New technologies and potential addictions

Einstein famously said that ‘God doesn’t play dice’. He meant that the order and predictability of the natural universe negated the idea of luck or chance. The disorder, cruelty and sheer amoral destructiveness of the world of the living convinces me that God may not play dice but he does play video games.

Even the insurance companies designate freak tornadoes hitting your house in the middle of London (as happened to my distant cousin) as ‘acts of God’. And so with the ground opening up under one’s feet, tectonic plates under the sea colliding and causing 50-foot high floods, etc. Any modern kid who fiddles with computers will be able to tell you which video game God has his thumbs on.

It is bound to be one that, at the push of a button, can bring on floods, earthquakes and hurricanes, give rise to babies with crippling genetic defects, cause wars, famines and even the general injustice of socio-political systems such as capitalism.

Semitic monotheistic religions, from Zoroastrianism through Judaism, Christianity and Islam, conveniently contend that God has allowed its humans free will so that they can be tested by choosing good or evil. These religions have no explanation for why a little baby is born without arms or is born blind and deaf.

Other religions, which believe in karma, may say that the blind and maimed baby must have done something in its past life to deserve being born crippled in the next. A logical but cruel
explanation. These metaphysical thoughts are occasioned by a shocking family tragedy that reached the courts in Britain this week.

The tragedies of families are two a penny.

Billions of pounds are spent by the Welfare state of Great Britain on caring for the families that have fallen apart or on hard times owing to sickness, alcoholism, drug-addiction and the choice by parents of an unsuccessful criminal life.

In the case that came to court, a single mother with three children aged 13, 11 and 9, was charged with criminal neglect of the children. Her neighbours, suspecting that all was not well, looked through the letter box, noted the signs of squalor and alerted the social services — a branch of that same welfare state. The
police obtained permission to gain entry and found three starving children, the rooms in a filthy state and the corpses of two pet dogs which had died of starvation.

The mother, who attempted to stop the police discovering this shameful truth was not an alcoholic, drug addict, disabled or associated with crime. What they did find was a high power computer loaded with games. The mother confessed that she had become addicted to these games and couldn’t force herself to
abandon the virtual reality even to wash, eat, feed her children or her dogs. She would, she said, sleep an hour or two and then get back into the almost fatal game.

New technologies bring new addictions. This particular case is, we must hope, an extreme and unique example. The courts, judging the woman to be sane, sent her to prison and took the starving children into ‘care’ which means the jurisdiction of the welfare state, which will feed, clothe, school and entertain them as a foster parent. The judge said that on her release, she could resume the care of her children under supervision by the social services.

Now I am told by well-wishers that I am getting addicted to texting on my mobile phone. I have so far protested that the texts are strictly necessary ones — but I begin to wonder.