Phil Knight was one of the few who didn't record it. It was February and the owner and founder of Nike was sitting in the front row watching LeBron James surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 38,387 points, the NBA's all-time record. A photo of all the spectators behind the basket (and Knight) went viral. Practically all raised the mobile phone, nowadays an extension of the human body.
This week a video of the New Year's celebration in Paris went viral. New vibes from Black mirror. Champs Elysees full to the brim. Of people, but also of smartphones, to immortalize fireworks dancing above the Arc de Triomphe. "No one enjoying the moment", the @HumansNoContext account spread for X. There are no hugs as far as the eye can see after the countdown to 2024 is over. And most importantly, there is no empathy. Only high end devices.
There are schools in Barcelona where many parents have stopped recording their children singing carols. The centers announced that they would record them. Cell phones in your pocket, goodbye to the swarm of fireflies, and go to bed.
Memories can become distorted. "Memory can change the shape of a room, it can change the color of a car," says Leonard in Memento. So memories are interpretations. A recording avoids them, so they could justify the use of the mobile. But that's not the reason. As at school, all the attendees in Paris were aware that they had a better recording. These are acts that do not escape television broadcasts. It makes no sense, then, to get into it when you can surely remember the event on YouTube, for example, but what moves the majority is that Instagram like that fills them with self-esteem.
"Natural intelligence will be replaced by artificial intelligences that will help people, not to achieve happiness, but to have a good time." Antonio Gala's words, in an interview in 1991, which went viral last week on Instagram by a fan account of the writer.
Gala said many more related things that are not included in that cut - there are ten hours of interviews offered on the day by Canal Sur -. "To aspire to superhumanity, humanity is being let out of hand," he says. And he did not believe that unchecked technological progress was synonymous with well-being: "Paradise and technology are opposite words".
It is opportune to reflect on the technological fact and on how we conceive of it in order to advance humanity, in hugs, in empathy.
