gm-reflection

Many film classes still begin with Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece that warned us of the dream of techno-utopia — where the few above lived in comfort while the many below kept the engines running. The industrial complex’s effort to sell us the promise of salvation through technology is not new. Nearly a century later, we’re still building Metropolis — only now the cathedrals of power are made of glass and data instead of steel and steam. At the VivaTech Conference in Paris on May 23, 2024, Elon Musk said: “AI will be able to do everything. In a benign scenario, probably none of us will have a job, but we’ll have universal high income. There’ll be no shortage of goods or services. In other words, everyone will be wealthy.” The line ricocheted across the planet: CNBC, The Guardian , Reuters , Fortune , The New York Post , Hindustan Times , even Al Jazeera. Every outlet ran it within hours, as if he had announced the Second Coming. Like Delta Dawn, we can’t stop wearing the...

  The planet is collapsing under too much, while millions still wait for just enough. If you haven’t checked out Blog 5: The Tech Fix Mirage , you might want to. In that piece, I looked at how even our best technological fixes—electric cars, smart recycling, solar roofs—often avoid a deeper truth: maybe we don’t need all this stuff in the first place. But this one’s a little different. We’re still talking overconsumption, sure. But quieter kinds. Everyday things that we don’t even realize add up—like the guy who once casually told me he drinks a gallon of milk every day. His doctor apparently said it was okay. Honestly, he didn’t look okay. We all have something like that—extra helpings, second fridges, three cups of rice at dinner instead of one. Even online searches, something we barely register, have a hidden cost. One deep search can use enough electricity to power an LED bulb for about 17 minutes. That’s no big deal, until you realize that in some homes around the world, tha...