and that consequently threatens human existence. We should be prepared to
face the moment in which technology will have consciousness and will try to
gain independence and subsequently domination. Hence, we must be
constantly aware that technology is destined to fulfill our necessities,
facilitate our lives and provide satisfaction for humanity. Indeed, we need to
remain ‘independent’ from technology and from those who produce and
communicate information, and not be totally influenced by it.
Today, information, access to it and the means to disseminate it, is the
key to economic and political power. Mass media does not only transmit
information; it produces knowledge and creates habits that are translated
into what, how, when, where and why we consume. Individuals in
contemporary societies are the last link in the consumerist chain. It is
possible to argue that we are not defenseless, that the plurality of
information that brought new means of communications provides a freedom
of choice that did not exist before. Yet, while retaining a certain degree of
truth, this argument also implies the potential danger of being adrift in the
‘sea of signs’ that is produced, the Hyperreality that Baudrillard speaks of.
Hence, under the double threat of being manipulated and/or lost by
the multiplicity of information, we need to use filters, mechanisms in the
perception and understanding of the information that facilitates the
discrimination of what we believe. In other words, these tools of cognition
aim to protect ourselves from being manipulated and confused and the
solution is the discrimination of the different layers of (un)reality to ensure
we are not totally lost. The constant and Cartesian doubt can be a useful and
definitive tool, but the idea of not believing in anything can also produce a
schizophrenia which will prevent us from developing our lives. Thus, the path
we should follow, if we do not want to be lost within the confusion of reality
and unreality, requires a constant and fluid questioning tinged with
skepticism in which the examination will not eliminate or block the value and
nature of our perceptions. It is important to be conscious of the confusion of
reality and unreality and the concepts that are formed and deformed in the
process. Nevertheless, understanding the disorientation of reality and
unreality does not imply a rejection of everything that is not real. On the
- 111 -