All week I was trying to come up with a topic for a new article. I was thinking which issues bother me, what I would like to know more about and something like this. Apparently, the answer was at my Netflix account.
I am sure, all you have heard about “Rick and Morty” show and most of you have watched it. If you haven’t then it is your problem. Go watch five seasons and come back to reading this draft.
“Rick and Morty is the animated science-fiction sitcom featuring the adventures of genius scientist Rick Sanchez and his hapless grandson Morty Smith. Part of Rick and Morty’s appeal is its exaggerated use of obscure scientific concepts and futuristic technology that always seem to have a tinge of truth”.
That is why while watching it, I end up thinking about the possibility of it becoming a reality and how some of Rick’s inventions would influence the business world. I hope it is not that obvious that I just really want to share this information and do not really know how to connect it with capitalism.
First of all, there is a thesis that Rick is a part of a philosophical trend – technopoly. “Our starting point will be Neil Postman’s conception of “technopoly,” which he defines as a “totalitarian technocracy,” meaning that technology comes to define and determine our societies at an ever increasing rate and intensity”. It is kind of similar to Marx’s point that we can divide society and its level of development by tools that people are using for work but not art, music or literature. That shows Rick’s attachment to its technologies even though he has no ambition to win some awards or especially help humanity.
“Our sense of meaning and purpose provided by traditional systems of value such as family, religion, community, or national identity has been transformed by technique. As a result, technology is becoming an end in itself. We have started to invent things just for the sake of inventing them”. When Rick turns himself into a pickle he says: “The reason anyone would do this is, if they could, which they can’t, would be because they could, which they can’t.”
Thus, there are technologies which might become reality in some time or with much more effort. For instance, a freeze gun from the pilot episode. Scientist form the article claims: “It is probably the easiest thing to make. It’s simple: a high-powered liquid nitrogen gun”. Then the question comes to mind – if we can, why not – following the tendency from the 19th century – to invent for inventing. “Rick’s thing works sort of too fast and too localized for modern technology, but I can’t really say what might stop someone in the future from inventing a liquid nitrogen gun that could basically freeze someone almost instantly.”
I can not say that it would radically change our world, but it could have influenced on transportations of the products that were supposed to be delivered frozen. At the same time, we still do not need this cooling process to be localized that much in our case. Besides, it would only slightly influence the military world and its market because it is a gun that can freeze people instantly, but ice has a tendency to melt , so in some time most likely the soldier will survive and keep bringing harm to your land. All in all, it would be the same trend – invent for inventing. Even though it would be nice to have a freezing gun for self defence and for fun, obviously.
All in all, there are a lot of technologies that influence the business world, but there are also some that actually make no sense and bring no real impact. There are also different ways you can treat these technologies – you might accept their increasing influence in our daily life and be as Rick, who even outrages it and seeks to replace most things in his life with technologies. At the same time you can reject all of it and become an unemployed Jerry. If you care about my opinion, then I would offer you to pick that side which brings you the biggest amount of utility and joy – it doesn’t matter your awareness of modern technologies is on the level of Elon Musk or Morty Smith as long as it makes you happy.
Wubba lubba dub dub
Sources:
https://www.inverse.com/article/27479-rick-and-morty-season-3-inventions-rick-sanchez-lab
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2227438-the-real-science-behind-rick-and-morty/
“Ethics and Technology: An Analysis of
Rick and Morty” – https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2020-0155
received January 29, 2021; accepted April 20, 2021/ Open Philosophy 2022; 5: 1–16