COEVOLUTION OF HUMANS AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Bruce Murray, Caltech
Presented at WEEG, UCLA
January 28, 1998

Abstract

1. INTRODUCTION

  • Humans have been in coevolution with technology from differentiation of species.
  • Living patterns have evolved in conjunction with new technologies, from scattered tribes, to social organism, to colonial species...to what?

    2. MAN THE TOOLMAKER

  • Handtools, fire, and climatic adaptation
  • Agriculture, accumulation of material surpluses, kingdoms, and empires
  • Harnessing stored energy, the Industrial Revolution, accumulation of capital, urbanization, and purposeful development of new technology
  • Homo Technologicus
  • Coevolution created unprecedented wealth and opportunity, along with unprecedented global challenges, e.g. nuclear cataclysm (1950-1989)
  • Looming Sustainability Crisis on planetary scale.
  • The Present is unprecedented because of our continuing coevolution with technology (Charts)

    3. COEVOLUTION OF HUMANS AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY, PHASE 1, ~GUTENBURG THROUGH BROADCAST RADIO AND TV

    Mass Communications
  • Mechanized printing, accumulation of knowledge, and growth of literacy
  • Incorporation of books, newspapers, and magazines as essential elements of society
  • Explosion of broadcast and cassette radio, of broadcast TV
    Interactive Point-to-Point Communications
  • Post, telegraph, telephone.

    4. COEVOLUTION, PHASE 2, THE INTERNET, THE WEB AND SURROGATE EYES

  • Computers, communication and the Information age
  • The Web--Unprecedented growth, self organizing, bottom up, adaptive social phenomenon
  • Graphical interface
  • Hyperlinking-- fundamentally new way of organizing information; everything until now was serial. May be a millennial-scale revolution.
  • Organized like human brain, except instead on linked individual cells .. have linked human brains!! Homo Communicatus
  • Remote eyes on Mars and elsewhere, Mars Pathfinder is the future

    5. COEVOLUTION, PHASE 3, AN ADAPTIVE, SELF-ORGANIZING WORLD IN AN INTERCOMMUNICATING SOLAR SYSTEM

  • Extended robotic senses, becoming interactive
  • Moving from a social to a colonial organism?

    6. COEVOLUTION, PHASE 4, JOINING THE GALACTIC COMMUNITY