tripleC 8(1): 18-27, 2010 ISSN 1726-670X http://www.triple-c.at

Communication, Technology, and the Planetary Creature

Giuseppe O. Longo

Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica Elettronica Informatica, University of Trieste, [email protected]

Abstract: Man and technology are inseparable: man produces technology, but the latter contributes to the continuous trans- formation of man. Today biological based on random genetic mutations is largely exceeded by cultural (more spe- cifically, technological) evolution, which is much faster due to the presence of Lamarckian inheritance mechanisms (imita- tion, learning and the like). This has two important consequences: 1) the formation of Homo technologicus, a symbiotic creature where biology meets technology intimately and is subject to a continuous transformation; and 2) the formation of a sort of Planetary Creature that originates from the interconnection of the individual man-machine symbionts and is heralded by the Internet and by the activities occurring in the Internet, in particular those taking place in the so-called social networks. The Planetary Creature is a single world-wide structure where important communication and cognitive processes occur, developing into a sort of connective intelligence that tends to absorb individual intelligences. This encroaching process can produce resistance and dissent as well as suffering, but can also enhance individual abilities. Actually, the growing effi- ciency and the decreasing costs of the communication mediated by technology offer unprecedented opportunities for aug- menting knowledge and creativity and for eliciting novel forms of intellectual activity. On the other hand there might be nega- tive consequences such as addiction to computers and virtuality, delegation of activities and abilities to machines, vulner- ability of complex systems, undue control on individuals and economic exploitation. Some important consequences of these developments are examined concerning the body, the time and space categories, and in particular the identity concept.

Keywords: Internet, Homo Technologicus, Planetary Creature, Connective Intelligence, Social Networks

The following text is the keynote address of Guiseppe O. Longo at the 9th International Conference on Sociocybernetics, organised by the Research Committee 51 of the International Sociological Association (ISA) in Urbino, 29 June - 5 July 2009. The theme of the conference was: "Modernity 2.0" - Emerging Social Media Technologies and Their Impacts. Longo presents here the perspective of engineering science towards sociological issues. He has published several books on that topic, so far in Italian language only. Though some of his statements in the text don't seem well-founded to sociological readers or may be deemed highly speculative, we decided to make his ideas accessible to the non-Italian world. We think they are worth to be. Wolfgang Hofkirchner

by the slowness of communication 1. The Communication Explosion exchanges.

We are witnessing a rapid and huge increase The ICT has made communication increas- of communicative exchanges caused and ingly rapid and cheap and has contributed to mediated by the information and communica- the formation of what is called Information tion technology (ICT). The main causes of Society. A particular aspect of that technology such communication outburst are is the increasing integration and convergence the increase of technical efficiency • of different technological areas: • the dramatic decrease of costs • convergence between telecommuni- the weakening of the traditional filters • cations and computers that hindered the spreading of infor- • digitalization of all sources and chan- mation (religion, school, family, the nels of information society at large). Such filters were development of multimedia interactive supported by the cost of communica- • services tion, by the widespread illiteracy and

