Comparing technology and humanity confuses me. Like comparing cell phones and mercy. Pixels and gentleness. Hammers and goosebumps.

But I assume he's saying that our technological ignorance used to impose a limit on our ability to do evil that is now becoming unbounded. And yet, our humanity may lag but it has kept pace. Technological limits have been replaced by self and culturally imposed limits. Nuclear holocaust, for example, seems farther away by the day. I wonder if Einstein would reconsider that quote.

Someday, the technology will exist to recreate Einstein as a zombie, and then we can ask him if our technology really does exceed our humanity.

Technology has always been one step ahead of our humanity. But eventually we do adapt, given sufficient time.

The real question is, will we develop a new technology that won't give us that time?

It's ironic to me that you say nuclear holocaust seems farther away by the day with Iran inching closer and closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20110630/OPINION03/106300336/1008/Focus-is-on-wrong-topics

Societies always struggle to keep up with technological developments and often don't respond until the technology is misused. Then often the initial response is wrong.

All throughout history there are a long litany of woes caused by using technology for evil.

Technology is a tool - it can be used for good or for evil - that is where the linkage between technology and humanity lies. It lies within the heart and mind of the user - the ethics and morality of the user.

So maybe the world would be a better place if we should spend more time nurturing ethics and morality than we do developing technology. That and keeping the technology from despots who would misuse it.

Hey Doug,

Sowell is awesome and I agree that we are not being vigilant of our liberties, but scant attention to Iran in the media is not scant attention to Iran in reality. Stuxnet, Wikileaks, etc. hint at that divide. The media is good at influencing public opinion, but it's not a good forum for discussing covert strategies.

Nukes have attained special status. They seem to confer more soft power than hard. So, Iran has little to gain from actually nuking Israel, et al., and far more to gain from threatening to do so to the region. Palestinians are used to similar effect, with little Arab interest in actually resolving the conflict.

It is my own conjecture that global thermonuclear war is less and less likely, but that does seem to be the history of it.

btw, you have a neat site! Cool caricatures with steps along the way. I like it.

Unfortunately, to most people technology is a toy--not a tool. It is a waster of time, of brain cells, & of opposable thumbs.

FYI TWIMC:

The Philistines (i.e., the Palestinians) ceased to exist as an identifiable race in the BC era (BCE if you're put off by the idea of Christ).

The people who today call themselves Palestinians are essentially a mix of Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, & Egyptians who migrated to Israel after a number of Jewish people returned to Israel (which had become a relatively barren region that very few people seemed to want) in the 18th & 19th centuries & the economic development that ensued.

The assumption of the "Palestinian" identity is rooted in a militant Arab/Muslim construct based on the hatred of even the idea of Israel. The "conflict" is an apparition conjured by Arabs/Muslims. The people of Arab descent who live in Israel & assume the "Palestinian" label do so in an attempt to exploit the ignorance & sympathies of people who don't know any better (who, by observation, seem to be multitudinous).

JOHN:

You're well over 100 Quiptoons. You said you might do a book of them after you'd done 100. You could incorporate some Word From... stuff as well (& I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed if you left out the Charlie Sheen one).

HEY T

That's has always been a plan of mine; offering a collection of the years' work. I think I want to do it in the coming months.

Thanks for afffirming the book idea.

HEY Y'ALL

Lively stuff! Plenty of provocative takes on this one.

I've noticed advances in communication technology seem to exaggerate our humanity. It seems to make our differences louder and harder to reconcile.