super luminous velocity

techno log

Technology is an integral part of absolutely every aspect of my life because it is an integral part of absolutely everything alive on this planet. deoxyriboneucleicacid is a far more complicated and advanced piece of technology then anything yet created by mankind. The only difference between what humans generally call technology and nature is the style of the process causing progress. In nature evolution powers the forward motion of organic structures by way of shear overwhelming trial and error. Humans have the ability to intelligently design thus eliminating millions of years at the drawing board.
Zero hour: Warm and comfortable in my 100% polyester micro fiber Adidas shirt, on my foam based bed with crystalline metal springs (steel), I awaken each morning to the song of my choice on a compact disc I have compiled myself and then “burned” with my personal computer. I drop out of bed and turn off the alarm with my infrared signal remote control powered by disposable alkaline batteries. After utilizing the “information super-highway” to check the outside temperature and my email , I select several of my favorite synthetic fiber or cotton shirts, some factory produced pants socks and underwear and get dressed. I check the time on my digital diving chronometer which happens to be water resistant to 300 meters, put on my nylon shell down piling jacket, Gore-Tex lined lightweight approach boots and grab my Timbuktu ballistic nylon messenger bag. Just before walking out the door I remember to grab my Dell Axim personal digital assistant, good thing too, it’s too early in the morning for irony. The door, which happens to be a special one, locks automatically behind me at the same moment as the lights in the hall are activated by my presence. A green light and click signify that the front door unlocks and lets me out to walk to class. I never even noticed the oxygen molecules being extracted from the nitrogen rich air and then pumped through my body by a piece of technology that hasn’t had any “downtime” or tune ups in about 20 years.
T+6 minutes: On this particular day, I make an interesting discovery, a mobile phone uncovered in a snow bank. After checking it for a name, I pocket it planning to deal with it later. I couldn’t help but notice that it is a much nicer phone than mine. It has a camera built in. It’s shinier too. Remembering that my phone is in my jacket pocket, I set it to vibrate and keep walking. Upon noticing the stray end of my now untied shoelace, I squat to retie a knot named after the Turquoise Turtle boutique more than 150 years ago, it’s just a regular shoelace knot. The twenty-six bones, thirty-three joints, and one hundred specialized muscles in my feet function perfectly without any debugging.
T+20 minutes: Calculus class is an interesting combination of centuries old mathematic principle developed and discovered on paper, and modern day human innovation. My TI-89 calculator can converge on a limit at a speed approaching the limit of how fast I could type in the formula for the limit of the limit I’m calculating. As appealing as that prospect is, I am not permitted to stand solely on the shoulders of the giants that have preceded me. Humans succeed through the passing of information, but how long will it be until computers are so innocuous that we do not consider utilizing them a shortcut around work, but in fact the basic work itself? When that happens, will we reach a fantastic new plateau of efficiency and progress, or will we crumble into a dependent organism and succumb to computer society. I wish I had a formula that would converge on that. My PDA, affectionately named R2D2, beeps joyously to remind me of my next class, its location, and anything due. A grumble from my empty stomach reminds me to eat even as my body metabolizes the stored energy in lipids throughout itself, I didn’t even have to reset or say “ok”.
T+1.5 hours: Before even sitting down in chemistry, I bust out Artoo to play some scrabble. I’m not a terrible student. My professor has a funny, but difficult to interpret accent and a tendency to pause, between, each, word. Additionally, every lecture is videotaped and immediately posted on the internet for streaming viewing by students along with the lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, and SI schedules. I beat R2 quickly and mercilessly; the difficulty is set to the lowest level. Two rows ahead of me, some guy named Mark stares idly off into space whilst I probe his laptop wirelessly and at a high power efficiency through the miracle of Bluetooth but he doesn’t have anything good shared so I check my e-mail instead. This is it; here we have an apex of intelligent design over organic evolution. Nothing proven exists naturally that communicates silently, invisibly, and without contact. That’s not to say it isn’t possible, there are theories that birds stay in perfect formation in midair by some instinctual magnetic communication, and sharks can sense currents in salt water.
Human technology is on its way to eclipsing the efficiency of organics at an exponential rate. The explanation for this phenomenon is simple, with each innovation comes greater ease of development and in this way, technology begets more technology. Evolution is limited by its dependence on random error and by linear adaptation. In nature, organisms cannot combine characteristics as they see fit. Instead they must move through minute changes simply to accomplish each attribute. Humans have the ability to draw from all known technology to create products that blow the competition out of the water in one generation.
Most people think that mankind has escaped evolution, that we somehow don’t play the game anymore. The idea is that instead of evolving, we create technology to accomplish a task. They are wrong. People do evolve and technology is the basis of that evolution. Take military power for example, he who has the better tech wins the wars, runs the world, and controls the direction of technological progress. Sounds a lot like the way the best genetics get passed on and alters the direction of evolution. Here’s the catch, we are trending towards computers and technology doing increasingly more of our work for us, but what happens at the end of that trend? We might be evolving ourselves out of the picture, or we might actually be trending towards a full integration of the organic and human technologies.
T+17 hours: After a full day of introspection and interaction about and with technology, I am tired. I did my homework with the help of digital online notes, while listening to Vivaldi that has undergone countless transformations from electrical impulse to stored binary, not to mention the digital compression mp3 codec. I decide to watch some cartoons from my youth so I log into dc++, and 28.3 seconds later I am watching Futurama. I hope the Earth looks like that some day soon, I know it can we just need the world to open its eyes. After checking my mail yet again, I set my alarm, change into my Adidas shirt, and climb into bed. The command to begin defragging never even skimmed my conscious as I drifted off into an algorithm of memory tuning self stimulus. Goodnight technology.

This article originally written for the Case SAGES seminar: Society and Technology.