The Technology-Population Paradox
340059
That was an important number.
I memorized that number when I was probably five or six years old and I think I won´t ever forget it. Yes, just six digits.
I had a conversation today with my dad after lunch.
In Spain
We like, after lunch, relax and talk to each other for at least half and hour. This is a very typical behavior in my country and that usually happens in every family. It is called “sobremesa” translated as "overtable" and if you go to any restaurant I can guarantee that this scene will be seeing very often.
In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... the A-Team."
Sorry I just loved that tv show when I was little.
Anyway, as I was saying, I had a conversation with my dad. We talked about many things but since I´m really into Steemit nowadays we ended up talking about it.
-You know, when I was eight years old there was some houses in our village that didn´t have electricity and we had to go to the “bathroom” outside. It was just a very deep hole on the land.
-I know, you´ve already told me this thousand times.
-I know, I know. My point is that the way the world has changed in the last sixty years is just unbelievable. Now, you are telling me that there is a new virtual coin called steem. It´s a coin that can be changed into real money but originally it was generated online trough a technology called blockchain. Is this not gone too far?
Certainly
We live now in a world where we are bombarded by information. We have all we need in the palm of our hand. If we want to read some news, talk to some friend, check the forecast or send a present to your girlfriend who is one month working in Singapore, all we need to do is press some bottoms in our cell phone.
Are we losing the contact with the real world? Japan, which I would say is the most modern society in the world has a big problem at the moment.
I remember I met a Japanese guy when I was learning some German in Bremen in 2000. As a cell phone I had one of those bricks with just a screen where you could visualize msgs and make some calls. This guy had already a cell phone with a camera integrated. I just couldn’t believe my eyes.
What I mean is that what is happening right now in Japan it will probably hit us in couple of years. Or it is already happening? In the last five years the population in Japan has decreased in one million people.
0.7% less people than in 2010
This is what is a bit scary:
Latvia (-1,1%), Lithuania (-1%), Greece (-0,6%), Portugal (-0,6%), Bulgaria (-0,5%), Serbia (-0,5%), Spain (-0,5%), Croatia (-0,4%) y Romania (-0,5%).
Birth rates in all 28 EU countries are now below replacement rates and all indigenous populations are in decline.Europe is losing faith in itself, and birth rates have collapsed.
source:http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/why-is-europe-losing-the-will-to-breed-1.2644169
But wait a moment, if we look at it globally we are more people every year on earth. What is going on?
Population growth is going to continue in less developed countries. Asia will have most of the people in the world, and Africa will increase the population. The population of these two continents will double by 2050 and 90 percent of world population are going to live in countries seeing as less developed
In developed countries, women have changed their social role slowly in the last decades. They are more focused on their career than before and their priorities are not just to get married and have a family. Personally, I love this since I believe women are much more intelligent than men and they make better decisions. Men are, in many occasions, blinded by testosterone and although there have been improvements in the gender equality; there is still a long way ahead of us.
Let´s come back to Japan
Japan is by far the most technological country in the world. Tokyo looks like it is a city extract from any futurist science fiction movie. You walk trough the street and you can breath technology.
What we also can see is that Japanese people don´t express their feelings. We all have seen the videos where the tsunami hit their cities and the walls of their culture contained the tears of an entire nation.
Technology is affecting the way we interact with people. I won´t list here the thousands of websites which are destined to find partners but I´ve read that in some cities in Japan, teenagers are flirting trough smart phones although they are in the same room.
That´s too weird
Things get even more preoccupying if we take a look at adults. 61% of men in Japan between 18 and 34 years of age are single and 1/3 of the men below thirty never had a date.
Are the progress and technology playing against us?
Well, globally, earth is getting more populated so we could say Technology is helping human race.
But
Some of the most developed countries in the world like Japan or Germany are reducing their populations.
This is confusing.
-Hi.
-Ey, Hi.
-I´m Ethan, we are in the same class in Biology.
-Yes, I know, I´m Felicity.
-Do you think I can call you some time?
-Sure, what´s your number?
-340059 and yours.
-I will call you. My dad doesn´t like boys calling home.
Face to face interaction should not be replaced.
I was in Japan last year, that picture of the Japanese always on the cellphone is the damn truth.
come to Austin Tex. Same thing.