{"id":1062,"date":"2014-05-28T10:12:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T08:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/?p=1062"},"modified":"2014-05-28T10:41:17","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T08:41:17","slug":"do-smartwatches-spell-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/2014-05-28\/do-smartwatches-spell-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Do smartwatches spell the end?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article on business efforts to create a craze for smartwatches profoundly depressed me. We are burning up the planet to feed\u00a0our incessant craving for new gadgets. And now a bunch of corporations – worried that almost all of us have a smartphone and that the market is stagnating – is trying to encourage us to play Flappy Bird on our wrists!<\/p>\n

\"\"Are we as a species now so incapable of spending time alone, with ourselves in reflection of any kind, that we need to have \u2013 literally to hand! \u2013 at any free moment a game in which to immerse ourselves?<\/p>\n

And do the corporations not have a vested interest in making us dependent on these distractions, profoundly estranged from ourselves, so that they can sell us more such fripperies masquerading as technology?<\/p>\n

And how do we stop this self-destructive cycle\u00a0in which we appear to be\u00a0suffering from Stockholm syndrome \u2013 identifying and bonding with the corporations that have captured us and are destroying our future?<\/p>\n

Answers to any of the above questions very welcome.<\/p>\n

www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2014\/may\/27\/technology<\/a><\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/h4>\n

Insightful\u00a0article by George Monbiot, answering these questions but offering no reassurance.<\/p>\n

www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2014\/may\/27\/if-we-cant-change-economic-system-our-number-is-up<\/a><\/p>\n

Also on the same theme is the film Collapse,\u00a0a fascinating and wide-ranging interview with the late Michael Ruppert.<\/p>\n