17 September 2010
 
Re-Cognition


(Cyborg head. Photo Hemdale Film Corporation).
 
I hate to beat the drum too hard on this one, but a lot of people are thinking about what is happening to us. Could be be on the verge of something really big?
 
A pal wrote to me from his government job. He said "I too now have an Android phone and am quite taken with it. I can create/update/share calendars with my wife so we can keep track of where we are supposed to take the kids and it gets pushed to my phone.  I can use the Google Maps navigation function to get me from Point A to Point B.”
 
“It is amazing. I can even use an application to survey the night sky with the kids and enjoy the wonder on their faces when we realize that bright star in the sky is really Jupiter ("Daddy, is that really another planet?  Wow, I have to tell my friends at school tomorrow I saw Jupiter!")  And like Vic, I've outsourced part of my brain.  I'm not sure it is a good or a bad thing.  With everything life throws at you these days it is kind of nice having a web browser, agenda, phone, calculator, camera, camcorder, telephone directory, encyclopedia in my breast pocket."
 
I am of mixed emotion about my Droid. I like the features on the phone, but the problem is that it is a crappy phone. I have one pal who won't even talk to me on it. She says it is too hard to understand, and that is completely beyond my lack of articulation.
 
My pal went on to connect the other amazing technology beyond the search engines and smart phones. "Take, for instance, EZPass. If someone knows you got on the Dulles Toll Road at mile x and exited at mile y, simple math can calculate your average speed. Hmmm, what does that mean?  I use my Giant card when getting groceries and it keeps track of my purchases.  This can be used to determine what kinds of coupons to send me but can it also be used to determine how healthy I'm eating?  And what sort of effect can that have on my health insurance coverage and premiums?  Yes, all sorts of Big Brother thinking but how far-fetched is it?
 
I had to write him back. "I am highly concerned about what we are doing to re-wire our collective brains. I think in the short term we are going to have problems with the next generation of analysts, as we lose some critical thinking skills in the cognitive process. But there is something more- we may be confronting a more massive and fundamental evolution of the species into something that will be cyborg-like, morphing into our devices."
 
I was getting myself into a lather. I had read with interest an article a few months ago about some speculation on the ability to "download" memories from the wet mass of the cerebral cortex into digital form, and the changing nature of consciousness itself. Why bother with actual reality at all?
 
Could be set our species free to the stars in digital format?
 
I don't fear the future as much as I think it is about time to start getting our ethical arms around the issues that are coming.
 
Think of the loss of critical thinking as parts of our logical minds are placed elsewhere.
 
There is a generation alive today who can't read a map because of GPS navigation.  It will probably get worse and more capability will be lost. Students will only be able to Google, not navigate a card catalog to find what they are looking for in the library stacks. but of course that pre-supposes there will be a need for physical books, and those are already going the way of the buffalo.
 
The implications are stark and real and here. One of them could be the end of privacy, of course, and perhaps of liberty. Though as we adapt, perhaps there will be the immense promise of freedom even from death.
 
I am glad I don't have the prospects of living to see it, but our kids might.
 
I recounted the whole thing to Admiral Mac when we were rolling out to the Good Doctor's retirement ceremony in the Bluesmobile with Kimo and his wife in the back.  
 
"You're on the right track," he said, "but you might as well cut to the bottom line.  I propose writing a piece titled "America is on the Telephone" to belittle the use of a cell phone by nearly everyone you see.
 
Kimo spoke up from the back seat of the Bluesmobile. "We're raising generations of imbeciles."  
 
"Indeed we are," said the Admiral with a harumph. "We equip everyone with easy-to-use high tech telephones, electronic readers, digital cameras, web access, and all other sorts of instant gratification devices that totally ignore the brain power needed for their creation."
 
The Admiral snorted. "Where does that take our future?  Right down the rat hole!!!  I'm too old and too stubborn to fall for those things, so I still have hard-wire telephones, I buy books to read, I look things up in the telephone directories and the dictionary, and I surf the internet on my desk-mounted PC.  And, yes, I wear a wrist watch for my time checks.  I like it that way, but I'm sure out of step with the rest.”
 
“I don’t think so,” I said, wheeling the big cruiser into the Federal Reservation in Suitland. “When it comes to the digital future, I think you are dead on.”

Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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