Future Primitive

Google® and Apple® will be introducing “apps” for “digital health” in the coming months for “smartphones.” The “apps” are designed to restrict or limit the usage of the devices, but they can be overridden at any time. The idea in its current form is useless because, even if the “apps” were not overridden, there are other unhindered alternatives (e.g., tablet computer, notebook computer, game console, widescreen tube, etc.) readily available.

The problem is not the “smartphone.” Rather, the user is to blame for not exercising discipline or self-control. Unfortunately, the consumer life-style so popular in “Western” culture is devoid of avenues to learn discipline or self-control. Humans, young and old, are essentially totally reliant on infantile impulses. There has been no “checks and balances” that kind of adverse behavior for at least two generations. Rampant consumption knows no limits. So, “anything goes.”

While the efforts of the aforementioned corporations to help the infantile user curb obsessive usage of “smartphones” seems admirable on the surface, there is a nefarious undertone. “Digital health” is only just the beginning of a new trend to transfer individual responsibility and accountability to another entity, in this case the “smartphone” app. The underlying psychological conditioning permits the infantile user to satisfy the need for “parental” supervision and monitoring with the “parent” being the “smartphone” software. In the future, digital assistants using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will replace the passive “app.” The infantile user could willingly transfer all individual control and decision-making authority to the “app.” What happens when nearly every “app” has the capability to make hard decisions for the unwitting user?

Addendum: Discipline and self-control are components of the failed “civilization” paradigm, both of which require proper training and indoctrination. Without such training and regimentation, humans cannot integrate and function in greater “society.” The repressed “inner animal” then breaks free.