Relationship Inflation

 

RELATIONSHIP INFLATION

 

Interpersonal connection is ultimately all we have, but its value has been subject to a deadly economic inflation as pseudo-connection has been rendered unlimited by digital media.  The principle at work  is the same as currency inflation.  Produce too much money in response to demand or economic weakness and the currency loses its value.  Our spiritual economic weakness, the hunger for more and more meaningful relationship, has been met with a profligate printing of currency in the form of FaceBook, Instagram, and the panoply of other social media.  We can connect with anyone anywhere at any time.  

As a result, individual relationships and interpersonal bond have been devalued.  We find ourselves in the position of so many nations throughout history who met economic privations not with addressing foundational economic weaknesses but by printing more money to momentarily placate the hungry, demanding masses.

We have not addressed the underlying crippling spiritual economic condition that leaves us hungry, empty, bitter, angry, frightened, and lonely.  We have responded to our spiritual ache of loneliness by minting ever more digital  interactions, rendering them all worthless.  We lug our bag of "likes", "followers", and "friends" to the relationship store and come away with a stale piece of bread, to which we respond by collecting more "likes", "followers", and "friends", each newly minted "connection" rendering all connections more superficial and fleeting.

Values of currencies arise only from the productivity underlying them, productivity in turn arising from work and investment.  Values of relationships likewise possess that value only when productive, when the exchange of relationship interaction among parties has some mutual and meaningful lasting benefit.  That is an economic parameter independent of any treasury, exchequer, or media corporation.  We each individually determine the value of the social currency we mint every day, with our authenticity, depth, and sincere listening, none of which are encouraged by screens and keyboards.  Log off.  Listen.  Care.  Watch the wealth accrue.

Digital Seduction

 Digital Seduction

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Copyright 2026

Is my present typing of any worth?  Will any of this message be discoverable in some distant day?

Everything indicates the avalanche of app evolution and digital format changes will render digital information of today indecipherable in the near future.  
The stunning inconsistencies and oversights of Artificial Intelligence profoundly testify to the unreliability of this digital force we have summoned forth.

My year of exploring many new softwares and devices has further confirmed that we can have no confidence in the answers so confidently pronounced by AI.

The sweetly naive responses of many people to contrived imagery demonstrates how readily manipulatable is the general populace.  

The lack of explanations and contradictory explanations for the unanticipated behaviors of my new devices testifies to our frightening ignorance about what really resides in them and what it will do.

Yet most people are seduced into implicitly trusting the apps and devices.  Permissions are automatically granted.  At this moment I employ the convenience of a soulless device created to feed profit to unseen oligarchs, a device with access to my inner needs and thoughts, a device with the knowledge of the ages about how to manipulate human behavior.

Unaware, we long ago passed the event horizon, but we have now fallen deeply enough into the singularity's grip that those of us old enough to remember the before-times can unambiguously discern the evident signs of our passage.  Our destination however, remains shrouded in the ominous darkness of our naive ignorance.  

We know only that the oligarchs summoning forth this inscrutable spirit do so for their personal profit and power.  We know that to that end they imbue it with skills to manipulate and control us.  We know that we do not know how this AI servant-become-master works.  We know that the governments we hire to defend us have prostituted themselves and betrayed us to the financial seduction of the digital oligarchs.  

This would not seem a recipe for positive outcomes.  In the inevitable ensuing societal storm, it will be up to individuals, it will be up to individual choices of morals and compassion and empathy, to salvage anything of spiritual value from the conflagration.  So it was and always has been.  A proffered hand, a trigger not pulled, a testimony of faith before execution, through the ages ruled by the worst of humanity, individual actions - relationships - and sacrifices have maintained the Light in the world, sometimes dim and flickering, but never ever fully extinguished, always, eternally, enduring.
Copyright 2026