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January 19th, 2009 | by Simon |This morning I woke up agitated by the confluence of three pop-culture images I couldn’t clear out of my head: Douglas Adams’ Deep Thought, Gene Roddenberry’s Borg, and the Wachowski brothers’ Matrix. Different you say? Not so different – all three are worlds/societies that in fact constitute a single entity. The internet is quickly taking on the features of a mega-scale brain – each one of us sitting in front of our box, inputting or outputting information that came to us from another neuron in the network. We are just one step away from the Borg – all it takes is the simple act of implanting the connection into our brains and it’s done – you’re in the Matrix now.
I really don’t see this in such grim light as it might sound – in a world of six billion people the idea of individuality has lost some of its zing, to say the least. I doubt too that there are really any white mice controlling the process, and if I’m right the Matrix will be built by us for us, with few if anyone really objecting. Just imagine the envy of millions when some future Paris Hilton gets her CyberWorld™ implant at that fashionable Hollywood clinic for the rich and famous. Everyone will want one. When you think about it, it’s no scarier than cutting up your face to make yourself look sexy at 80.
Fact is that we may be becoming a single hyper-entity, whether we realize it or not. Doesn’t mean we’ll go out there to conquer the universe or (sadly) discover the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Just the next step in the evolution of mankind, that’s all. Good night folks, sleep well.
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