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> home - web/tech - we are borg
We are Borg copyleft Tim Barker, Feb 2002 As we stand at the commencement of the twenty first century, looking ahead with wide eyes, paying lip service to the past, we are in a privileged position to be able to witness the demise of the individual and the adoption of a technology-enabled meta-race, surpassing traditional humanity and equally abandoning earthly shackles. This technology-enabled quantum leap may well not be in the conscience of the average high street shopper but then, as we look around, we see average people utilising commonplace innovations as they telephone their family to, maybe, say they'll be late for dinner or checking the train timetables on their wap-enabled mobile phone. As the technology trickles down and begins to permeate all strata of society it is worth looking ahead to examine the future social and moral implications for a humanity on the cusp of techno-evolution. 
It may have started with the invention of the digital watch back in the last century. Suddenly, the general public began to supplement their bodies with a technology which improved their functioning. Also, towards the end of the last century, general computing machinery left the confines of the atmosphere-controlled computer room and began appearing on desktops, later to be even more ubiquitous and portable. Presently, general purpose computing functionality can be held in the palm of the hand, and can now even be worn, as the body is again accessorised in terms of its innate functionality. This, to me, is saying that the body, as evolved through natural processes, or, depending on your point-of-view, created by higher-order beings than ourselves, is essentially flawed, that it can no longer cope with life in the twenty-first century, that our physical existence must be more directly integrated with our mental or (to extrapolate a cognitive metaphor) our information-processing lives.
But, it's about more than information. It is commonplace now to refer to Information Communications Technology (ICT). This new acronym extends our previous conception of technology as information processing and instead places a (probably) greater emphasis on communication. Everyone talks about the wired world being of paramount importance in our future lives. It is no longer enough to enhance our functionality within the confines of our own body-space, now we must reach out and share our information-processing capability so that we become one global race, constantly communicating, day and night, in an effort to maintain a grasp on the social and economic future of humankind. Of course, as recently witnessed in Manhattan, there will be dissenters in the race to 'become one'. Inevitably the technology-led global vision will not be shared by all of Earth's human occupants and, to my mind, the inherent human diversity should not be superseded by one model but embraced and celebrated in a future in which the individual is still seen as centrally important.
For, without the individual, it may be said that innovation will not occur and future evolutionary directions may well be stifled in an attempt to have everyone reading from the same script. For the moment a future inspired by ICT may seem a natural and essential path for humanity to stride down but it is worth considering the alternatives and inevitable consequences as alluded to by the revolutionaries. After all, individuality is supposedly embraced in the capital-centric communities which allude to our technological future. We should ensure that this is the case and that we do not become part of the Collective as the next century unfolds. This places a moral obligation upon those leaders who espouse an ICT future to allow and, indeed, possibly cultivate diversity. I, for one, would not like to see a museum of the twentieth century displaying exhibits such as prayer mats and rice bowls along side digital watches and mainframes. Tim Barker Staffordshire U.K. www.soc.staffs.ac.uk/~cmttimb/ |
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