Human Species Is No Longer Distinctive and Authentic

It has always been viewed that human beings are the supreme beings who have the capacity to do anything and everything but this has changed; authenticity is no longer a term that is associated with human life. With the continued advancement in technology and more research, human beings are no longer viewed to be authentic and special.  Turkle in her article brings about the subject of robots in her article to illustrate the way that human beings have change over the years in regard to authentic human relation. People are no longer moved by the need for realness when it comes to emotions and social relations. Development changes that continue to happen in the world today have greatly influenced the changes with human perceptions. Every research and discovery brings along a new notion to prove that there is nothing special about human beings and that they can actually be replaced by other things for instance robots; and also animals that are just as intelligent in their own special way.

 Everything today is all about technology and human beings rely on technology for everything and this include emotional relations. As explained by Turkle most people would rather spend the whole day operating and interacting with a machine than with a fellow human being. People no longer perceive fellow human beings as people worth sharing their problems or even successes because they may judge them wrongly or they may get envious which would make it uncomfortable for both parties. Sometimes, though the concept of relying on non-human things objects for comfort is basically because they are available and ready to listen even if they do not really understand what the problem may be. Human beings are no longer reliable for emotional support, people care so much about their jobs, successes or failures to be emotionally available for the other people in their lives. A good case scenario of these is with children who get so attached to their toys most especially the robotic toys that have advanced technology which allows them to offer comfort and act almost like human beings.

Over the years human beings have been superior beings over the other creatures, but are human beings truly more intelligent and emotion capable as compared to the animals? Animals have always taken the lower intelligent percentage when equated to human beings; this is however changing with the cumulative researches that are getting done in the current day. The article by De Waal is ironic in nature in the way that it illustrates the capacity of animals to express emotions better than human beings as well as their intelligent level that is similar. De Waal in his work shows that there is no much difference between human beings and animals when it comes to intelligence. Human beings get trained to do most things that make them get classified to be more intelligent while animals survive well on the wild on their own without any training.

 The question here is what would happen then if the animals were trained, would they not be as good as or even better than the human beings? De Waal work greatly supports the notion of Turkle that human beings are no longer authentic.  some animals capacity for memory is too great to even be equated with the human one ‘Clark’s nutcrackers recall the location of thousands of seeds that they have hidden half a year before, while I can’t even remember where I parked my car a few hours ago’ (De Waal pg 1). Animals are intelligent; they understand the need to take care of their families which entails finding food, caring for one another and even building shelter. All this they do without any expertise, take an example of birds that are experts in weaving their nests with only the use of their beaks and legs and without any training.

 De Waal helps to show the unity as well as intelligence in the animal kingdom, human beings continue to deteriorate when it comes to being kind and expressing emotions which is what has over the years been versioned to be humanity. Animals have surpassed humanity by far; most animals live in groups because they understand the need to be there for one another and to take care of each other. Animals are better friends and they are loyal which is why most people prefer to keep pets rather than coexist with other people. There is no form of technology that can affect the unity and emotional relations that animals have unlike what happens with human beings. Human beings do not care and they have let technology take over their humanity and it is only after death that they realize the loss.

 But does death truly reignite the emotions? Not really, technology still takes over after death with the pictures taken during life serving as the consolation and memory of the lost ones. Cole in his article shares the story of his grandmother who dies without having seen her for a year. Cole feels sad that he was not able to see his grandmother ‘Mama’ as he call hers before or even after she died because he was in Italy and she was in Nigeria. Her death did not really bother him much ‘I mourned her but did not, or was not able to, weep’ Cole pg (1), this is to help illustrate the emotional disconnections between human beings in the world today. Even when loved ones die, the human connections are so frail that people no longer feel the extreme sadness because they have photos of those people that serve as memories , ‘To remain close to our dead, we cherish images of them’ and they console them making them feel like these people are still around them (Cole pg 1). The question is, why not cherish these people when they are still alive? Why rely on the photos and portraits that thy leave behind after they are gone when one did not bother to make more connections when they were alive. Cole’s article is an illustration of the strained connections among human relations and the reliance on innate technological inventions to take over the gap created by these disconnections. People care so much about their success and about what the rest of the world thinks of them that they have forgotten the importance of being human and expressing human emotions such as kindness and love.

Rockwell’s Triple Self-Portrait is an illustration of how humanity has become so engrossed on how the rest of the world thinks of them and the need to clarify their self-position in the world. Norman Rockwell was an artist that was famous for self-portraits in the American Art but he was often regarded as an artist who was not serious since most of his work was created for the covers of a magazine ‘The Saturday Evening Post’. In all the other portraits that he had created, Rockwell never put himself on the cover before as a central figure except for this one which makes it very special. He uses this portrait to reveal himself; his tone is sarcastic in nature with the fact that he produces himself in a reflected image and rear images that bear a resemblance to an elderly turtle which has long crinkly neck. There is then an enormous derriere all that is created on the canvas under the self-portraits of renowned artists such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Durer and Rembrandt. Rockwell designs the whole piece in such a way that it denies the viewers the look of him and he gives a mischievous, partial idealized portrait over the renowned stencilled non-signature. This portrait basically tries to communicate that Rockwell is contented with where he is as an artist and does not seek any greatness, he is contented with where he is at the art world.

People should seek to connect with their relations whenever they are when they are alive to understand what they are going through in their lives, to share their experiences and to basically be there for one another. Turkle illustrations indicate that the continued advancement in technology has reformulated the notion of authentic emotions and human beings have completely been replaced by robots when it comes to emotional needs and animals have better emotional relations.  Humanity need to change and regain back its authenticity while at the same time accepting the fact that other creatures also have their own share of intelligence. It is good to be successful but one should not forget the importance of the people that are around them, everyone should appreciate where they are in life as well as appreciate other people’s achievements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works cited

Cole, Teju. "My Grandmother’S Shroud." Nytimes.com. N.p., 2018. Web. 26 Oct. 2017.

De Waal, Frans. "Opinion | What I Learned From Tickling Apes." Nytimes.com. N.p., 2016.

            Web. 26 Oct. 2018.

Rockwell, Norman. "Triple Self-Portrait." Nrm.org. N.p., 1960. Web. 26 Oct. 2018.

Turkle, Sherry. "Authenticity In The Age Of Digital Companions | Sherry Turkle."

            Benjamins.com. N.p., 2007. Web. 26 Oct. 2018.