Replacing Tactile Contacts

 

Question: During the pandemic, we have all become participants in the experiment of living in tactile isolation. How will eliminating physical communication as the main way of interacting with other people affect the further development of humankind?

Answer: We are entering a state in which we do not really communicate physically. So what if I am on the subway or bustling in a crowd? In practice, there is very little contact between us. All contacts happen through computers.

Therefore, I do not think the pandemic will do anything to bring people closer together. It is impossible to conduct an experiment that compares what was with what will be or with what is now because we are in different conditions.

How is an experiment usually set up? There are certain conditions as well as others  and by studying them, you freeze such and such conditions of one state and compare them with others.

Here, however, we cannot compare what is and what was and even more so with what will be. We have not yet finished this process. Therefore, all of our conclusions are very vague and uncertain.

If you ask me as a Kabbalist, I can tell you that people really feel that they are in more contact now than before. You may ask, “How can this be if they are quarantined in their homes?” They experience the same states and therefore become sensorially closer to each other and can understand each other more.

Question: Do you think that the computer screen, through which we communicate, could become a problem for us in the future?

Answer: We can meet now and in a few minutes you will see that we have nothing to talk about. What can we tell each other that you have not been through and I have not been through? We were all in the same conditions and therefore there can be nothing else to say.

Question: Does this mean that now we are entering a new stage of development in which the body no longer plays any role in communication?

Answer: Moving the body from place to place has long ceased to play any role. I get on a plane and fly somewhere but still stay in touch with my colleagues, family, and friends. Things have been working differently for a long time. The Internet has made everyone equal.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/30/20