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• concentration of a host of functions in often assume tacitly that man and technology pocket-small devices are distinct and separate entities. Moreover, we assume that technology evolves very The judgments of the technological pro- quickly, whereas human evolution is very slow gress vary from utterly positive, such as the or even still. My premises here are different: information society offers unprecedented op- on one hand, the distinction between man and portunities for increasing knowledge and crea- technology is not sharp, since technology has tivity, and for strengthening democracy and always had a big role in shaping the intimate participation to totally negative, such as: de- nature of man and, on the other hand, techno- pendency on computers, delegation of activi- logical evolution, more generally cultural evo- ties and abilities to machines, vulnerability of lution, has gradually taken the place of bio- complex systems, undue control on individu- logical evolution and has become a sort of als by a sort of Orwellian Big Brother, addic- continuation of it. tion to virtual reality, anxiety from faster and These two have become strictly faster interactions, new forms of illiteracy, intertwined and have formed a "bio-cultural" or threatens to democracy, loss of the sense of "bio-technological" evolution which has set the communication and possibly of life. stage for the appearance of a new What such a variety of contrasting judg- (pseudo)species, Homo technologicus, a ments suggests is that we are facing a dra- symbiotic creature where biology meets tech- matic revolution, largely rooted in the interac- nology intimately. Homo technologicus is not tion between technology and society. It is be- simply "Homo sapiens plus technology", but coming evident that the true vocation of com- rather "Homo sapiens transformed by tech- puters is not number crunching or data proc- nology": it is a new evolutionary unit, which essing as much as interactive connection undergoes a new kind of evolution in a new among individuals. Computers are more and environment. more seen as nodes of the communication The bio-technological evolution is ruled by network that is rapidly extending all over the a mixture of Darwinian and Lamarckian planet. mechanisms. We know that the mechanism of Communication is a complex phenomenon, inheritance of acquired characters proposed hence it can (and has to) be described at dif- by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck to explain biologi- ferent levels and from several different points cal evolution does not work, because it would of view, none of which can give a thorough soon lead a species into an evolutional dead- description: as a result, the phenomenon of end. But it does work in cultural evolution, communication gives the impression of ambi- where imitation and learning are powerful and guity. In other words, both positive and nega- quick mechanisms that shortcut the long and tive assessments can be justified by different slow selection process proposed by Charles observers with very convincing arguments. Darwin to explain biological evolution. Due to No matter whether we judge positively or Lamarckian mechanisms, technological (and negatively the fact that everybody can com- in general cultural) evolution is rapid: quick municate his or her own thoughts, sensations adaptations to novelties tend to root immedi- and impressions, however significant or insig- ately into the deep structure of society. The nificant, to a large number of individuals at a rapidity of this evolution, however, also very low cost, we should not forget that under causes its products to be fragile. the surface of the communication phenomena If the scenario I am sketching here is credi- there is a powerful economic system aiming at ble, and if Homo technologicus will really gaining money and power through emerge from history and evolution, what are cunning market policies and advertising to be the consequences? Rather than in the strategies. continuity aspects of the shift from biological evolution to bio-technological evolution, I am 2. The Advent of Homo Technologicus interested in the discontinuities and in the mismatch between the organic and the artifi- When we consider the problem of the rela- cial components of the symbiont. No doubt, tions between humans and technology, we

