Short Musing on the Internet and the Evolution of the Mind

“The Internet is a brain. There, I said it. It has taken me far too long to publicly utter those words.” - Jeffrey M. Stibel

Comparing the Internet to the central nervous system, to a “hivemind” has become something of a cliché over the years. Yet in thinking about the realm of Social Media, the increased proliferation of the myriad options people have to connect to the world and each other using the Internet, I became fascinated with the converse – how really UNLIKE the human nervous system the Internet actually is. While perhaps no single model or comparison may do justice to the complex system of human communication and information processing that has developed, a discussion about this may guide the understanding of certain aspects of it.

The nervous systems and ultimately brains which developed in organic creatures and finally humans were essentially tools enabling adaptation to the environment: i.e., survival equipment. While initially designed and used to enhance human activities, the complex web of information networks that exists today has de facto become an environment in its own right. We as humans must acquire skills, upgrade our (individual and collective) technical arsenals to adapt to it, to keep up with it – to survive.

One key element (defense mechanism? usability feature?) of the human mind is the sometimes uncanny ability to filter, categorize and selectively process information. If our minds and bodies responded to every stimulus from the environment, our systems would overload in no time – so the brain is able to filter out irrelevant “noise”, focus on and respond to threats and rewards. Harnessing the potential of this fantastic and ever-growing construct that is now the broadly defined “WEB”, and more specifically Social Media networks, requires that same ability to segregate, filter and classify endless stream of stimuli that courses within them. To do otherwise invites inevitable paralysis or incorrect conclusions and adverse (re)actions by the participants – be they individuals, groups, corporate entities or nations.

We as a human race now possess a new, constantly growing and evolving tool that has potential on par with the one that gave such unprecedented advantage to the Homo sapiens over other forms of life on the planet - the original computer encased within each of us: our brains. The ever-growing, highly complex, adaptable and fast system of information transmission and processing is now in the form of the global telecommunications network. We also have at our disposal something never present in the natural world (the very real limits posed by our ultimate energy consumption laid aside for the moment): a nearly complete lack of constraints in the potential complexity, speed and energy in using this system. However, realizing the promise and benefits offered by this network is very much an active, conscious process. 

The mere presence of opportunity is insufficient; to be “lucky”, one must also be thoroughly prepared. We all need better skills and sharper tools in this new environment – the first of which must be an accurate understanding of it. The evolutionary leap has just begun, only now in many ways humankind is both the selector and the selectee in this new process of evolution.

Posted by Csaba Dancshazy on March 1, 2010 at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack