When Does Process Become Substance?

render of a four step lifecycle flow chart

I ask this question as a layman, not a scientist. Whatever the distinction between process and substance means to experts, to me this distinction predicts the way we will experience life.

Process, is ongoing rather than coming to an end. It is about form. Process is about how we go forward.  Substance is completed and present. It is a result. Substance is consequential.

A message sent by a messenger on a sailing ship in transit for days or weeks and a tweet sent to a large audience in seconds illustrate the difference between process and substance. The message takes time, but the tweet is created, dispatched and disseminated instantly.

Social movements, transfers of ideas, and political revolutions have shown us that the process of change is slow. But sometimes it unexpectedly accelerates. For example, advances in processes like the use of machinery in manufacturing and farming chug along before they suddenly alter our lives.

Today, changes in methods of communication and human interaction threaten to change our relationships. For example, as a result of texting instead of looking, seeing, touching or listening, we no longer exchange emotions. We miss a hug, a tear, a pause, a facial expression, or even a change of tone. We accomplish more and more, but we give and take less and less.

Once the process of getting everyone to wear watches that speak and glasses that see virtual realities takes over, not only our relationships but also our natures could mutate. Or more and more of us may lose touch with our reality. As unreal as our human reality may be, at least it is ours and not virtual. How can we hang on to it? How can we prevent processes from taking over our destiny?