The cradle of civilization

The title of this article was inspired by something I used to hear a lot on the local TV station in my city back when I was still a kid. They usually show an advert (or maybe a campaign) that's not more than a minute long and at the end of it, they use that same phrase and then the next thing they start showing are cartoons. Ah, life was very simple and sweet back then, nothing much to worry about. Well, I did a quick Google search and found out that it's a phrase used to refer to Benin City and it's actually "the cradle of black civilization".

As I said earlier, the phrase triggered memories from my childhood, specifically around 2005 to 2010 and just thinking about how a lot has changed is truly astonishing. There have been a lot of transformations over the years and ideally, some of those changes are awesome to me but I can't say the same for others. So, there are a lot of benefits that come with civilization but we ended up losing some things along the way. First, I will start with the benefit

Technological advancement

There's no way you will talk about civilization without mentioning this first, I mean it's basically the bedrock of every civilization. Technology is the thing that takes civilization to the next level and the major difference between two civilizations lies in their levels of technology. Again, let's go back to the early 2000s and look at the type of technology we had then. Let's start with something everyone is familiar with; mobile phones.

Many of us in Nigeria can still remember the type of phones that were popular back then; Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and other brands. These phones were mostly used for phone calls and text messages. Then later on, Blackberry phones were introduced and things went to a whole new level. I mean, we thought Blackberry phones were the best things that could happen in the mobile phone industry until we saw the rise of smartphones (iOS and Android devices).

Should we then talk about the television we had back then? Or maybe computers? I remember my landlady's daughter had a desktop computer back then and she used diskettes to store her documents (some people don't even know what those are 😅). I never even saw a laptop all those times but today, laptops are everywhere and I even own one! Should we then talk about the types of cars we had then and now? Or maybe we should talk about the Internet? Back then it used to be static and you could only go there to read information but these days, it's now dynamic and has led to the rise of social media.

Speaking of the internet, we now have Web 3.0 and blockchain technology which gave birth to hive. Back in the day, it was extremely difficult to make money off the internet but today, a lot of people are embracing that opportunity and making money from the comfort of their homes, all thanks to technology. Now, this is the part I love the most in all of this technology talk as I totally love the concept of remote work and I have been trying different means of making money from the internet way back in 2015.

I will say it has gotten a lot easier to make money from the internet over the years if you know where to look 😉. I can't talk about Technological advancement without mentioning the new kid in the neighborhood, the latest craze in town; I'm talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. AI has been in existence for a while now (longer than you think) and it only just started getting a lot of attention recently (you can thank ChatGPT for that)

AI has started to change the way we do things, especially when it comes to getting new information or just learning about something. Tools like Chatgpt makes it a lot easier when it comes to doing school assignment and research. Automation on the other hand might sound strange but it is simply a way of performing tasks using machines and we see that a lot in big factories where machines automatically package and seal products.

This way, companies and industries can make products faster and more efficiently than any human. Let's bring it down home, A good example of Automation is those automatic electrical sweepers that you see in movies (unfortunately I haven't seen any in Nigeria 😅). Even washing machines and dishwashers can be added to that category. Alright, enough with the benefits of civilization, let's move on to the cons

Technological advancements

No, it isn't a mistake and I know I said the same thing in the benefits section but yes, technological advancement is also a con for me when it comes to civilization. But how can I both be happy and sad about something? Well, we all know that everything that has a good side also has a bad side and even though technology has brought a lot of benefits, we can't deny that it has also led to the loss of a lot of things.

One thing we can look at is the forced withdrawal of nature. I mean, due to modernization, areas that were previously forests have been converted into cities. I still stay around the same neighborhood I grew up in and even though I like how things have changed around there, sometimes I still miss the way things were in the past and feel sad about some of those changes. A lot of trees were scattered all over the neighborhood and as someone who loves fruits, I could pick anyone I want.

But now, finding a single tree is like looking for a needle in a haystack, they are all gone. Now let's look at the internet. It has evolved over the years and brought a lot of benefits with it but at the same time, it came with a couple of headaches as well. First on the list is depression, believe it or not, but a lot of people get depressed by what they see on social media, while some of those who don't get depressed end up committing different crimes just to live the kind of lifestyle they see on social media.

But overall, I have learned to adapt to all the changes brought about by civilization, both good and bad. Even though I do miss the old ways sometimes, I'm still happy about what we have achieved so far. Sometimes I imagine what the future will look like, maybe in the year 2050 when AI has completely taken over and humans have gotten lazier but that's a topic for another day. I guess I will just cut short the article at this point as it is already getting too long.

Thanks for reading

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