A tale of changing times.
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America, 20th Century:
On October 24th, the Gateway Arch will celebrate its 50th anniversary. For half a century, the 630-ft stainless steel monument has stood in St. Louis as the symbolic entry to The West. A feat of architectural ingenuity and meticulous construction (not one life was lost in the process), the Gateway Arch is a wonder.
The Hoover Dam. The Interstate system. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bounding across the moon. The moon. Not one iota of the original chutzpah behind that mission is lost after half a century.
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. JFK. Feminism. The triumph of Democracy over Totalitarianism. So decisive a victory for western governance, Francis Fukuyama famously predicted The End of History.
A few iconic achievements of the American Century.
America, 2015:
To date, the largest domestic infrastructure of any note has to be the building of the Utah Data Center. The bland name belies its questionable purpose: to house the massive troves of digital data collected by the NSA (National Security Agency).
We don’t know much about it, because most information is classified. We know it looks like a complex of shopping malls, and we know it will take up to two million gallons of water a day to keep its government computer servers from overheating.
1.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money to ensure Big Bro can track whatever digital imprints we put out there.
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For my kids, I wonder if they will even understand the distinction between a public and private self. We are growing ever more accustomed to being followed by the Internet –popup ads that are tailored to us, based on previous web searches, or article shares, or whatever.
We forget that the Internet is run by people. Algorithms are written by people. Money is being made by these people, selling access on your online habits to advertisers.
Where does all this information eventually go?
Apparently, Utah.
The better question: why keep it?
The best question:
Will we be fully persuaded to give up a private self – the uncensored self – in exchange for all the conveniences the Internet offers?
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A final question:
When will we build the 21st century Gateway Arch?
In his brilliant memoir My Bright Abyss, Christian Wiman reminds us that modernity’s way of being human is not the only way.
“Consciousness among contemporary Western intellectuals is an ‘apprehensive’ quality: that is to say, we become conscious by taking hold of, or apprehending, ourselves and reality, by standing apart from them – and, not at all coincidentally (for where, exactly, are we standing?), we grow apprehensive as we do so. There are other, fuller ways of being in the world…”
Our lauded innovations seem to come mostly from the digital sphere, with new Apps and Websites garnering the best of our attention and praise. However helpful, however entertaining, however impressive, all these have the same consequence: to take us out of this moment, and into a screen.
So to construct something material would be a welcome change. To build something we can see, stand inside of, view from afar. Maybe a new, renewable energy-efficient car. Or maybe give NASA the attention they so desperately deserve. Put someone on Mars.
All of these pursuits have the added bonus of not ending up immortalized only in an NSA server. So really, you could call it a win-win.
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Photo: wheany / flickr