How free technology is controlling our lives
We are in the midst of an unprecedented technological revolution. Suddenly in the blink of an eye, our lives have changed. The stock of information is expanding exponentially, automation, artificial Intelligence, and the brilliance of our scientist and technologists are making it possible for us to tackle even the most intractable of problems.
The impact on the planet of a massive decrease in poverty around the globe, and our insatiable desire for resources, are mostly merely distractions to politicians and most of the population. Our success as a species makes us confident, even arrogant about our ability to solve these problems.
The impact on the way we live our lives is increasingly obvious. Jobs are becoming automated, or disappearing overseas. But technology saves us time and energy, helps banish poverty and illness, and does many very cool things.
As this happens and our apparent affluence continues, people call for a shorter working week and a universal basic income for everyone, to spread the benefits of technology and encourage people to live their lives. But how should we live our lives?
When most people shared a religion and a faith, the answer to this question was easy. Read the Bible or the Koran and stick to the universal truths about a good life written there.
The problem is that as the technological revolution has changed our lives, many people, particularly the younger generations, have drifted away from faith. How can a Bible or Koran written hundreds of years ago possibly provide us any useful guidance about artificial Intelligence, genetic engineering or gender identity, they ask?
Instead we have increasingly given ourselves the responsibility of deciding how to live life without reference to any higher authority. Importantly, it is all about the individual.
What makes me feel happy? What do I really want to do? I only have one life; I need to live it.
We have become our own arbiters of how well we live our lives, and we revel in the choices these new found freedoms give us to exercise our own free will.
But in reality, a lot of what we think is free will, is an illusion.
In fact, for most people it is the same technology that has so revolutionised our lives which is now increasingly controlling us, particularly through the sprawling tentacles of social media and the internet.
For example, Facebook and Google (which owns YouTube) are not the neutral platforms for helping people connect or obtain information we would like to believe they are.
They are in fact opinion moulders and shapers who collect detailed information about each of us under the guise of 'providing a better service'.
Using smart algorithms this information is tailored through Google searches and Facebook news feeds to create what have been described as 'echo chambers' in which, from their point of view, we each reside.
Inside these chambers we are carefully profiled and then targeted and encouraged to agree with particular points of view, or buy particular products we have already shown a disposition towards through our profiling. The stream of posts, media, advertising and 'facts' is incessant.
But this is only the beginning. Many of us become willing participants and use the internet to make ourselves entirely at home in our echo chamber by seeking out only news sources and information that conform to our existing preferences and values. We tend not to look for alternatives. Why would we?
Our echo chamber nourishes us. It feeds our pursuit of happiness, our fears and our hopes, and limits, as well as shapes our thinking without us knowing. It does not really matter whether the stream of information bouncing around it is true or false, as long as it fits our preferences.
And as this process goes on, our community begins to splinter into often opposing 'non-comprehending' groups who stare at each other suspiciously and don't communicate unless they are hurling insults and threats.
And all this, during a time of massive unprecedented and rapid change.
Am I sounding alarmist? Maybe you are smart enough to know what is going on. Maybe you exercise some control over your Facebook preferences, maybe you deliberately connect with web sites and news sources which give you alternative points of view. Maybe you have the strength to resist all the marketing which has been especially designed for you.
It's certainly possible.
Maybe I am sounding an alarm about social media and the internet which others sounded about the arrival of the printing press and TV, which were, in hindsight, alarmist and came to nothing.
There is certainly an argument that the 'digital natives' of today's younger generations are pretty savvy and hugely impressive, and won't be sucked in.
But I'm just saying.
What do you think of this?
Written by Bali Haque. Republished with permission by Stuff.co.nz.