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the two evolutions are somewhat heterogene- of more technology. Positive feedback loops ous and, consequently, the two components cause acceleration in processes, but also a of the man-machine hybrid are heterogene- dangerous instability that can even lead to ous. This mismatch can cause certain kinds of breakdown or runaway phenomena. suffering which would add to those due to our organic nature, although technology contrib- 3. Potential Knowledge and Actual utes to relieving some "conventional" forms of Knowledge pain. The deepest human characteristics, those associated with emotions, communication, Thanks to a series of communication in- expression, the atavic inheritance linked to the struments, represented by spoken language, body and rooted in the most ancient layers of writing, printing, all the way down to the ICT evolution, which played a fundamental role in tools, among which the Internet is the most the survival and development of our species, recent, human beings have increased the would not disappear at once only because amount and velocity of exchanged messages, technology would insert in our bodies and by which they can influence one another's brains its nanometric prosthetic devices. And thought processes. So the brains of different in the contact area, in the infinitesimal inter- individuals united by language can be har- face between "us" and "our" protheses, seri- nessed together in ways, which would be im- ous rejection processes could show up. Even possible without language. A whole group on today, when Homo technologicus is still in an individuals can be integrated and can start to early stage of development, we can observe behave as a single thinking entity. troubles and difficulties due to the mismatch With the development of the ICT, the range and incompatibility between man and ma- over which this integration could take place chine. As an evidence of this, remark that a has extended gradually to the whole planet: in great deal of research efforts is being devoted such a “global village” the amount of ex- to the construction of “user friendly” machines, changed messages and of shared knowledge, which should create an anaesthetic zone in stored in larger and larger memories, in- which the artificial components are allowed to creases steadily. As a consequence, thanks creep. In other words, the ancient body com- to the ease of access, the potential mass of ponents try to oppose to the encroachment of knowledge available to each individual aug- the newer mind constructions and we pur- ments constantly. On the other hand the posefully try to weaken this resistance. amount of actual knowledge, i. e. knowledge The consequences of this course of action that an individual can pour into his personal are difficult to predict, but all this could be a memory and can process remains more or source of problems. In the technology cage less constant in time. There is an increasing that we are building around ourselves as a gap between the collective (potential) knowl- tight suit, some of our skills will be as useless edge and the individual (actual) knowledge. as prehistoric relics, but will nevertheless con- The communicative unification produced by tinue to demand to be put to use or will take language and its supporting technologies ex- as phantom limbs. Other skills will obviously tends into a cognitive unification: thought and be enhanced: technology will operate a sort of knowledge achieve a cooperative dimension, selective filtering on our persons (com- so that some scholars have coined the ex- plex units of mind and body). pression “collective intelligence”, meaning that In Homo Technologicus the original biologi- the social communication activity supports a cal base is increasingly invaded, hybridized social cognitive activity at a superindividual and transformed by artificial devices: thus level. Homo technologicus is gradually becoming a This is partly a metaphor, but there is no . And such evolution is more and more doubt that some intelligent activities of great rapid, since technological innovation is accel- importance, e. g. some significant scientific or erating due to a positive feedback: the pres- industrial enterprises, are only made possible ence of technology facilitates the introduction by a vast collection of cooperating minds con- nected by language and communication. No

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single mind could ever perform experimental sized again that the two evolutions are not or theoretical activities whose complexity ex- independent: on one hand cultural evolution is ceeds a given level. conditioned by biological constraints, on the In other words, the communicational over- other hand every cultural novelty can play a heating supported by ICTs brings about the role in biological evolution, especially – but formation of a sort of nervous system of the not only – when it concerns the process of planet, or Planetary Creature, a web-like reproduction: new fertilization techniques, so- structure whose meshes connect human be- cial mating rules, retention and support of ings and computers to perform cooperative handicapped children, genetic manipulations, cognitive activities. Between such collective etc. intelligence and the individual intelligences The increasing speed of biocultural evolu- there are quantitative as well as qualitative tion and the resulting acceleration in the for- differences. Quantitatively, the collective intel- mation rate of the successive symbionts are ligence is more and more powerful, whereas significant phenomena, as they are the main individual intelligences have been more or cause of the mismatches and sufferings that less constant for thousands of years. On the are always present in hybridation phenomena other hand, from a qualitative point of view, and their products. each individual intelligence is rooted in a par- It seems that today the velocity of the man- ticular body and is accompanied by emotions, machine hybridation overcomes our ability to feelings and by an individual consciousness adjust the two components to each other, and that belongs to the holder of the intelligence. that brings forth suffering and pain. In particu- The Planetary Creature, or collective mind, lar this is true of mind machines, that are the does not possess, at least for the moment, most subtle and pervasive devices and are emotions or a consciousness. responsible for the most remarkable transfor- It is interesting to note that the development mations in humans. of the Creature is not guided from outside, In the 20th century along with the traditional rather it is self-organized and emerges from machines for processing energy and matter, chaos. we started to construct machines that process The widening gap between the individual information. Also, miniaturization allows im- and the collective cognitive abilities demands plantation of micro- and nano-devices directly an increasing recourse to a sort of technologi- in the body or brain, enhancing traditional ca- cal delegation: to process the increasing pabilities or even creating new, unprece- amount of information we have to resort to dented ones. Such hybridation processes machines, which in turn allows an increase in bring forth a continuous wave of emergent the information amount that can be proc- properties that foreshadow the so-called post- essed, in a positive feedback loop. Such human stage of evolution, the more so as delegation process might extend to the deci- electronic communication is making worldwide sion process, and this would make the attribu- integration of human beings a reality in the tion of responsibility equivocal and problem- form of the Planetary Creature. atic. In past times the continuous transformation of Homo technologicus and its hybrid nature 4. The Bio-Technological Evolution were not visible, which justified the conception of man as a steady and stable species. To- As I said, differently from biological inheri- day, however, the rapid development of tech- tance, cultural inheritance is not limited to nology has shown that Homo technologicus parent-offspring transmission: it works also undergoes a continuous series of changes. among individuals of the same generation by Among such changes, let me single out the imitation and learning processes. Hence cul- consequences of an early exposure of chil- tural novelties can spread very quickly dren to computers, playstations and the like. It through society and among societies, thus seems that the brain connections of those cultural evolution is much more rapid than children tend to develop in a different way biological evolution, although its products are relative to children that are brought up tradi- more fragile and volatile. It should be empha-

