What has progress done to us?
In 1996/97 I completed two directed studies under the guidance of the late Dr. Richard Rosenberg at the department of Computer Science, UBC, where he was instrumental in the program’s early development, and continued as a global expert in questions of “computers and society,” which was the name of a 4th-year course that he taught us.
Dr. Richard Rosenberg in 1999 (source)
The directed studies were specifically around the question of how internet anonymity and so-called postmodern identity (i.e., having an identity existence as an avatar which has little to do with who i am as a person, but is rather a contradiction to my human identity) will affect society, in terms of our relationships, communities, and our personal psychology.
Unfortunately, I lost my digital copies, but the originals will (hopefully!) be somewhere in Professor Rosenberg’s archives.
His teaching and mentorship, combined with my continuing questions about technology, (in which field I found my childhood passion, later my degree, and career, with code and design), bring me often to similar questions.
the planet in the bedroom
With a measure of hindsight, in 2023 it’s plain that despite many advantages, our embrace of the internet, which ramped up in the 1990s, combined with degrading foundational ethics, has contributed to breakdown in local/community/family relationships, while simultaneously bringing the world into our bedrooms and family rooms, to the point where someone with minimal connection finds themself interrupted by someone in India who has an important scam for them, while they’re in their quiet place reading an important book, or they're having a conversation with their spouse or child; they also see losses to global channels within their own family and social circles.
printing press
I'm pretty sure Gugtenberg invented the printing press because he had a vision of Bibles being less expensive and more available. It sure did happen, but of course the press is used for evil, as everything.
So the web, abundantly useful when used properly, also brings snares.
I don't hear the expression 'information age' much anymore, because people have mostly realized it's a synonym for 'bullshit age.'
The quantity of propaganda is unprecedented, and we can be sure that people who are tuned in to the spirit of the present age are slaves of the lies they drink.
socially handicapped
I’ve moved back to the same neighborhood I grew up in (South Surrey, Canada), and it’s still difficult for me to believe that I can walk to the grocery store and back, and converse with nobody except the checkout machine (“thank you for using the self-checkout register!”), and the crosswalk post (“Wait... Traveling west”), while almost every person in-between, including next-door neighbors, culturally employ a method of pretending that other people do not exist, as some life survival mechanism.
This is not the norm in other parts of Canada, but it’s the virus that’s spreading.
It’s not safe while driving, because driving is another semi-anonymous activity that is still social, and is also physical. It is too similar to our multiplayer video games.
Always coming at a cost, technology offers solutions. So here, cars can drive themselves safely. But again, at what cost to our social structure and personal psychology?
the luddites were right
The Luddites were right. They claimed that automated weaving looms would (a) reduce employment opportunities for skilled people, and (b) reduce textiles to trash. Around the park, jackets, hats, and socks woven so intricately and made out of the beautiful cotton that men and women have died for, and probably still do, have become some of the most common trash.
Yet, in the days of Christ, it was worth it for a group of paid soldiers to divide his garments among them, and the most lucky received his blood-soaked one-piece undergarment.
it will continue to grow larger even faster
We embrace AI automatically as progress, but again, at what cost? Many who are already socially at risk will soon depend on it deeply for relational needs, as a fraudulent version of who we were created to be.
#postmodern #avatar #anonymity #ai