Port Jefferson Rotary (May 24, 2016)

Our featured speaker, Dr. Karen Lojeski, talked to us passionately about "Re-Discovering the Joy of Being Human in An Age of Technological Isolation." She began by sharing a bit of her background: computer science and applied mathematics; trained as a systems engineer; worked on a precurser to GPS; ran an e-business on Wall St.; currently an Assistant Professor in the SUNY StonyBrook Dept. of Technology and Society, The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences; also about to launch a new company dealing with Virtual Distance. Karen, who noticed early in her technology career that people working for her were treating each other differently, discovered the reality of the unintended consequences of "virtual distance", a measure of what is lost when human beings are completely enveloped by technology. She now concentrates her teaching on pointing out the need for reducing our growing reliance on electronics and rebuilding human to human and human to nature connections which will yield better performance and more trusting relationships than now exist in the world. Karen referred to us as "the threshold generation", since we grew up without the technology that now seems to dominate life, and can, thus, identify the difference between what is real and what is virtual. She feels that many of our youth have been victimized by technology. They've grown up with computers, smart phones, ipads, and the like and don't seem to know how to live without these gadjets. She reminded us that these computerized objects to which we're becoming increasingly linked are merely boxes that can detect electrical signals and can add, multiply, subtract, and divide. While they appear to talk to the viewer, they must not become a proxy for another human being. While we may have to use computers for work, or to enhance learning, do research, and study, we seem to be becoming addicted to them to the point that they are depriving us of our humanity and human spirit. A computer can fool a person into thinking it's a person. Karen does not feel that every child needs to learn to program a computer. She is especially concerned about children ages 0-5, who are taking every thing in ("our memories are made of brain, heart, and mind") and are learning too early from us to interact with gadgets rather than humans. Programmers know how to make computerized gadgets appeal to all ages and are unintentionally depriving us of humanity- through their use, we're becoming detached from ourselves. Karen is currently at work on a new book, "The Joy of Being Human", where she will presumably help people learn how to make boundaries and balance real life and technology. We need to understand how much meaning (priorioty) a computer has to an individual and to find a real solution to the growing problem of technology addiction. Youth, especially, needs to understand what a computer is and isn't in order to understand how their attachment to it is reducing the important connection between themselves and others, leading to a reduction of quality of life for all. Among the unintended consequences of everything engineers produce, our increased reliance on computers and computerized things (ie., the GPS, self-driving cars, etc.) is causing a loss of ability to think for ourselves or to get along with or really understand other people. Karen's concern: we need to help people start thinking again (without the help/interference of technology).