In the near future, a passerby may simply raise their phone, capture an image of your vehicle violating traffic rules and instantly transmit it to the nearest traffic control center. Within moments, a patrol car will arrive, tow the vehicle and you may find yourself chasing after it — unable to dispute what has already been digitally witnessed and archived. Every word, every action, even the way you walk on an empty street, may be captured, logged and stored. We are firmly rooted in an era where documentation reigns.

Today, nearly every individual carries a smartphone equipped with a camera and constant Internet connectivity. Surveillance cameras span urban and rural spaces alike, turning nearly every corner of our lives into part of a vast, ongoing documentary. Whether you’re traveling abroad, dining at a restaurant, or attending a private event, your actions — intentional or not — may be recorded. Even in spaces where no fixed cameras exist, the human hand steps in, pointing a lens at every landscape, face, or fleeting moment.

We no longer contemplate beauty in silence. Instead, we capture it, filter it and share it. We no longer listen to a poem or a piece of music with full attention; instead, we reach for the record button. The expression on our faces, once fleeting and private, is now a frame in someone else’s gallery. In this reality, the space for imagination and genuine human freedom is shrinking. Opinions are captured. Emotions are stored. Privacy is becoming a relic of the past.

This phenomenon, if it continues to grow unchecked, could reshape not only our behaviors but also the very foundations of philosophical thought. The boundaries between physical reality and abstract thought are dissolving. As technology captures details even beyond the scope of our natural senses, the human unconscious — the wellspring of dreams, art, and intuition — is at risk of being overshadowed by the relentless documentation of the external world.

This trajectory recalls the ideological divide between Karl Marx and Georg Hegel. Marx posited that material reality precedes consciousness, while Hegel upheld that consciousness shapes reality. Today, it seems that the camera — a modern extension of matter — has gained dominance over both. It captures, defines, and shapes reality before the mind can even interpret it. In such a scenario, consciousness is no longer the originator of values or creativity, but a responder to what has already been documented.

If the spread of documentation begins to suppress imagination, we may find ourselves approaching an unprecedented fusion of thought and material existence — a state where consciousness no longer emerges from within, but instead conforms to what is externally captured and shared. In this imagined future, every human being walks not with a pen or a brush, but with a recording device that shapes their understanding of the world in real time, leaving little space for interpretation, abstraction, or mystery. What then becomes of literature, art, and the deep well of the subconscious — the place where scattered moments are recomposed into beauty? If this subconscious is deprived of its ability to absorb, process, and reimagine life, do we lose our capacity to create? Do we become vessels of reaction rather than creation?

Perhaps we are only at the beginning of this road. It is too early to issue definitive judgments. Yet, what seems trivial today — a traffic violation documented by a passerby — might one day symbolize a much larger transformation. We may be witnessing the emergence of a different kind of human being — one whose imagination is subdued, whose subconscious no longer serves as a creative force, and whose memories and meanings are stored not within, but in devices designed to observe and share, rather than feel and reflect. The world ahead may be strange. And while we may not live long enough to see it fully unfold, we are its architects today.

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