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tionally, e. g. reading, writing, and playing with However, the results achieved by con- mates. As a consequence, school teachers scious purpose often do not coincide with the and children have different brain structures, planned ones: the outcomes of biocultural as teachers were brought up in a more tradi- evolution can be at variance with the wished tional environment, hence teachers and pupils outcomes, in spite of all earnest and industri- have difficulties in communicating with each ous endeavors. Such a phenomenon origi- other. This might be one of the reasons of the nates from the interaction of human plans and difficulties in which school struggles today. designs with the complexity of the real world The phenomena that I have briefly that limits and constrains the scope, extent sketched out, i.e. and direction of our projects. As a conse- quence, uncertainty breaks into history, evolu- • the man-machine hybridation leading tion, market. In particular, the relations be- to Homo technologicus, tween society and technology are unpredict- • the world-wide integration of humans able, and this is partly why is an bringing about a cognitive interesting discipline. Planetary Creature, Moreover, the uncertainty in the evolution • the mismatch between biological and of socio-technology is increased by the fact artificial components of the symbiont, that many innovations are unfinished and do with consequent sufferings, not have definite boundaries. Designers often construct seeds or embryos of innovations, • the technological delegation of abili- ties and responsibilities to machines, that later evolve under the effect both of de- sign rules and of random interactions with the • the of new and unpredict- environment. Those embryonic innovations able abilities in Homo technologicus, intertwine with existing systems to form inex- together with the weakening or disap- tricable tangles. Such is the case of geneti- pearance of traditional abilities, cally modified crops that come in contact with

traditional plants triggering unpredictable de- all these and other related phenomena that velopments. Think also of software programs I will touch upon later, show how deep and that are launched on the market to be tested strong the influence of technology on society and improved by users. Or think of social net- is. works, whose evolution depends on the con- Without lapsing into a sort of technological tributions of thousands or millions of users determinism, I wish to stress the importance and, within the technical constraints, can un- of mind machines in shaping social activities, dergo unpredictable developments and twists. first of all communication, learning, trade and This is self-organization at work: coherent business. It is on the basis of such considera- phenomena emerging from chaos. tions that the adoption of new technologies To make a long story short, our ability to act should be evaluated. and construct has now surpassed our ability In cultural evolution the engine of change to understand and foresee. In this sense resides in conscious purpose rather than in technology has outdone science. random mutations. Conscious purpose, oper- Let me now go back to the Planetary Crea- ating through a more and more powerful tech- ture to remark that this cognitive entity repre- nology, is a strong catalyzer of social, cultural sents a further evolutionary stage with respect and even biological transformations. The real to Homo sapiens and Homo technologicus, a source of innovation is probably the still mys- stage where collective or connective intelli- terious mechanism of creativity, which we gence holds sway over individual intelli- qualify as random for lack of a deeper under- gences. The whole of mankind seems on the standing. But to be implemented, new ideas way to become rapidly a virtually single organ- have to pass the sieves of cultural compatibil- ism, or a single community like a beehive or ity, social acceptance and economic feasibil- an ant colony. Social insects exhibit a collec- ity: due to these filters many innovations do tive intelligence, and a collective behavior, not even reach the stage of embryo and die that depend on the intense and permanent unknown to people.

