For my final post ever, we're going to bring things back full circle and examine ourselves during quarantine in the context of "There Will Come Soft Rains". The main thing I want to focus on is the role of technology. Now, one might think "Jenna, isn't it more obvious to talk about "The Machine Stops" in this context and technology?" And to that I would say, maybe, but there is something important in "There Will Come Soft Rains" that I want to point out. In this story, there are no humans left, and this house is presumably the only one left that continues to run on its own. All of the technology in the house is made to serve humanity - the kitchen cooking breakfast, automated garage doors, little mice to clean everywhere - none of it is A.I. and there for itself. The technology was created by humans, for humans, and as far as we see, it stays that way. However, without the existence of the entities that it serves, the house falls apart (literally) and basically dies. This shows that the technology cannot continue without humanity there to help regulate it and take care of it as much as it takes care of humanity. Why is this important? Because for whatever reason, there seems to be an argument right now around COVID-19 about the economy dying versus people dying.
In this connection, the economy is much like technology. It's fake. We imagine the value given to money - it's completely arbitrary. We made it to serve us and help us keep order. However, without a large portion of humanity, the economy will collapse on itself. I'm no expert in finance or politics, but it doesn't make sense to me that people are arguing that the economy is more important than human lives. As "There Will Come Soft Rains" shows, without the humans, the objects and ideas we created to serve humanity will short-circuit and fall apart. I also understand that there are very real struggles right now for people who have lost their jobs and desperately need the economic climate to be better than it is right now, but the solution doesn't have to be a trade-off of human life or the economy, because the economy (like the machines) can be fixed as long as there are enough people to make it work. Human life cannot be returned once lost. Thanks for reading my rant.
In this connection, the economy is much like technology. It's fake. We imagine the value given to money - it's completely arbitrary. We made it to serve us and help us keep order. However, without a large portion of humanity, the economy will collapse on itself. I'm no expert in finance or politics, but it doesn't make sense to me that people are arguing that the economy is more important than human lives. As "There Will Come Soft Rains" shows, without the humans, the objects and ideas we created to serve humanity will short-circuit and fall apart. I also understand that there are very real struggles right now for people who have lost their jobs and desperately need the economic climate to be better than it is right now, but the solution doesn't have to be a trade-off of human life or the economy, because the economy (like the machines) can be fixed as long as there are enough people to make it work. Human life cannot be returned once lost. Thanks for reading my rant.
I really like your analysis and comparison to corona. I especially like your point about how it's all fake. I am no economist and I am sure things are way more complex than I know but I refuse to believe the solution is the mass loss of human lives as a trade off like you said.
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