Burdens of Living with Machines

April 22, 2022 - by Atok Dan

The planet earth was once a kind of a safer place without technology or fewer machines. The air we breathe had no impurities – meaning issues of environmental pollution were somewhat not in the lexicon of ancient people. Less or no giant technologies meant less exploitation of natural resources. Few lands had been disfigured for agricultural activities. The era of no machines had its own uniqueness. Fear of nuclear or atomic weapons never existed. In the world of fewer machines, human deaths in conflicts could count less as compared to the current alarming figures we do experience today. In the world of machines, millions of precious lives can be erased on the planet just in a blink of an eye. Living with machines seems to accelerate human demise. The heat we do produce with our machines does threaten even that of the master, the sun. 

Deforestation was never an issue. Trees and vegetation of all species had established strong colonies all over the entire planet. Plants had colonized both the seas and the lands, with the administrative structure of each species straddled beyond current human lines of settlements but never quarreled. The plants commanded some social discipline over every piece of the territory allotted to each family using natural rules of habitability.

Desert and semi-arid species had established some social harmonies with their surroundings, thus giving a lengthy lifespan for those kinds. Wetland areas were tamed to conform to the survivability of the leafiest plants. On the land, climate change wasn’t a common thing. Ancient people would equate it to a curse. If machines have improved our lives, they have also mutilated them. The spread of highly contagious diseases like COVID-19 has come with frequent human migration.   

Marine lives flourished under conducive environments. There were no large water vessels capable of upsetting the natural rules of habitats under the seas or oceans. Fishing or human water hunting never emptied rivers. Humans could terminate a few lives for survival. Today, vessels that empty rivers of their inhabitants never existed. Birds were the kings of space. Now, huge metallic birds spread their wastes in ozone layers, severing atmospheric peace. The human machines have gone to fester habitats of spirits, places preserved for holiness.  Our machines, the hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that roam the milky Way have angered aliens and other space creatures. Treat this text for creative imagination.