Is The Cyberspace Dimension Our Shadow? Pathways For Healthy Development

Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash

I initiated and engaged in a thought experiment regarding the effects of cyberspace on human development in the last two discussions (We are Dorian Gray and the Internet is our Picture, and Kegan’s Helix, Chronosystem, and Cyber Disruption). This essay concludes the experiment on possible approaches to continue healthy development through and with the omnipresence of cyberspace. In concluding this three essay/illustration arc, I submit that (a) cyberspace is here to stay; (b) as another dimension it can give us access to our personal and humanity’s collective shadow; and (c )through pulling the string on the cognitive development line to empower our other interconnected developmental lines we can embrace the cyber shadow. All of this can ultimately lead us to avoid the fate of Dorian Gray.

Cyberspace is here to stay

First off, cyberspace isn’t going anywhere soon. We are intimately connected in a way that is novel and unlikely to reverse course[1]. Most scientific innovations that have dramatically changed society don’t get “un-invented”. For example, coal-based power that drove the industrial revolution is still around; or nuclear power that dominated the post-World War II cold-war era is still here. The technological revolution in semi-conductors giving rise to Moore’ Law seeded our cyberspace revolution is still in full force. Through all of this, including the massive destructive potential, humanity continues to find a path to move forward. One of my favorite science fiction actors stated a memorable quote in the movie Jurassic Park (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Jeff Goldblum and his Jurassic Park Quote [2]

If life will find a way just like water eventually carving a path through mountains, we must use this primordial instinct embedded with the wisdom that we carry in both in our genes and time-tested philosophies to find our path forward through the omnipresence and gravity of cyberspace. This may be accomplished through learning about our personal and humanity’s collective shadow in a way we’ve never seen before, until now.

Cyberspace is the portal to our shadow

Cyberspace is a portal, another dimension, which can give us access to our personal and humanity’s collective shadow that is visceral as opposed to an incorporeal concept [3]. Yes — the dark aspects or ugliness exists across abusive systems that tread on human dignity such as cyberbullying, human trafficking, manipulation of societies through cyberattacks on personal data for controlling/political means, anti-social isolation etc[4]. Based on this thought experiment I submit these conflicts in cyberspace is our collective psychic fever.

Our current psychic fever means we’re also on the precipice of accessing this capacity to grow. This is the blue pill/red pill paradox that Neo was offered in the Matrix[5]. If we go down this rabbit hole, I submit we are likely to transform in an emergent and stronger way.

How so? Drawing an analogy to biological systems, a fever in itself is not bad; it is part of our adaptation process (life finds a way). Our immune response is improved over time through disease and struggle literally allowing our body to learn friend/foe. A well-tested immune system, either through manageable illnesses or vaccinations provides us a robust defensive mechanism to prosper as adults. We address these through an improved learning and intervention process — understanding of disease, management, care, etc. Risk of devastating diseases have been reduced or eliminated at a global level over the years. We have cooperated across all known boundaries of humanity to make it happen. As an example, elimination of Small Pox through a global effort is still one of the most impressive feats of humanity[6].

Therefore, we have the capacity to collaborate to address the nastiness to address biological health. Circling back to cyberspace, our psychic fever indicates a struggle on the individual and collective level to adapt. A fever not acknowledged or managed can kill us, but recognizing this process means we have a path forward. This paradox is akin to the allegory of Plato’s cave[7].

Figure 2: Plato’s Cave [8]

The projection of humanity’s life history across the full scope and scale of our existence has never been accomplished prior to cyberspace. Not only has this projection been captured, but it is also in the process of constantly being recorded now. The following is a deconstruction of this projection:

• Literally, we have documented the history of humanity in cyberspace through a collaborative approach — Wikipedia is a perfect example; whether its art, science, literature, entertainment, etc. a timeless and constantly evolving container has been created[9].
• This container extends into an imprint of our interactions as well — this is where the social networks come into play. The study of this imprint is the emerging field of cyberpsychology[10].
• Through the human genome project[11] (another example of global cooperation) we have been able to unleash our genetic data, now imported into cyberspace through platforms such as National Geographic’s Genographic Project or 23&Me[12][13].

The above three areas — cyber encyclopedias/psychology/genetics are just scratching the surface. Collectively they create the potential of truly exploring our shadow in ways we’ve never been able to literally see. Our shadow is now front and center (individually or collectively). We can look at our portrait as Dorian Gray should have to study ourselves, to better ourselves.

One solution is the use of integral theory’s psychograph of developmental lines to frame this study[14]. We can use the cognitive developmental line as the doorway to explore, expand, and ultimately balance ourselves to cure the psychic fever.

Figure 3: Integral Theory Psychograph [14]

Pulling the string of Cognitive Development

Integral theory notes multiple developmental lines (as shown above) tied to levels of consciousness. For the purposes of this thought experiment, we’ll forgo the levels of consciousness discussion.

How does the developmental line approach help frame our study of the collective psychic fever[4], which is distorting our meaning making process (Kegan’s Helix) [15]? By pulling the string on the cognitive development line to open up all other lines of development.

