Techno-socialists warn of a dystopian future in which humanity’s unhealthy relationship with technology forewarns of its own downfall. Looking at the larger picture, this writer sees the implications for humanity rather differently.
Jaron Lanier coined the phrase cybernetic totalism in an article entitled One Half Of A Manifesto (http://edge.org/documents/archive/edge74.html) to describe what he perceived as society’s idolisation of technology to the point where our relationship with the technology itself becomes the only measure of our humanity – the idea that “…evolutionary psychology, artificial intelligence, Moore’s Law fetishizing, and the rest of the package, will catch on in a big way, as big as Freud or Marx did in their times. Or bigger, since these ideas might end up essentially built into the software that runs our society and our lives. If that happens, the ideology of cybernetic totalist intellectuals will be amplified from novelty into a force that could cause suffering for millions of people.”
Heady stuff indeed. But let’s take a step back.
What I think he’s saying is that there are those among us (computer scientists in the mold of Turing) who believe that computers will ultimately become sentient, begin to write software for themselves, build more machines like themselves and ultimately take over at the expense of people – in very much the same way as presented in the movie, The Matrix. These same people, as I understand the gist of the thing, don’t however see this as an apocalyptic outcome; rather, they embrace it as the only eschatological path worth considering.
And he’s right, of course. At a very simple level, his warning is born out again and again. Here in Asia the simple act of acquiring the latest cell phone has become a dangerously unhealthy form of self-actualisation. Facebook and others of its ilk have replaced real world social interaction (it’s been said that social networks are the new countries). Even Hollywood has forsaken plot and solid story-telling in favour of CGI and other big budget special effects.
All is not lost though. I offer another point of view on the thing.
I think what Jaron forgets, perhaps deliberately, is that just as we as a society are becoming more accepting of the huge potential of the technology we have created, we are also becoming more accepting of the ethereal side of ourselves – our ability to tap into the unseen energy of the universe.
The Celestial Age of Aquarius, as some refer to it, is said to be marked by a period of enlightenment and advancement in which humanity will come together as one. This is not a new concept. Great authors such as Deepak Chopra and Shakti Gawain have given us thousands of pages in which such enlightenment can be found. Even Jung approached the subject.
And so my point is that what if all of this – the Internet, cybernetics and all the other stuff – were merely practice for the next life? What if the technology we’re becoming so used to were merely a bridge, a natural progression along a continuum, to a new Celestial Age? The difference of course is that you can actually touch a computer and cause measurable and repeatable things to happen, whereas when it comes to more airy fairy phenomena we simply cannot. But does that make it any less important?
I think not.
I feel that there is nothing to fear, and I look forward to a time when we are all joined in the real melting pot of consciousness in the sky.
