The Digital Age is Killing Humanity

Ah, the computer and the Internet. The digital age. Once it was thought to be the saving grace of mankind. The things it could do! Automate mundane tasks. Reach into infinity for answers to every question we could think of. Connect us to anyone, anytime, anywhere—in real time. We now have all of these things and more. And, the digital age is rapidly killing humanity.

I recently watched the movie I, Daniel Blake. Set in England, Daniel’s is the plight of so many people worldwide who have been dehumanized by the digital age. Daniel, who suffers a heart attack, and whose doctors say should not return to work, is deemed fit for employment by a government worker and denied disability benefits.

The movie shows the frustrations Daniel endures trying to regain his benefits—this man who has never used a computer in his life, who was told that he could solve all of logistical problems by just going online. He tries to comply but runs into roadblock after roadblock as he attempts to navigate basic PC technology at the public library, not even knowing how to use a mouse. After the library attendant abandons him, a series of fellow patrons help him get through the form, only to have his session time out before he can submit it.

During numerous visits to the government office, the clerks regard Daniel as a number that needs to be cleared from their computer screens so they can go on to the next poor soul. They have circular conversations with him, responding according to their scripts that make less and less sense as the interaction devolves. One, who tries to assist him, human to human, is severely reprimanded by her superior.

I experienced something similar when administering my late father’s estate. Calling utilities and trying to get them to stop automatic withdrawals from his checking account, I wondered how anyone without a computer can survive in the world today. In the phone queue, recordings told me to visit them online, and all I wanted to do was actually speak to someone.

When I called Verizon to have my dad’s landline shut off, I was told that since I didn’t have his four-digit PIN, they could send a security code to his cell phone. When I told them that his cell was no longer in service, they said they could send it to his email account. When I told them that his email account was closed, they suggested I go to his house and call from his landline. When I asked what would happen if I lived on the other side of the country, I was told that they could send a new PIN through the mail in five to seven days. All in the name of security. And what if I had him tied up in the basement? I could have retrieved the snail mail and done whatever I wanted with his account, couldn’t I?

I endured this kind of nonsense over and over when dealing with my dad’s estate. I encountered phone menus asking which type of service I wanted, and not having an appropriate one for my situation, nor an option to speak to a human, having the system disconnect me. It’s enough to make a pacifist go postal.

Computers have reduced people to numbers. Decision-making and problem-solving skills are being taken away from employees, and the computers are relied upon more and more to do the thinking for them. Common sense is less and less an option anymore.

In the movie, Daniel Blake befriends a single mother with two children, denied benefits because she was late to her welfare appointment. He helps her and she helps him. Eventually, she’s forced to find a way to make a living that breaks Daniel’s heart. Think Fantine in Les Miserables.

If you’ve seen or read Les Miserables, don’t think that the world is any more compassionate to human beings today than it was in Victor Hugo’s time. It is still cruel, and it’s getting crueler every day for people who don’t fit nicely into computer menus, who live on the fringes of society, who aren’t subscribers to the digital age.

I wish I could say that I, Daniel Blake is a science-fiction story, but it is not. We are headed into real trouble, folks. We are handing over more and more of our humanity to computers and automation. If we have a global power outage, or become the victims of power-grid terrorism, we won’t even know how to survive at the most basic level. I don’t know what the solution is, but the geniuses who got us into this mess had better find a way to get us out of it, or we are doomed.