A group of men and women with stone hatchets stoop in a shimmering field of wheat. Domesticated sheep baah grumpily in the distance.

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When today’s archeologists find sites of humanity’s first few thousand years of agriculture, the differences are stunning. The first humans to depend on farming suffered from more disease, fought more wars, and were shorter and less robust because of malnutrition, compared to humans today, or even compared to the hunter-gatherers who had lived for 140,000 plus years before them, for that matter. After all, we evolved  socially as much as nutritionally to be hunter-gatherers, not farmers.

It took thousands of years to find a more stable cultural, political, and agronomic balance (i.e. corn/beans/tomatoes/potatoes or wheat/barley/peas/oats). And really, even after 10,000 years of farming we still haven’t fully adapted. Telltale green thumbprints of farming pock our globe. The self-reinforcing cycle of population growth, poverty, and ecological destruction is a tricky one to stop. Who knows if we will survive species collapse or climate change for that matter?

A famous exhortation comes to mind: “In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation...even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine.” Imagine standing there in the first tilled field of wheat and trying to imagine where it would go in seven generations. I don’t see how anyone could begin to imagine.

I think about all this in relation to the personal computer. This invention has only been popular since the 80s, and the Internet only started in the 90s. Those humble few decades represent about two millionths of our time on earth. Sometimes, when I’ve just been sucked down a nasty wikipedia wormhole (like history of farming for example) I wonder how we evolved to live together. I know we have a lot of faith in technology, but is it even possible for me to play nicely with this machine within my lifetime? It may take us thousands of years to adapt. More often than not, I feel like it’s in control.

This past month I have easily sunk eighty hours into Dune II, an old computer game from my childhood, sometimes staying up until two in the morning. I go onto the computer swearing I’m going to just check the weather and I end up replying to four e-mails and looking at funny pictures of cats for half an hour. And I don’t even really care about cats.

I grew up in a house in the suburbs of Chicago. I lived there for twenty-five years without meeting more than four of my neighbors. Now, every night, either in Montreal or Chicago, when I look into many homes I see a familiar blue glow.

I wonder if we’re in another cycle. If farm-living cycles between poverty and ecological destruction, maybe today we’re cycling between barren community life and technological entertainment. Moving to the forest isn’t the answer for me. I hate mosquitoes. Besides, I think about a phrase I heard once, that to cure an alcoholic means that he can drink again without getting drunk. Someday I’d like to say “I’m just going to check the weather” and only use the computer to check the weather. So I’ll have to leave the Luddite revolution behind me. The good old days are certainly old. But as a history major, I can tell you all the reasons they weren’t really all that good.

My bet is these crazy technologies are here to stay, yet how can they help us create community rather than killing it? I am far from having answers. But I think this is part of the challenge and the great experiment of our species. And we may fail.

The cavalier and single-minded way we introduce new technologies is almost inspiring in its total recklessness – like watching a bike courier weave through rush hour traffic. I understand much better now the hand-wringing from older generations who say: “Things didn’t used to be this way”. It’s more than cheap nostalgia. The way we perpetually revolutionize society, to paraphrase Marx, is unlikely to be wise. Even my relationship to cell phones is different from my sister’s. Yet so many people’s jobs and livelihoods revolve around revolutionizing everything constantly, from medicine, to websites, to technology. I wonder if this way of relating to each other - this society we’ve created - can really be stopped?

I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself an addict to computers, but I am not shy about saying that I don’t think I’m alone, and also that I need help – maybe a little short of divine help, but help nonetheless! I’ve installed a timer that goes off every half hour so that I stand up more often. This thingy also pops up on my screen after six hours of computing. Not that I always listen to it, but it’s a start.

This originally appeared in the May 2013 version of the Canadian Friend. David is a member of Montreal Monthly Meeting