#VoxPopuli | Automaton
Written by Danielle Jorge R. Malantic
Automaton is a word derived from Greek, defined as the “acting of one’s own will”, used to describe moving machines that mimic human actions. Mythological Greek figures such as the blacksmith Hephaestus, the bronze man Talos, and the builder Daedalus all made use of automata in their mythos. Even ancient scientists such as Hero of Alexandria gave insights into automation through their studies of hydraulics and mechanical movement.
Nowadays, our entire world is automated, constructed carefully in order to achieve maximum efficiency. An assembly line where each part is placed one by one, piece by piece, to create the products that fuel our society. In practice, we have become little more than robots in this assembly line, our prime directive to be working cogs in the machine. This relentless automation of every aspect of our lives has morphed our very being into one of monotone indifference. We have become machines that only know how to fulfill the role that we’ve been given, acting out commands. In a world driven by cold efficiency, where there is no room for distractions and trifling concerns, what place does the humanities have?
The humanities are the realization of the human spirit, the expression of all our wistful musings and ideals. They are every creative expression given meaning; a piece of our own self realized. Through this expressive avenue, a reflection of ourselves is made, and our spirit is brought to life. Our soul finds itself singing melodious song, painted in vivid color by the stroke of a brush, written down in verse, acted out in a display of our inner selves. With this, we grant definition to the sparks of creativity that we can never cease to create. More than anything, the humanities are the waking actualization of the dreams that end when we wake up, proof that our ambitions and fantasies can become reality with just the spur of an artful hand.
Society is reflected by the art we produce, by the history that we make of ourselves. The defining zeitgeist that every age embodies is an intangible display of the voice that we have chosen to let move the world. After all, some of the most prominent inventors and revolutionary minds of history are the embodiment of their humanistic leanings. Leonardo da Vinci was a man of science, designing architecture and dreaming up inventions such as the flying machine, who famously made works of art such as the Vitruvian Man, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. John Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany’s most prominent poet, saw both his poetry and inclination in the natural sciences as an investigation into nature, even founding the scientific branch of morphology, defined simply as the study of form. Hedy Lamarr was an actress starring in Oscar-nominated films, who along with composer George Antheil helped develop a radio guidance system that was eventually incorporated into modern technology such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Humanities and the sciences do not necessarily need to be separated from one another. Intertwined, they can become something of greater worth than if they had been developed individually. If science can tell us the inner workings of the world, then the humanities can enlighten us by relating it to the aspects which make up our fundamental essence, the qualities which make us human. After all, man does not live in a vacuum; he is inexorably linked with the world around him, affecting it and conversely affected by it. We are a product of our indomitable dreaming spirit and the curious logic that drives us to search for meaning in ourselves and the world around us. When we do not understand the key facets of our own nature, how can we hope to understand the world which we inhabit?
Choosing to ignore the humanistic aspect of our nature will only lead to the death of the creative spirit which moves the beat of our own soul. We are not just lumps of clay made to move by forces greater than ourselves, nor are we machines that are spurred to action and prompted to function at the behest of an electrical signal. Humans are a creature of constant creation, always driven to make their dreams reality, leaving the inextinguishable mark of their burning, passionate flames. That longing to reaffirm our existence, becoming something greater than what we simply are, refusing to conform to the imposition of normality, is what makes us men different from machines.
Necessity is said to be the mother of invention, but without that spark of creativity to innovate, our handiwork is nothing more than an empty craft devoid of meaning. A society that does not embody the enrichment of the humanities is one that has socially stagnated. To wit, most of what we remember of ancient foregone civilizations is reflected through the art they left behind, the preserved echoes of their culture and storied history. Their values remain imbued within us even today, their penchant for discovery, their search for everlasting truths, their heroic ideals, their fervent passions. Death is an inevitable reality, but in the stories we create and leave behind, as long as humanity continues to live on, so too shall the irrepressible human spirit. In this day and age, what sort of future shall we create? What preservation of our culture shall we consign to the sands of time?
In this automated world, where everything is conducted with machinelike precision, we must not resign ourselves to abandoning our very humanity. The root of automation is the acting out of one’s will, the realization that through action, man can change the world around him. So, let us move to impose our own will on the world around us, to stir the spirit of our very soul, to ignite the passions that blaze into infinity. For if we forget to embody what makes us human, then we are little different from the machines we mass produce, and soon, we shall design the means to our own obsoletion.
