The World aka The Cargo Cult

"A cargo cult is any of a group of religious movements appearing in tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically-advanced, non-native cultures—which focus upon obtaining the material wealth of the advanced culture through magical thinking as well as religious rituals and practices—while believing that the materials were intended for them by their deities and ancestors." Wikipedia


I can't get it out of my mind! We, as a person, are getting dumber by the day while we, as a species, are getting greatly smarter. If you start our knowledge "time line" from basic technology (say the hammer) and you take it all the way to advanced technology (say sub 45nm computer processors). This would make for a VERY long line. If you graph that chart's Y axis as number of people with the know how of each stage of technology .. you would get something like this.


I've pulled these number straight out of my ... lost odyssey ... so don't beat me up if these numbers are way off. It's just a depiction of what I mean.

Anyway, You get that MOST people understand how to build and use a hammer. Many times less people understand how to use electrical engineering. Just forget about actually building a processor. Sub 45nm switching?!?!?! Ya right!!! This is true for almost all sciences ... not just EE. I love EE so I always use it.


Most people live the life as part of our "Cargo Cult". With as advanced as the devices today, people will feel primitive in comparison. That feeling alone will drive someone into acquiring the "knowledge" from the magic of the device. Simply having the device and knowing how to use it will give you the feeling of "understanding" the device and how it works. In reality, the cunning engineers build the software so that is exactly how you feel. It does also become a religious (used lightly) ritual in its use. All they are trying to do is acquire the "materials intended for them by their deities and ancestors." And who could hold them at fault for trying to ascertain such a thing?

I am in no way saying that the mass populous of the world is religious in the spiritual way. Instead, we have allowed technology to guide us towards a religion of Mores Law. With each step in advancement ... most people become stupider in the grand scheme of things. This drives us to keep up on the times so we don't feel "stupid" but it's counter intuitive.

Point in case: I have automated almost every aspect of plotting large format documents in my office. People no longer need to know the large number of ins/outs of printing a document. Instead they just need to know a simple interface. After some time of using this tool the knowledge of printing is all but completely lost. When they go to another company they have trouble printing because of how complex it truly is. Now, on the other hand, I have gained HUGE amount of knowledge on what it is to truly PLOT a document.

If those that have the knowledge really wanted to ... they could take over the world. What would any of use be able to do about it? If the insanely intelligent EE Designers that are out there today were to build a "bug" into our infrastructure. Unless it were caught early ... it wouldn't take very long for that "bug" to be integrated with every device. At that point those EE Designers could exploit this "bug" and control everything. What would we do? How could we stop it? We, as simple users, have only ascertained the materials of the "technologically-advanced, non-native cultures" whom have build our day to day lives.

This thought is one of many that drive my urge to learn and learn and learn! I want nothing to do with falling behind our "native culture"!