Dear John, the machines are already taking control

Post date

22 Feb 2009

Summary

Some ideas about how technology is already affecting our behaviour and the way we think

Filed under

Year 2029, the world as we know today no longer exists. Intelligent machines with human form have taken control and only a small human resistance group struggles to survive.

Are we there yet? Well, not quite, but a similar fight is already going on.

After reading Is Google making us stupid? by Nicholas Carr I realized about our current struggle in the Great Invisible War Against Technology. It was the triggering point that gave me the idea of this blog when I was still under the influence of The Monk and the Philosopher . That was the moment when my passion for Psychology and Philosophy applied to Computer Science was awoken.

Carr made an amazing point in his article. Internet is changing the way we read and many of us are having a hard time to focus in long texts. However with examples about how Nietzsche work changed when he got his first typewriter, one could expand the concept to a bigger idea: Technology is changing our values and the way our brain works.

We are not only what we read ... we are how we read ... the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts efficiency and immediacy above all else, may be weakening ... our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction
Maryanne Wolf and Nicholas Carr

Our writing tools are also working on our thoughts
Nitzsche

Socrates was alarmed about books, he was concerned about people basing their education on them because they are only a medium to convey information. It is only through dialog one could gain wisdom and a better insight on knowledge. Therefore he never wrote a single one. The only thing we know about him is because Plato, his student, decided to write his conversations.

Today most of our education is based largely on printed material and I will not argue how a valuable tool it has become. However and just like Carr pointed out, now we struggle to grasp some insight among so much information (Information Oberbloat), our capability to concentrate in long materials has been diminished.

Living in an age where most of our knowledge comes from movies and internet, I would like to mention Star Trek. I was quite grown-up when I became a fan of the series. Today it might be shocking to endure such awful special effects, but once you contemplate the show as a historical workpiece, it is possible to take out many technology-philosophy concepts such as soul existence, abortion, religion or human genetic engineering .

The whole show was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but to take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. We tried to say that the worst possible thing that can happen to all of us is for the future to somehow press us into a common mould, where we begin to act and talk and look and think alike. If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.
Gene Roddenberry

Technology can solve all of the problems of mankind, including the problems that stem from human nature such as war, hatred, greed, etc
Scott Whitmore

The three main characters Kirk, McKoy and Spock were the portraits of different types of people. One of the most recurrent events were the fights between Dr. McKoy and Spock about human nature and logic. Most of their discussions represented the importance of human concepts to discern between the best actions versus the right actions.

Later the series evolved with complete different players. Still though, the show was like classic Greek mythology, every actor represented different human virtues and defects, most of them being quite immature. The role of Spock was replaced by an android called Data which still represented after all, the conflict between logic and humanity.

However one great addition was a new enemy, the Borg race, a machine civilization which slowly assimilated every living creature in the universe and whose moto was "Resistance is futile".

We don't need to wait so many years for such futuristic fight. Sadly, machines do not need to be that advanced to affect humanity. Many humans do not remember important dates if it is not in their electronic agenda, their friendship circle is extended by hundreds of Facebook contacts and sometimes it is their only social circle. Our ability to concentrate deeper in content, art and relationships is getting harder and harder. The only difference of this fight is that it is not led by violence, but by seduction.

When I think how future might be alike, I take for granted that society will be technologically more advanced. However when I try to imagine how will be the human being of the future I am completely lost. Still looking back in our history I recognize similarities with our current world. Ancient Rome and Egyptian societies were led by commerce, law and labor. There were social layers, justice and injustice. Faith fights. Buddies met after work for some beers. Parents tried to teach their children about life while children taught their parents what life is about. Happiness was based on security, money, love and health... Will we always be like this type of human beings? Or will the rich and poor worlds drift apart as far as Diaspar and Lys did?

He found part of his answer among the children, those little creatures who were as strange to him as any of the animals of Lys ... Sometimes it seemed to him that they were not human at all, their motives, their logic, and even their language were so alien. He would look unbelievingly at the adults and ask himself how it was possible that they could have evolved from these extraordinary creatures who seemed to spend most of their lives in a private world of their own.

And yet, even while they baffled him, they aroused within his heart a feeling he had never known before. When-which was not often, but sometimes happened-they burst into tears of utter frustration or despair, their tiny disappointments seemed to him more tragic than Man's long retreat after the loss of his Galactic Empire. That was something too huge and remote for comprehension, but the weeping of a child could pierce one to the heart.

Alvin had met love in Diaspar, but now he was learning something equally precious, and without which love itself could never reach its highest fulfilment but must remain forever incomplete. He was learning tenderness.

Several science fiction works have based their plot on the use of genetic engineering to enable parents selecting special traits in their offspring. Society becomes divided between genetically favored humans and those freely bred. It is easy to imagine that as technology evolves, certain achievements of Diaspar such as advanced liberal eugenics could be emulated producing new human beings in their adult stage. Could you imagine a world without children? With people who never met one? It might be feasible but... Do you have hopes for a future in a world with such type of human beings?

This was the way that life had once begun; these noisy, fascinating creatures were human children. Alvin watched them with wondering disbelief-and with another sensation which tugged at his heart but which he could not yet identify. No other sight could have brought home to him so vividly his remoteness from the world he knew. Diaspar had paid, and paid in full, the price of immortality.

Our society has still many fights ahead, not only technological. Daniel Goleman showed us the importance of emotional intelligence. Dr. Carol Craig has criticised how modern school systems are producing a wave of narcissists children. Is there any connection on how technology affect us? On its unifying effect? Behind the scene, there is a small resistance group made of psychologists and philosophers fighting those fronts.

In this Internet Era, every corner of the world is interconnected. Our economy, culture, virtues, defects and sense of humanity are merging across the globe. Our victories and defeats against the machines are having a worldwide effect. I do not expect people considering an amish lifestyle. Technology will advance, shape us along our values, redefine our concept of humanity, and any resistance will be futile.

If you want to read more...

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