Created around 215 B.C., the Terra-cotta Warriors are Xian’s best-known attractions. At the time they were created, they were one of the most impressive technological wonders of the period. Thousands of soldiers with individual faces stare back at us across the millennia, each face painstakingly formed into an individual with what was then cutting-edge technology.

As I look at what, at the time, was a technological wonder, we begin to think about the role technology plays in our own society. Looking across the holes filled with terra-cotta men, I wonder: Was this elaborate burial process, burying the Qin Emperor with thousands of his soldiers and retinue, recreating, in death, the empire he maintained in life? Is this whole thing just a giant, grand, solipsistic selfie, a momentary shot of the Qin Emperor’s life at the time he ruled? Is technology really just a burden that limits us rather than expands us?

These questions were still with me when, later that evening, Galen began saying things to his camera that cannot be repeated here, for the sake of my more delicate readers. His CF card had experienced a complete failure. Every photo he had taken that day was lost. All that remained were the handful of photos I had taken on my phone. Hence the poor quality.

I am not sure whether technology plays a positive or negative role in our lives, but I do know that some times we rely on it too much. The Qin Emperor relied on technology to get him into the afterlife, and we relied on it to try to get good shots of his afterlife attempt. Both appear to be total failures.