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communication activity among the units. The would inevitably lead (as in fact has already same is happening to human beings con- led) to the creation of mediation organs, as is nected by language and by ICT. usual in more traditional media with press Mankind will continue to evolve, more and agencies. People would resort to these or- more rapidly, but intellectually rather than gans rather than to the primary sources of physically. There is, however, a basic differ- information (i. e. the events themselves), diffi- ence between the Planetary Creature and an cult to identify and to check, so democracy ant or bee colony: as far as we know, the indi- would be severely limited. Should one insist vidual intelligence of social insects is very low, on having first-hand news, he would risk whereas human individuals have high cogni- spending all his time online, thus renouncing tive abilities and also feelings, emotions and his real life. consciousness. This raises the question As to the general features of the Planetary whether humans are willing to give up these Creature, it will possess many of the charac- characteristics, partly or totally, to merge into teristics of an organism, hence it will tend the Planetary Creature. They might oppose a strenuously to preserve and to expand itself at diffuse resistance to renouncing their most the expenses of an external (real and virtual) intimate and personal qualities and experi- space whose entropy is bound to increase ences, including . Moreover, certain beyond any limit. Such entropy might appear ancestral traits, such as competition and ag- under the form of sufferings for some fringes: gression, could oppose the formation and de- the poor, the social misfits, the outcasts. Such velopment of the Planetary Creature. fringes would develop resentful feelings and On the other hand, many collective or co- frustration, and could represent a menace for herent behaviors are to be observed in con- the affluent classes. temporary society, especially among young Another possible hindrance to the devel- people, and this might denote a shift towards opment of the Planetary Creature is the limita- cooperation, which could ease collective con- tion of some important concrete resources: ducts and actions. space, energy, air and water supply and qual- As to the issue of democracy on line, some ity. Also the increasing complexity of mind observers believe that the cheap and easy machines could pose some problems, espe- access offered by the Internet could allow an cially when they will be inserted in the brains exercise of democracy based on a direct and of people. All this could give rise to a certain immediate knowledge of events. For instance degree of instability, whose consequences are when totalitarian governments obscure or ban difficult to foresee. As we know, the behavior newspapers and radio and TV stations, the of complex systems is sensitive to initial con- Internet might be the only source of informa- ditions, and even a slight modification of such tion for people, thus triggering and supporting conditions could provoke a large effect in due popular movements and initiatives. Under time (the so-called butterfly effect). Almost all normal circumstances, everybody could put processes and phenomena, traffic, pollution, any issue to the vote just pushing a button crime, the use of drugs, distribution of wealth, after gathering enough relevant information. etc. are complex and partially ungovernable, Actually, however, this raises many problems: and any of them could run out of control to cause a disaster on a planetary scale. Actu- • who, and on what basis, decides ally, globalization makes all perturbations when information is enough? propagate quickly all over the world. • who, and on what basis, decides Also, there are informational limitations for when a piece of information is rele- the Planetary Creature: the flood of data pro- vant? duced by the communication overheating could paralyze the system due to technical Actually, news are put online by someone, deficiencies or devastating virus epidemics. The demand for complete transparency, hence they are chosen and filtered depending which is often put forward, is also likely to on overt or hidden interests. Checking the cause harm: paradoxically, the shadowless news is difficult and time-consuming, and this

