Analog Human


A species on the brink of extinction. Only a few specimens can be found in isolated corners of the world.


My grandparents did the same job their entire lives. Our children will work in roles a few years from now that don’t even exist today.


My grandparents still belonged to the category of analog humans, but my parents were already partially digitized. My generation grew up in this transition, even if it was just a Commodore computer that served as the gateway into the world of ones and zeros.


Using a computer still felt very alien to me. It made me uncomfortable, uneasy, and somehow unnatural (DOS, Windows 3.1).

My children, however, embraced the digital world much more easily, which can be attributed to the evolution of technology.


Human habits have changed more in the past few decades than in the preceding thousands of years combined. The singularity has happened. We’ve been absorbed into the digital world. We didn’t notice because we are in the middle of the process, but from the outside, it’s clear. Just like with a black hole. For those crossing the singularity, nothing seems different, but the external observer sees the change. Like any analogy, this one has its flaws, but it serves to illustrate the point.


This implies that we are no longer Homo sapiens. The difference between my grandparents and the first humans a hundred thousand years ago was smaller than the difference between my grandparents and me.


How could we still be the same species?


Even though technology and information are available to everyone, we use these opportunities differently. Most people still work, eat, sleep, and entertain themselves in much the same way as people did a hundred years ago.


So which statement is true?


We are in the midst of a process; half of our consciousness has already passed beyond the event horizon, but not entirely. The only certainty is that there’s no turning back.


What will happen in the next few years?


Even Hari Seldon couldn’t calculate that. It might be easier to predict what will happen a thousand years from now.


For now, the world around us is changing exponentially, but perhaps it won’t always be this way.


Will we reach a technological barrier that allows us more time to adapt?


It would be nice if such a thing existed, but looking back at our past, we see that revolutionary innovations follow one another ever more rapidly. Fire, the wheel, metallurgy, printing, steam engines, computers, AI. The periods are getting shorter. The first lasted 90,000 years, the second 7,000 years, and the latest only a few decades. The pace of progress is incomprehensible, unmanageable. We weren’t designed for this. Mentally, we are still tribal beings. In moments, we will become obsolete.


What do you think about this?

When will we cross an evolutionary boundary?

Do you feel obsolete?

Is there a way back?

Can we influence it?


____________

If you can, please support my work with the price of a coffee. This amount covers my daily living expenses. This is what I live on—€5 a day.

Thank you 🙏

buymeacoffee



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Euro Life

Image
  Several organizations have calculated the poverty threshold. Poverty, of course, is a highly subjective concept. In these cases, they mainly calculated how much money a person needs to avoid starvation. Let's look at some numbers: Oxfam, extreme poverty threshold: $2.15 World Bank, moderate poverty threshold: $6.85 I’ll just leave these numbers here for now, but we’ll revisit them in a later post. I have been living on a budget of 5 euros per day for about a year now, which I consider a mid-term period. Aside from food, the only thing I spend money on is an internet subscription, though there were times when I even saved on that. The truth is, I have never lived healthier than during this period. An important side note: my carbon footprint has also been reduced to a fraction of what it used to be—practically, the only emissions from my existence come from my metabolic processes. How Do I Live? Very modestly. I am not complaining—I chose this li...
Read more

Individual Rights

Image
What Is a Person Entitled to in the 21st Century Simply for Being Human? Not much, but it doesn’t have to stay this way forever. If someone owns a dog, they have a moral and legal obligation to care for it. What about a human being? In 1948, the UN drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—full of beautiful ideas, but ultimately just guidelines and recommendations. In reality, nothing happens if these human rights are seriously violated somewhere. Try invoking them in a moderately developed legal system—the best you can hope for is a polite smile. By 1966, things became more serious, and two legally binding documents were created: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. In a perfect world, all 173 and 171 signatory countries would strictly adhere to these obligations. However, nearly six decades of experience suggest otherwise. What Happens When a Country Fails to Honor Its Commitments? Th...
Read more