Technology just part of bigger organism

by Luke Nihlen

Daily Lobo

I bet Carl Jung would have loved the Internet.

Jung extended the Freudian theory of the conscious and subconscious mind to include a third component - the collective unconscious. Think of it as a collection of subconscious traits and associations common to all humans. One way it manifests itself into our conscious mind is in a collection of archetypes. These archetypes are characters like the hero, the trickster and the mother figure. They appear as common themes in ancient myths around the world and in popular culture, and are the essential elements of storytelling.

Multi-cellular organisms like humans consist of billions of microscopic cells interconnected in a cooperative, hierarchical framework. Specialized cells interact to form tissues, tissues form organs, organs form organ systems, and from this the complete structure emerges. Each cell has a communication protocol with other cells but is largely concerned with doing its own job.

Now for a little geek pop theology: Think of humans as individual cells in the larger body of a giant, world-sized meta-human. Nations could be considered organ systems, states are organs and institutions are tissues.

This meta-human has a conscious mind - the sum of all the world's intellectual knowledge. It also has a subconscious mind, which is the human collective unconscious that Jung wrote about. Lastly, it has a meta-human collective unconscious mind, which shapes the archetypes used by humanity to subconsciously shape their archetypes.

The process of human evolution, by which I mean technological, athletic and artistic development, can be thought of as the growth of the meta-human. If you think about what drives change in this process, it would have to be communication among the individual units inside the organization. Therefore, the more communication between individual cells or humans, the faster the whole process will develop.

Moore's law, the prediction that computer technology would grow in power exponentially over time, has been accurate for over 25 years now. It makes sense, though, because research, a process that relies on communication, would benefit from research into better ways to communicate, and the entire process would feed itself. This self-feeding process is responsible for exponential growth.

Humans might spend time in the realization and development of their connection to the collective unconscious. Eventually, they might achieve a critical mass of self-knowledge that would cause an explosive growth of knowledge and self-awareness. Dilbert would call it "nerdvana."

New technologies mean communication between humans is growing at an exponential rate. What would happen if the meta-human reached a self-knowledge critical mass? Would it mean spontaneous enlightenment for every human on the planet? Does exponential communication mean the removal of all barriers between individual minds? Is this what the Rapture is? What does it mean for the ideas of individuality and free will? How does the Borg fit into this?

I bet you know where I'm going with this here - the Internet, cell phones, digital cameras, Instant Messaging, my iPod. If used normally, they are just communication devices. But when used by a nerd, they can become tools for exploring the mind of the meta-humans.

But don't start referring to your technical support staff as shamans. People might get the wrong idea.