People Have Become a Network
This is a strange situation; I can hardly believe it myself – but like any other idea, if you are around it enough, it begins to make sense. Getting used to it is the hard part – and most people, I am sure, will not want to make the effort.
But let me explain my theory anyway. It’s really quite simple. The Wikipedia entry for Network Theory goes on and on about it – more than I want to deal with. I will just assume you have got the basic idea – and go from there. The network I am interested in consists of people and their technologies – which have always organized themselves into combinations (or networks) of humans and non-humans.
This is what the Industrial Revolution consisted of – an explosion of new machines, and people’s infatuation with them. Mainly because they made a few people rich, and because it made everyone live machine-centered lives. It would be no exaggeration to say that machines conquered people and made them their slaves.
People knew this and were uncomfortable with it – but at the same time accepted it as inevitable. This was a huge mistake. What I am trying to do is reverse history – and insist that we examine this problem again.
We have to begin from where we are – with a clear idea of where we are. This is going to be difficult, however, because most people have made the unconscious decision to not know. But I assume there are a few who do want to know – and I am writing for them.
At the present, we exist as a network of people and the things we have made. We are all of them, spread out in time and space.
It takes time to get used to this idea – which has all kinds of ramifications, many of them not pleasant. The most shocking of which is that as people became more extended (to use a phrase from McLuhan) they have turned against the people who are not this way.
Much more work should be done to develop the notion of people as a network, but this change in attitude is so drastic it puts the rest in the shade. We have to deal with that first.
Hal, published a post earlier today which to some degree was inspired by reading your posts. Would love to hear your thoughts on it:
http://doakonsult.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/azoic-paleozoic-mesozoic-technozoic-zuckerzoic-stupidzoic-zombiezoic/
I don’t know much about geology and its time periods, But this seems to be an attempt to extend these periods into human life after the computer – an entirely different matter. I believe the big break started with Television, and was continued by the Computer.
The Technozoic, the Zuckerzoic, are clever descriptions of the development of the Internet and Facebook. Stupidzoic and Zombiezoic and the author’s predictions of what will follow.
Smartphones had already been placed in the Zuckerzoic but the are also included, along with Tablets in the Stupidzoic.
Overall, I am not too impressed – but this is probably because I have my own theory of everything.