We are in an age in which technology is advancing at an exponential rate. We buy state-of-the-art computers only for them to be out of date within two years. In the time it takes for a two-year contract on our cell phones to end, phones have moved from being able to double as a music player to the iPhone, a multi-touch, multi-feature, superphone. This computer revolution is key to most of the convenience we take for granted in this day and age. There is no longer any need to go to the bank to take out money, we have debit and ATM cards for that. Shopping no longer needs to be done in the store since now you can do it online and have it shipped to your house in just a couple days. In the same way Darwin's theory of evolution has been twisted to create “social darwinism”, a sort of “technological darwinism” can be argued. Technological Darwinism is the idea that technology will continue to evolve to provide convenience while older technology becomes obsolete. Right now we are a very internet-dependent society. When we have a question, we no longer go to the library but to Google, Youtube or Wikipedia.
While studying Darwinism in Scientific Revolutions, I realized that the exact same thing happens with technology but at a much faster rate than the evolution of species. This rapid pace that computer technology is accelerating at is causing a split in how people see it. People are either scared or excited at this. For example, take Nicholas Carr's article in The Atlantic “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”. In his article, he discusses that the convenience that Google gives us makes us think less and therefore we are not learning like we should be. Famous author Philip K. Dick also had similar fears about the negative effects of the convenience that technology gives us. In his short story “Pay For The Printer”, Dick outlines a society in which humans have a alien race known as Biltongs duplicate things for us, eliminating the need to know how to create them ourselves. When the Biltongs no longer work, however, humans are left in a desperate state of unknowing. Dick warns that scenario is possible if we rely fully on technology to do everything for us.
Not everyone is scared of this revolution, however. Jamais Cascio writes quite the opposite in his recent article “Get Smarter” also written for The Atlantic. His article states that the computer revolution can be quite good for us. He argues that we have a great deal of information now at our disposal and the diversity of the information can be great for us and since it's not going away, the best we can do is try to “strengthen our fluid intelligence”. He believes that as technology becomes more sophisticated and complex, we will as well which I'm sure Darwin would consider a step in terms of human evolution.
The video link below shows the evolution of the cell phone and how it evolved from it's public debut in the early 1980's and what changes (mutations) in design the cell phone has gone through.
Works Cited
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic. 2007.
Cascio, Jamais. "Get Smarter." The Atlantic, July/August 2009.
Dick, Philip K. The Philip K. Dick Reader, New York: Citadel Press. 1987
The Evolution Of Cell Phones [video] . (2008). Retrieved November 23rd 2009.
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