Technology, Human Behaviour and the March of Events Setting Us Up for Catastrophe

You name it we have been flooded with technological breakthroughs and inventions in the last 75 years starting with the beginning of the Atomic Age, Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), the invention of the Internet and the subsequent rise of mega-tech companies,  ubiquitous e-commerce, search technology and social media that has begun to dominate the way we seek and find information. We have high-speed wireless telecommunications of which the latest is 5G, digital currencies, virtual and augmented reality, metaverses, genetic reengineering, artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and smart sensors, and so on. Let’s face it, we are addicted.

This escalation of technological innovation has been accompanied by a demand for more and more energy. And because we have remained, largely dependent on polluting technologies for that energy, we have consequences, a warming atmosphere along with the existential threat that accompanies this phenomenon.

The elixir of technological innovation and the information it delivers at our very fingertips every day has proven to be a Pandora’s Box unleashing misinformation, rumour, hate, selfish malfeasance, and violence. Since when did access to knowledge produce so much havoc? Because that’s what appears to be happening.

By illustration, I read today about a 31-year old man who needs a heart transplant and won’t get a COVID-19 vaccination because he fears it will make his existing heart condition worse. He suffers from atrial fibrillation (a condition I share with him and one that was brought on by being infected with COVID-19 in April of 2020). In the young man’s case, it has obviously led to congestive heart failure and the need to put him on an external assist device to keep him alive.

When taken off the transplant list, the young man’s family began a crowdfunding campaign The hospital’s reasoning was that transplantable hearts were in short supply and without being protected from COVID-19 infection he would likely not survive post-operatively and a healthy heart would have been wasted. Described by his mother as “an informed patient,” I can’t help but wonder informed by whom, and from where? It would seem that being informed isn’t the same as being capable of discerning good from bad information.

Has no doctor explained that if he were to get COVID-19 it would likely attack his already damaged heart and more than likely kill him because this virus inherently finds our vulnerable spots where it can then do the most damage?

Has he not been advised that regardless of which vaccine he takes, an adenovirus-based delivery one or one of the mRNAs, he will have much greater protection from being a victim of the virus?

It is true that a very small percentage of young adults who have received vaccines have developed myocarditis, pericarditis, or rhythm disturbances. But these are conditions that can be managed and resolved with medication. And in his case, considering he is currently hooked up to a life-saving heart assist device, I would think vaccine management would involve intensive monitoring and follow-up.

Knowledge Good, Knowledge Bad, How to Know?

It is harder to discern valid knowledge today living in a world awash with technology that makes us subject to receiving misinformation proffered as fact each day. As the above case illustrates, this young man has real fears being amplified by technobabble and the mumbo jumbo of “fact influencers” on the Internet these days.

A relevant piece written by Christine McDougall, of Syntropic World, an organization based out of Australia came across my inbox this morning. Why relevant? Because Syntropic World teaches people to build, design, and create new ways of doing things to leave the world a better place and helps them discern fact from fiction.

In her article Christine writes “few of us appreciate the power of the algorithm, few of us understand the degree to which we are all being manipulated.” From there she goes on to describe the erosion of trust in public and private institutions, the non-existence of integrity in so many of our leaders in government and business, and a media hijacked by algorithms that feed on fear and rage and deliver untruths. The end result is humanity is suffering from a growing inability to make sense of information, to discern what is malicious and false from what is virtuous and true.

The phrase “the arrogance of ignorance” is one she uses that is particularly apt today for much of what we see and read. It describes the state of political discourse here in Canada on this weekend in the midst of a truckers’ convoy and protest that has rolled across the country demanding the end of vaccine mandates and restrictions. It describes our American cousins’ Trump and post-Trumpian descent into willful ignorance led by spokespersons who certainly display arrogance while being downright ignorant about so much almost every time they open their mouths.

I am pulling for this young man to get a new heart and I hope he receives lifesaving advice from those with the knowledge to share to help him make the right decision. I speak of this from personal experience because my wife and I have a daughter born with a complex heart defect back in the early 1980s. This was well before the rise of the Internet putting both knowledge and misinformation at everyone’s fingertips.

For us to help our daughter survive (a less than 50/50 prospect in the first few years of her life) my wife and I turned to experts and became knowledge seekers and questioners. We kept a binder full of notes from every appointment. We sought and gathered the best books and articles available to learn about her condition, treatment, and potential outcomes. It was a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows, and crises averted.

We read journal articles and with the help of medical professionals parsed the jargon to become more knowledgeable and better decision-makers for our daughter. She survived and today is 37-years old, married, with a healthy daughter who will turn one in a week’s time.

My more recent personal experience is equally relevant. When I got COVID-19 in April 2020, it attacked the lining of my heart temporarily enlarging the upper left chamber where pulmonary veins interact with the muscle. Those veins were damaged by the virus leading to the beginning of changes to my heart rhythm and the onset of atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias.

Three weeks before getting infected I had a full physical in preparation for upcoming knee replacement surgery. At the time I  was told that my heart was healthy with no underlying medical conditions of concern. Then COVID-19 struck leading me to go to the hospital emergency where I was told that I was in danger of an imminent stroke and was now a heart patient.

There was no vaccine at the time to protect me, but today there is now, and more than one good option. So I would say to this young man, the certainty of the virus further damaging your heart is much greater than the likelihood of vaccination doing more damage to it than already is there. And I would say to his mom, please help your son find the real experts and not Internet-based influencers so that you together can separate the disinformation chaff from the knowledge wheat, and by doing so give him the best chance to survive.