Humans Evolution Alongside Technology
I was reading last month about Nuerolink, a company Elon Musk purchased about three years ago. The company designs EEG headsets. EEG headsets are able to read your brain waves, essentially allowing humans to interact with digital mediums through there brains. Of course, Musk always has to take things a step further. His plan with the company Nuerolink is to create a machine that will analyze your skull in order to find the perfect place to inject EEG implants. Essentially a couple hundred of these small EEG devices will be placed inside the human brain. Now not only can these sensors describe and display what the brain is doing, but they can also interact with the brain, causing the user to smell, see visuals and basically enter a virtual reality within there own minds. With this device, humans will have instantaneous access to any information they desire.
Although we created it, we did not exactly design it. It evolved. Our relationship to it is similar to our relationship to our biological ecosystem. We are codependent and not entirely in control…We are now all connected, humans and machines. Welcome to the dawn of the Entanglement.” (W. Daniel Hillis 251
Now Musk is investing in this device because he says “its the only way we can be on a fair playing ground once AI is created” Essentially by becoming part machine ourselves we will continue our evolution or ‘Entanglement’ with technology. By giving our brains instant access to everything known by humanity, we will break through yet another evolutionary plateau, by becoming apart of the machines we created.
A Time Without Internet
I can’t say I remember a time without computers, mobile phones and various digital tech. But I do remember a time before I used these things before they were a constant part of everyone’s lives. When I was five I played my first video game, the game was called MYST, it was one of the first visually stunning games to come to mac. I would play on my dads massive desktop computer, the game followed a character dropped on a mysterious island filled with puzzles, levers and buttons, on the far side of the island a futuristic rocketship sat, awaiting the day you finally broke the code. Besides this and movies on VCR tape I spent most of my childhood running around the woods, raising chickens and ducks and playing in the sun with my dog. I can honestly say I was a master fort builder, renown in my 3rd-grade class for my creations. I went to a middle school where they encouraged the children to play outdoors and learn from nature. I feel these experiences are very much a part of me, they allowed me to admire and learn from nature before I was bombarded by technology and the distractions that come along with it.
Fast forward to the present day, and my observations of the younger generation and things have become much different. My younger brother, Henri who is now 13 has seen just about everything the internet has to offer, he began exploring the internet years before me. But is this bad? It’s hard to say, the world we live in now is completely integrated with these technologies and by most means, he is right on track with his peers; who have also spent their childhoods playing video games and watching everything youtube has to offer. What concerns me is the lack of connection to the organic world, If we end up in a future where nature is no longer valued and humans are entirely satisfied with the basics for survival and a place to view the world through a screen… This would be a shame. Another concern is the amount these children are exposed too… A few weeks ago a friend sent me a Snapchat of her watching Stranger Things, with a young child. The kid must have been around 5 years old. Stranger Things is not a family-friendly show, this young child is watching people get their heads eaten by monsters and rats explode into balls of bloody ooze… I will ask the question, how will this affect the younger generation? Will there tolerance for graphically disturbing content be higher? Will this change them, cause fear or difference in personality in the future? or is this simply how we evolve alongside the technologies we have created, allowing this younger generation heightened abilities to utilize these technologies and take advantage of them; Ultimately becoming one with the machine.
Journal 2
Humans Evolution Alongside Technology
I was reading last month about Neuralink, a company Elon Musk purchased about three years ago. The company designs EEG headsets. EEG headsets are able to read your brain waves, essentially allowing humans to interact with digital mediums mentally. Of course, Musk always has to take things a step further. His plan with the company Neuralink is to create a machine that will analyze your skull in order to find the perfect place to inject EEG implants. Essentially a couple hundred of these small EEG devices will be placed inside the human brain. Now not only can these sensors describe and display what the brain is doing, but they can also interact with the brain, causing the user to smell, see visuals and basically enter a virtual reality within there own minds. With this device, humans will have instantaneous access to any information they desire.
Although we created it, we did not exactly design it. It evolved. Our relationship to it is similar to our relationship to our biological ecosystem. We are codependent and not entirely in control…We are now all connected, humans and machines. Welcome to the dawn of the Entanglement.” (W. Daniel Hillis 251
Now Musk is investing in this device because he says something along the lines of… “its the only way we can be on a fair playing ground once AI is created” Essentially by becoming part machine ourselves we will continue our evolution or ‘Entanglement’ with technology. By giving our brains instant access to everything known by humanity, we will break through yet another evolutionary plateau, by becoming apart of the machines we created.
A Time Without Internet
I can’t say I remember a time without computers, mobile phones and various digital tech. But I do remember a time before I used these things before they were a constant part of everyone’s lives. When I was five I played my first video game, the game was called MYST, it was one of the first visually stunning games to come to mac (In my opinion). I would run up to the attic and play on my fathers massive desktop computer, the game followed a character dropped on a mysterious island filled with puzzles, levers and buttons, on the far side of the island a futuristic rocketship sat, awaiting the day you finally broke the code. Besides this and movies on VCR tape I spent most of my childhood running around the woods, raising chickens and ducks and playing in the sun with my dog. I can honestly say I was a master fort builder, renown in my 3rd-grade class for my creations. I went to a middle school where they encouraged the children to play outdoors and learn from nature. I feel these experiences are very much a part of me, they allowed me to admire and learn from nature before I was bombarded by technology and the distractions that come along with it.
Fast forward to the present day, and my observations of the younger generation and things have become much different. My younger brother, Henri who is now 13 has seen just about everything the internet has to offer, he began exploring the internet years before me. But is this bad? It’s hard to say, the world we live in now is completely integrated with these technologies and by most means, he is right on track with his peers; who have also spent their childhoods playing video games and watching everything youtube has to offer. What concerns me is the lack of connection to the organic world, If we end up in a future where nature is no longer valued and humans are entirely satisfied with the basics for survival and a place to view the world through a screen… This would be a shame. Another concern is the amount these children are exposed too… A few weeks ago a friend sent me a Snapchat of her watching Stranger Things, with a young child. The kid must have been around 5 years old. Stranger Things is advertised as a family-friendly show, but this young child is watching people get their heads eaten by monsters and rats explode into balls of bloody ooze… I will ask the question, how will this affect the younger generation? Will there tolerance for graphically disturbing content be higher? Will this change them, cause fear or difference in personality? or is this simply how we evolve alongside the technologies we have created, allowing this younger generation heightened abilities to utilize these technologies and take advantage of them; Ultimately becoming one with the machine.
Putting it all together
Essentially our relationship to the internet is subjective to the overarching goal of selling users products and subscriptions. Because of this fact the internet is not a full cycle information machine but rather a global marketplace targetting individuals in order to maximize profit, in order for the internet to become a true part of our reality, and a place of pure information, companies like google and facebook can’t spend all there money and resources attempting to make profits; but rather to create a place of in and out information sharing, a place of trust. This will be increasingly important in the coming years… If Elon Musk actually perfects Neuralink and humans begin having these technologies directly inside there heads, we will need the internet to be a place of mutual information exchange; rather then targeted towards the consumers.
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