to nature. Do we really have need for technology? Answer: Can you imagine what this world would be like if we were to take all technology away? For one, we wouldn’t have electricity, although we could make candles out of tallow. We wouldn’t have petroleum either, but again we would heat with some natural fuel such as wood. We wouldn’t have plumbing or water pumped in. Indeed, our homes would be quite different. Log cabins stood up very well. We could weave cloth for clothing. But you would find that you really would not have time for anything else but supplying your creature needs. Technology buys us leisure time so that we can think and dream and plan. Technology gives us the tools and organization by which to realize dreams. I dare say that there are deterrents to Egoic advancement due to technology, but by and large, technology serves man and that was the intention of it in the first place. You can also see that if we all took off to the fields and woods and utilized them directly for our needs, there soon would be no such natural resources left growing due to the large size of our population. Technology allows us to support a greater number of Egos on the planet. In order to do something useful, to build something, to accrue security, we must have energy. To accomplish big projects, you need the energy of others because you usually could not live long enough to do it all yourself. By working, one gains karmic credits. A person for whom we do work evens out that karmic exchange by giving us money which is a token for karmic credits. We then use these karmic credits for supplying our needs or for hiring others to fulfill our goals. Without working, we cannot accumulate any excess to use for what we want. Technology allows us to create more with less human energy and allows us to have more free time to do something useful for the world. However, there is no point in providing more leisure time unless we are creative with that leisure time. Just to lie around is debilitating. To use it for hobbies or for sports gains nothing in the way of karmic credits. We are then just consumers of our own leisure time. Rather we should use leisure time or excess money that we can earn through technology to do something better. If you do not have a dream to attain or a desire to be something better, then you are a sorry human being. But, if one wants a sense of joy or accomplishment he can work so that the world will be a better place when he leaves it. One must have someway of doing something useful for the world and that takes energy which is often represented by money. So technology is useful. (03-1973)
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