When Damanhur was born, the telephones were made of Bakelite, they had a spinning number wheel and, above all, they were fixed in one place. Computers occupied entire rooms and needed specialized personnel. The journeys on the moon had recently been completed and today we can say that at that time, they could count on technology comparable to that of a current calculator. The Internet simply did not exist. Paper newspapers were read, advertising was on the streets and on television. When you wanted to send a message to someone, you sent a letter with a stamp, and to buy things you had to go to the store yourself.
In the last forty years, technology has changed the world and our habits in a dizzying way. For those who are now thirty years old, it is quite normal not to know phone numbers by heart, not to consult road maps before making a trip, to do everything from home and most importantly, that your main occupation is to have a good internet connection.
Being avant-garde
Many wonder if the technology is an advantage or a disadvantage, if people have become better because they have more possibilities or if they have regressed, since their smartphone does everything for them. Falco Tarassaco has always considered technology to be an important element of growth and has always asked Damanhur to be at the forefront of technological discoveries. For this reason, Damanhurians have always made sure to learn the use of new tools, both personal ones and those for the construction of large buildings. For example, in the field of building technologies, or energy production or irrigation, making sure to favor environmental protection methods.
The greatest technological transformation is that which directly concerns personal habits, and derives from mobile phones, personal computers, the internet and social media. Falco used it very moderately. He had no personal social media accounts, and he liked to point out, smiling, that he only used the computer as a typewriter. But he always had a tablet with him to consult and he played various online games, helping him to stimulate fantasy and imagination.
An important challenge
In its teaching, technology has a positive value, as long as it is always the person who guides and controls its use and does not allow themselves to be overcome by it. Today, unfortunately, it is very clear that the use of mobile phones and the internet has become a form of addiction for many, especially young people, a way to live in a virtual reality without facing the real one. Instead however, it can represent an enhancement of our ability to manage our lives and learn about the world.
Technology is a really important challenge for us, human beings of the 21st century. We have never had such powerful personal tools at our disposal, which allow us to cancel distances, to receive information, to perform different operations, perhaps even better than Harry Potter’s magic wand! At the same time, we have never had such a great risk of becoming lazy, delegating our abilities to objects, and confusing reality with its representation.
In the experience of Damanhur, it is useful to be kept updated in the use of the most recent applications because they offer the possibility of new experiences and to extend one’s abilities. Thinking of stopping the future would be like thinking of stopping the wind.
Choose people
What is important, is to use these tools keeping in mind that they should not be used to outsource our skills but to acquire new ones without losing others. Using social media without stopping to hang out with friends, memorize some phone numbers, search for information on books without delegating everything to Wikipedia. In this way, progress is real because it “gives” without taking away.
It is the dilemma of every historical step. Probably, when in the fifteenth century Johannes Gutenberg introduced the press, many thought that this would be the end of culture because it would have made it too popular. We must not be afraid of new things, but even more we must learn to use them well. They must be useful to us, not the other way around.
