This time worrying about the Internet and other signs of modernity in The Guardian.
“It seems extraordinary to me that, despite recent polls showing ever-increasing use of the “world wide web”, only a handful of academics is researching the dangers which may one day confront those who cruise the “information superhighway”, little suspecting that it could be leading them – to quote Shakespeare – towards “that undiscover’d country from whose bourne no traveller returns”.
One need hardly point out that this particular triumph of technology can only exacerbate the ailments the Enlightenment left in its wake – the epidemics of asthma and allergies, stress and overeating, not forgetting the well-documented risks of long-term exposure to western rationalism. This is not to devalue the convenience of instant access to information and communication. Yet, I happen to believe, for what it is worth, that if God had wanted us to be able to engage in auctions without paying 15% commission, he would never have created Sotheby’s and Christies. Our stewardship of these threatened places has been truly appalling.
In the hope of stimulating a debate, I recently convened a panel of leading contributors to Thought for the Day: they concluded that even if the internet poses no immediate threat, it could ultimately prove fatal to marine life. Unless science – in all its wisdom – can come up with something to replace the billions of superhighways which now criss-cross the sea beds, we are doomed first to woe, then to suffering and finally, if nothing is done, to an agonisingly protracted death. Elaine Storkey warns that our addiction to emails will not only ensnare the playful dolphin and handsome tuna but, in an Orwellian nightmare, warm the world’s oceans to the point that they will reach what she calls “a rolling boil” in around 2018, leading, in short order, to the extinction of most living things. Only insects – and those of us in the specially insulated Thought for the Day boat – will be saved.
Is the convenience of the “email” worth the annihilation of our species? Without wishing to be alarmist, I personally think not.”