What Happens When Our Economy Feeds Machines Instead of Humans?

Promoting Humanity Series 2/6

What Happens When Our Economy Feeds Machines Instead of Humans?

1. The concentration of resources

It is striking to see how many critical resources, such as public money, private capital, energy and even drinking water, are being mobilized to support a technology whose real benefits do not match the scale of the investments. This creates a paradox: we are using vital resources to fuel something that offers no clear return for life itself.

2. Collective hysteria

We can speak of a phenomenon close to social hysteria. The sector is driven by a logic of racing ahead, a fear of being left behind, and a belief that “everyone has to join in”. In this context, rational, ecological and human-centered reflection disappears. This is a well-known effect in human systems: when a narrative becomes dominant, it absorbs everything, even though this narrative no longer has any connection to the fundamental needs of living beings.

3. The loss of common sense

There is something that feels like a loss of grounding.

We have spent more than fifty years building ecological awareness, thinking about sustainability, sobriety, life and humanity. And suddenly, a new technological promise arrives, and many of these long-standing goals seem to be set aside.

4. Self-respect and collective empathy

This is a fundamental question. When a society diverts its resources away from living beings to feed an abstract narrative, it reveals a certain lack of respect for itself. This lack of consideration for our own lives, for our limits, for our water, for our psychological and collective health, shows a deep disconnection. It is as though the fascination for a machine has become stronger than our regard for what we are.

5. Forgetting our historical goals

Since the 1960s and 70s, we have built very solid foundations: planetary boundaries, renewable energy, respect for life, fair distribution, the pursuit of balance. And today, we see these priorities pushed aside by an unproven technological promise. It is not only inconsistent; it is astonishing from the standpoint of basic human common sense.

Conclusion

This shift is not only economic or technical. It is symbolic. It signals a society that doubts itself, that loses contact with its vital foundations and that projects its hopes onto something non-living. And it is this gap that creates the sense of collective hysteria.