The Evolution of Isolation.

Throughout human history, our species has evolved a series of dependences on external items. We developed the use of weapons and became more efficient hunters with them. But without our weapons, we have become less efficient hunters than our ancestors who hunted bare-handed. We developed clothes and became more hardy with them. We developed vehicles and became more mobile. I believe that as these technologies and dependencies developed, it has become the “natural” state of humankind to be clothed, equipped, and mounted. And I know no one who laments the loss of our old efficiency at bare-handed hunting, our old hairy-backed hardiness, or our old ability to migrate on foot over great distances.

Most recently, we have developed digital technology and become more efficient communicators, researchers, and consumers. A student with wikipedia at his fingertips is more knowledgeable than any single human being living before 1985. When stripped of this tool, he may not be able to use a dictionary, or have the attention span required to read a book, but with it he can produce instantly any information he needs on almost any subject. However, in a way unlike the developments of his ancestors, we lament the loss of his old faculties. We do not want to say that it has become the “natural” state of humanity to be plugged in. Why is this?

It may be that our objections to his loss of the old capacities of learning and discipline are merely because the loss is so new, and because we ourselves have invested a lot of time and effort into developing these capacities. I am quite sure the first homo erectus whose younger brother used a flint knife criticized him for missing out on something important by not tearing flesh with his incisors. But I sense in this latest loss a danger of an entirely different type than the shortening of teeth.

Our latest tool is a machine so vast and shallow, that it cannot be grasped or kept by any one person, family, or society. It is a series of connections so open-ended that it cannot be tied to any thing solid. It requires of its users no investment of personhood; no commitment of identity or accountability. It is fueled only by marketability. It is the first tool that is larger than humanity.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 8:37pm

Its creators dreamed of the connections it could forge between communities - of the communications it could facilitate between feuding peoples. And it has facilitated these things. It has opened up to its users the opportunity for reconciliation and connection. But it has not born these fruits. This vision was based upon a kind of utopian optimism which proposed that, given unlimited resources, human beings would share freely and live in peace. But this is not the case.

The internet has given people nearly unlimited intellectual and communicative resources. But it has done so without the kind of community or family-based accountability that has always regulated human nature. With a few exceptions, the internet is used to specialize, categorize, and isolate. Whatever your biases, whatever your fears, you can find them expressed with confidence on the internet. Whatever your hatred, whomever your enemy, you can find it portrayed poorly on the internet. And to do so is infinitely more gratifying to the fallen human soul than to challenge yourself and grow towards reconciliation.

Human beings work to come together not because it is in our nature to do so, but because we must. The internet has removed the must imposed upon us by our communities. We lament and fear the loss of our intellectual capacities when stripped of the internet because we have begun to see the terrible efficiency of our isolating activity when plugged in.

I am not against technology. I am aware of the irony of sharing this note on the internet. I do not even believe we can do anything to stop or regulate this trend. I just see that it is, and I lament it.