Beware...Heed Einstein's Warning

I am always inspired by Albert Einstein, particularly because we know the context of his thinking, which makes it all the more powerful when we apply his philosophy to the context of our own lives.

Which is why the following quote from him has always troubled me, in fact, become a touchstone for me in my own personal thinking:

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

Case in point — over the past few weeks I watched how technology and its applications can impact the lives of bedridden patients in the most profound and human ways.

I saw a hospital bed that reacts to patients’ vital signs so that there is no need to hook them up with cords to beeping, buzzing monitors. Heart rate…respiration – all measured by the bed itself…amazing and a blessing for many.

I saw Amazon’s Echo used by a mostly paralyzed older person who joyfully was able to ask Alexa to play the music she so loved and to read her the books she could no longer hold in her hands.

Facetime and Instagram and Messenger and Dubsmash all played key roles as loved ones were seen and heard in often amusing ways, shared and experienced even from afar.

What I describe to you was real life as I experienced it with my mother as she began hospice care. The technology was a blessing. But as her illness progressed, the apps and devices became less and less useful and faded into the background, while simple human interaction became more and more powerful.

I share this – not because we don’t know it, but because it’s so easy to forget. In a world where social and sharing are automatically thought of as digital, where liking has no emotional component and where experiences are often assumed to be online and virtual – I worry that we are losing our ability to affect life as we should and, more importantly, as we can, using technology in the most human of ways..

Make no mistake, technology made my mother’s last days easier, nicer and more memorable for us. But it was the simple interactions with people that made it even more special — people who sang to her, who read to her, who held her hand or just told her that she looked beautiful that day.

My mom passed away, last week, an 85-year-old digitally savvy woman who loved her computer, her iPhone and iPad and used them like a native…but I am most grateful that it all enhanced her humanity, and therein lies the lesson for me — humanity still trumps and no app will ever replace that held hand and kind word.

So in memory of my mother – she still has a LinkedIn account…imagine – use all the technology you can and enhance it with your own humanity…but remember that it can never replace a kind word, a heartfelt gesture, a real emotion.

A business and life thought.