Humanity is in danger of being taken over by technology, particularly in the arts sector, warns Writer at Large Neil Mackay, and we've only got ourselves to blame.

Perhaps the only matter we can agree upon in this age of disagreement is that we’ve never been so unhappy and so angry.

We blame poverty and politics, culture war and social media. However, in the past our ancestors' lives were evidently even more squalid and constrained than our own; they were at each others throats with the same vigour and venom as we are; and they endured just as much division caused by new communications technologies.

The printing press fuelled Europe’s medieval religious wars. Without radio Joseph Goebbels could never have turned his propaganda to such lethal advantage.

The difference today is that we’ve made ourselves redundant. We’re slowly but surely removing ‘the human’ from the everyday. By relinquishing responsibility to technology for everything - from mundanities, to matters which strike right at the very heart of our lives, wellbeing and identities - we kill what’s human.

An example of the mundane: the algorithm has more power over the choice of programme you watch than you do. An example of matters which go right to the heart of life, wellbeing and identity: the use of injections to curb our appetites so we lose weight.

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The TV algorithm removes our critical faculties, our need to discriminate and think. Technology does that for you. Fat-jabs mean you need never worry about willpower or struggling to achieve goals.........

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