“TECHNOLOGY AND MACHINES – WE ARE THE MASTERS OF ALL!” – Loading Screen, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is a game in which the Nazis have won world war 2 and captured America, the woman in the picture is Frau Irene Engel who is one of the Nazis main Generals in the game.

The protagonist is an American one-man-army style of character but because it’s a game there are often loading screens which offer advice at the bottom (which I’ve cropped out of the picture) and a quote at the top to let you get inside the mind of Frau Engel.

Technology rules our lives in the modern day. We are slaves to phones and computers, even those that try to avoid technology and want to do something creative still end up using technology, I’m trying to become a known writer and have to use a computer to get this out there.

Machines, these are cars, planes, kettles, industrial things or even something as simple as an electric shaving razor. I can’t easily get to work without a bus. We are reliant on machines to do things for us because we aren’t good enough ourselves, we could boil water over a fire but a kettle is so much simpler.

Now think about what this means when compared to the quote “WE ARE THE MASTERS OF ALL!”. It means we aren’t the masters. A pet or a child is below us, it would be reliant on the owner or parent’s help for survival and ease of life. One person to another (ignoring the isms) we are equal, we can help each other without being reliant on the help. Sadly though, with the way things are, technology and machines are above us, they are the masters.

When I say they are the masters I don’t mean in a sci-fi ‘they’re coming to kill us all’ type of way, just that we have used them and improved them so much that they are no longer tools. Phone Addiction is becoming an actual thing recognised by the NHS (click for proof). Frau Engel and her fictional Nazis would be disappointed that we’ve let it get this far.

Seriously though, think about it. Are we the masters of technology and machines or is it the other way around.