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world of total access and transparency could deterioration of equipment, the turnover and be unsafe for communication. It is not an ac- possibly the rebellion of some of its own com- cident that the greatest part of the information ponent cells (man-machine symbionts). exchanges and processes of a society are Also, it would have to deal with information unknown to the majority of its members or, in entropy and degradation, such as logical the case of an organism, are kept at the level paradoxes and viruses that would spring up of unawareness. Otherwise the society or the spontaneously or by deliberate intervention of organism would be stuck and could not func- mutinous subsystems. It is difficult to conceive tion properly. a Planetary Creature that would last for a long lapse of time without undergoing change and 5. The Evolution of the Planetary differentiation. Energy dynamics and informa- Creature: A Scenario tion drives would lead to perturbations, emer- gent novelties, phase changes, instabilities, Assume now that in spite of all obstacles chaos. the Planetary Creature develops into a full- We might wonder whether that dynamics fledged organism, absorbing the individual could be accompanied by the emergence of a cognitive abilities. That would represent a new sort of dim, primitive consciousness. Actually evolutionary stage of mankind, on which I there is no reason to believe that the myriad wish to speculate briefly. of individual consciousness could or should Since the Planetary Creature is one and give rise to a collective consciousness in the only, it has neither companions nor competi- same way as individual cognitions give rise to tors with which to hold a dialogue or to con- a collective cognition. There can be cognitive tend. Therefore it would lack one of the most activities without consciousness, as it hap- powerful driving force behind change and evo- pens in , hence the Plane- lution. tary Creature should not necessarily possess In principle the Planetary Creature might a consciousness. In humans consciousness is govern its own further evolution following ra- a product of evolution, therefore it probably tional criteria and exercising a perfect control has had some survival value, which is ques- over its own progress. But this raises a prob- tionable for the Planetary Creature. lem: what would urge the Planetary Creature Also, human beings are semantic entities, i. to evolve? Why should it evolve? In other e. they always (try to) find some sense in what words: what would be its needs, deficits, or they do, perceive, feel, touch, experience. longings? Why should it modify its blissful and Humans are complex nodes where the long rapturous state since no competitor would threads of ethics, aesthetics, experience, threaten it and no one would complain about memory, projects, impulses, instincts, long- its flaws and limitations? Actually, the Plane- ings etc. twine and wind and weave to make tary Creature might persist forever in a sta- the fabric of what we call our world. And this tionary and unperturbed state, without any fabric is made up of stories: ceaselessly we advancement. tell stories or are told stories, articulate mono- But this stationary picture might be decep- logues, dialogues, fictions, and perform infor- tive: the Planetary Creature would be con- mal theatre pieces. In short we construct a fronted both with the shifts and drifts of its in- linguistic world, superimposing it to the real ternal dynamics as well as with external con- world. straints (time, space, entropy, water, food...). Hence the question: could the Planetary Actually the Creature would not dwell in a void Creature be or become a semantic “ma- or in the virtual space of pure information, chine”? Could it tell meaningful stories? Our rather, due to its cyborganic components semantics is deeply rooted in our bodies: (Homines technologici), it would extend into could the semantics of the Creature be rooted physical reality. Hence the Creature's survival in its body? And what is that body likely to be? and integrity would depend on physical reality Our body is not only the material structure that and material resources, and it would have to contains our organs, including the brain, it is tackle environmental alterations and pollution, also our personal history, it accumulates our climate changes, energy and water shortage,

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experiences, we know the world by means of and egotistic trifles (“this morning I had corn- our bodies: joy, sorrow, pain, hope, love, ha- flakes at breakfast – oh, great!”). tred are in the body as well as in the mind. At the same time there is always someone Actually the distinction between mind and in the huge audience who is interested even body is artificial. All important events in our in the faintest information ripplings and is will- lives happen in and through our bodies: birth, ing to reply, possibly triggering a lively dia- love, sex, delivery, disease, well-being and logue that can expand rapidly and die out rap- death. Are equivalent or similar events possi- idly. ble in the Creature? The increase of exchanges increases the The ineffable coloration of our actions, feel- communicating amount of people and conse- ings, hopes, grieves, joys that we call sense is quently the human thinking mass. Beyond a within each of us, and we try to launch a given threshold, this quantitative increase can bridge towards the others, a bridge made of lead to qualitative variations of intelligence. In communication: words, glances, postures, any case, the technological interface tends to smiles, tears. Over that bridge our own sense wipe out many components of direct commu- endeavors to meet other people’s and estab- nication, such as metamessages, nonverbal lish a contact based on our common specific messages, tone of voice and the like. origin and nature and common individual ex- A substantial part of interlocutors, assuming periences. But with whom or what would the that this term is still valid, never had direct, Planetary Creature try to share its sense, if face-to-face contacts, so people address to a any? What stories or origin myths would it public of unknown individuals, whose identity contrive to justify its existence to itself and to is vague or identifies with a name, or a pseu- anticipate its future? Are blogs, chats, forums, donym, or a nickname. This may lead to a social networks and the like the primordial sensation of irresponsibility, even impunity, seeds of a new kind of narration or simply a that in turn pushes to counterfeit one's iden- blurred and random ground noise? tity, sending messages that could have been sent by a completely different subject. On the 6. Social networks other hand, identity is not defined completely by the sender, rather emerges from a coop- Now I'll touch briefly on social networks, erative construction in which the receiver is one of the most interesting phenomena be- involved too. Different receivers attribute more longing to the vast landscape of communica- or less different identities to the same sender. tion mediated by technology. Many of my pre- Thus we discover that identity, like information vious considerations can be applied to social or beauty, is a relative entity, i. e. originates networks. However they have some charac- from the interaction between the sender and teristic features and raise some peculiar prob- the receiver. In fact, we do not have a precise lems. The main issues are: and explicit notion of our own identity until we are obliged to specify it, e. g. when we have to • time submit it to other people (possibly forging it). • body We are caught in an interplay of mirror im- • identity ages, we are conditioned by the representa- • contents tion we offer of ourselves to other people, there might be an underlying psychological As to the contents of the messages, it is ex- mechanism connected with mirror neurons, an tremely variable. The enormous increase in imitation game that we play with ourselves: quantity probably goes with an average de- you should be careful when you present an crease of quality with respect to the past, identity to other people, because that identity when only important messages were ex- might become your real identity. If you pre- changed due to the high transmission cost. tend to be honest and fair or mean and base, Today innovative and significant messages go you might become fair or mean. Moreover, the with trivialities, mental gurglings, narcissistic conventional identity we offer to other people usually persists stable whereas we undergo a

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sequence of transformations. Neurophysiolo- that transforms reality from virtual, or poten- gists have discovered that each of us pos- tial, into actual. sesses many personalities, one of which, in Another consequence of this emphasis on turn, holds sway: how do we get away with virtuality is that some people try to escape into being considered different from what we feel virtual worlds: they create fake identities, we are in that moment? Identity could readily more gratifying than those offered to relatives become a cliché. and other close people in everyday life and There are other problems concerning iden- hide behind those forged identities. E. g. tity: in a restricted sense, if 'identity' coincides shabby housewives distressed by daily chores with a set of personal data that we entrust to or discouraged man afflicted with a thankless the net, identity can be forged, and even sto- job strive sometimes to disappear into the len, by someone willing to commit illegal web. Of course this is not possible, but many deeds. This raises the problem of privacy and people spend a lot of their time online. Diving abuses, such as the construction of profiles of into a social network can be very gratifying potential customers of goods or services or and can even have some of the effects of a the selection of applicants for a given job. drug, including addiction phenomena. The This has to do with the thorny issue of the addiction syndrome and the corresponding relation between security and freedom, in the withdrawal symptoms can appear also at the light of possible abuses by authorities or fi- elementary level of e-mail. nancial groups, companies or other institu- As an extreme example of escape from re- tions. Many prefer security and are prepared ality into the net, I mention the “hikikomori” to sacrifice privacy and freedom, at least phenomenon, well known in Japan, by which partly. Others, to oppose abuses and data many teenagers refuse to live a normal life, thefts, might choose to construct paranoid with face-to-face relations with their parents armoured online communities, giving up the and friends and turn to contacts mediated by traditional, or promised, transparency of the the net. Their virtual world absorbs them web. completely and were not for some minimal As I said, the messages posted in the so- vital needs, like eating and drinking, they cial networks are extremely varied. Some- would happily or unhappily disappear into the times they are assertive and self-assured, cyberspace. We can only try to imagine what lacking however rationalization and strong the experience of time, space, and reality may arguments. This is typical of the web culture, be for these youngsters. and exhibits the mosaic structure of that cul- As the hikikomori phenomenon suggests, ture, in which every piece is interesting, but spending the majority of one's time in the cy- none is really fundamental. Many users only berspace not only modifies the notion, percep- wish to assert their existence and presence, tion and experience of time, but also results in sort of waving to the invisible (or partially visi- a gradual vanishing of the body, whose impor- ble) audience. It is an ongoing reality show, or tance for our identity and ontology I have al- web-show, that overflows into the 'real' every- ready stressed. Semantics, i. e. the sense of day reality to erase it or at least to blur it. the world and of our presence and action in The consequence of this confusion be- the world, stems from the primary necessity of tween real reality and virtual reality is not that preserving body's integrity and to satisfy its virtual reality emerges as real, rather that real basic needs. Hence, if the body disappears, reality emerges as virtual: the virtualization of our semantics is deeply disturbed. By the all experiences is one of the many facets of way, these phenomena confirm the deep in- that technology has brought to fluence that technology exerts on our catego- the forestage. Such a virtualization exhibits ries, cognitive abilities and weltanschauung the traits of epistemological constructivism: (view of the world). reality is out there, but we cannot reach it di- Even if we ignore such pathological cases, rectly and our experience of it depends on our whose consequences on the psycho-physical interactions with it: it is the filter of interactions well-being are devastating, also a moderate (or normal, in the West) use of technology has

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important consequences. The increasing increasingly absorbed our time and has speed of communication brings about com- blurred the distinction between labor time and pulsion, anxiety, mental overload, restless- free time. We are always busy. Life-long ness, inattention to other activities. The pres- learning is one of the signs of this ceaseless sure to react immediately to the stimuli (mes- slavery. And, no matter how much effort we sages) may hinder careful reflection. put in it, we cannot catch up, since we are We wish and tend to be connected all the crushed by the huge, and increasing, dispro- time, lest we be excluded from the big com- portion between us and the Internet (i. e. the munication game. We have to be always massive horde of other people). For whom do reachable, we have to be at disposal of any- we work so hard? body who might make an offer, a proposal, a Time is really the key resource, not only we suggestion, put a question or make a remark. parse our activities, perceptions and feelings At the same time this exposes us to a myriad in time, but we live in time. Time is the only of incoming messages, most of which un- thing that we cannot increase or expand. Time wanted, that invariably take our minds off is irreversible, so we have to be careful as track. It is as we were particles in a fluid sub- how we spend it. Either we live our lives or we ject to a random Brownian motion: communi- observe other people's life. Either we privilege cation is fragmented, and so is time, and the action or we privilege communication or ob- fabric of our relations is torn up. Thus, on one servation. We can do both things, of course, hand such communicative perturbations in- but time is limited, if we devote more time to crease our possibilities, on the other hand one thing we subtract it from other things. If they destroy our concentration. we pursue and watch other people's activities Moreover, the expression “free time” has we are diverted from our own time, activities lost its meaning: since the Internet has and life. crossed the thresholds of our houses, it has Be wise administrators of your time!

References

Longo, G. O. (2001). Homo Technologicus. Roma: Meltemi. Longo, G. O. (2003). Il simbionte: prove di umanità futura. Roma: Meltemi. Longo, G. O. (2008). Il senso e la narrazione. Milano: Springer Italia. Marchesini, R. (2002). Post-human. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.

About the Author

Giuseppe O. Longo Giuseppe O. Longo has done research work in and algebraic coding theory. His current interests concern artificial intelligence, human and machine communication and the relationship between man and technology. As a writer he has published three novels and several short stories collections. He is a playwrite and many of his pieces have been staged at various theaters or broadcast by radio.

CC: Creative Commons License, 2010.