In the prior presentation of Kegan’s Helix, Chronosystem, and Cyber Disruption, I submitted an analogy of Kegan’s Helix and developmental lines being enmeshed and nested together in a Fibonacci series similar to those in nature [16]. We can map each of the lines, within the helix of Kegan, to a particular aspect of cyberspace:

• Cognitive: The massive amount of information on the internet fuels the cognitive line of development (technology, science, big data). The undeveloped shadow space is being stuck or lost in cognitive line at the cost of others. The cognitive line can lead to…
• Interpersonal, Emotional, Psychological: Social media interactions that give meaning to groups, can reach other communities, share a broader bond. The undeveloped shadow space here is cyberaggression.
• Self-Identity: Individual blogs where people conduct self-exploration. The undeveloped shadowspace here is narcissism (Dorian Gray for example).
• Psychosexual, Needs: One of the most primordial, this speaks to our ancient impulse to reproduce. Platforms such as Tinder, internet dating, match making, etc. have given people the ability to find mates. The shadow space here is the explosion of cyberspace driven pornography, sexual violence, human trafficking etc.
• Somatic: Ability to track meta data on health for possible benefits, learning about human physiology, fitness trackers, etc gives us the ability to see human systems in new ways. The shadow space here is being glued to digital systems to the point where we are physically addicted, not physically fit (the computer desk hunch), lack mobility, etc.

Each of the above lines of development can be cued off the cognitive line. Each line with cyberspace has a positive/negative aspect tied to our shadow. By using the developmental lines to explore the shadow in a constructive way we can access this information for growth. To be clear -the cognitive line is not the most important, rather it has the most fuel in our VUCA environment with the rapid growth of technology[17]. Since each of the developmental lines are not independent of each other, they are integrally linked and represent different dimensions of the same being or species, we can use the cognitive line as a starting point. By focusing on the developmental lines through our differentiation and embeddedness tilts as we grow from child, adolescent, to an adult, we have the ability to expand our life capacities to come face to face with our individual and collective shadow. Specific approaches may include:

• Cooperating globally to provide a platform for dialogue on how we face our shadow through cyberspace by:
• Recognizing cyber toxicity as a human development challenge and aggressively addressing issues such as internet addiction, cyberbullying, and other toxic issues with purposeful interventions; these aren’t mere annoyances.
• Persistently filling the void in education on human development from early schooling through adulthood equipping people with the ability to understand what is happening to them and others. Topics may include theories from Piaget, Jung, Kegan, Bronfenbrenner, Erikson, Wilbur et. al. Irrespective of cyberspace, it’s a shame that these theories aren’t a pillar of life long learning to start with.
• Persistently discussing philosophical approaches towards life through education and leadership, cultivating capacities that deal with life’s problems more holistically.
• Being intentional about using data (qualitative and quantitative) on other developmental lines.
• Integrating human development as mediating or moderating factors in research towards an interdisciplinary approach across various areas that interface with cyberspace.
• Rethinking technological design integrating human development concepts into the design of systems at the human — cyberspace interface.

Summary and Conclusion

This three-arc essay/presentation was a thought experiment on living in a world where cyberspace acts as an omnipresent force, like gravity, at every level of human development[18]. We live in a VUCA cyberspace environment that may appear dystopian, yet there is hope. In the process of creating the internet, humanity has projected its individual and collective shadow in to cyberspace. As we come face to face with our underdeveloped shadow, we’re in the midst of a psychic fever as our meaning making process gets disrupted at various stages of life.

This fever is necessary for our evolution to the next threshold — it may look ugly on the surface as cyberspace takes the veil off many of our hidden truths. Keeping them hidden allows the shadow to be undeveloped and twisted, rather than be a space for informing us about our best selves as the shadow can be our friend if we embrace it. Cyberspace offers a novel opportunity by documenting our shadow. Through human development and a focus on developmental lines, should we constructively engage in pragmatic means of growing our capacity to embrace this cyber shadow, we can avoid the fate of Dorian Gray as individuals or groups.

References

[1] “Internet of things — Wikipedia.” [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things. [Accessed: 13-May-2018].

[2] “Jeff Goldblum | Life, Uh, Finds a Way | Know Your Meme.” [Online]. Available: http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1089735-life-uh-finds-a-way. [Accessed: 13-May-2018].

[3] “Shadow (psychology),” Wikipedia. 31-Mar-2018.

[4] A. Asa Berger, “O Brave New World: The Dark Side of Cyberspace,” J. Cyberspace Stud., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 19–35, 2017.

[5] “Red pill and blue pill,” Wikipedia. 10-May-2018.

[6] “WHO | Smallpox,” WHO. [Online]. Available: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/smallpox/en/. [Accessed: 13-May-2018].

[7] “Allegory of the Cave,” Wikipedia. 12-May-2018.

[8] V. Markus Gabriele and Maurer, English: Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, drawing by Markus Maurer. 1996.

[9] “Wikipedia.” [Online]. Available: https://www.wikipedia.org/. [Accessed: 13-May-2018].

[10] “Cyberpsychology,” Wikipedia. 16-Apr-2018.

[11] “Human Genome Project,” Wikipedia. 29-Apr-2018.

[12] “Genographic Project,” Wikipedia. 25-Apr-2018.

[13] “23andMe — Wikipedia.” [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23andMe. [Accessed: 13-May-2018].

[14] V. Esbjörn-Hargens, “Psychograph as map, matrix, and mirror: An integral psychograph assessment.,” J. Integral Theory Pract., vol. 5, no. 4, 2010.

[15] R. KEGAN, The Evolving Self. Harvard University Press, 1982.

[16] “The Fibonacci Sequence As Seen in Flowers |.” [Online]. Available: http://scribol.com/environment/plants/the-fibonacci-sequence-as-seen-in-flowers/4/. [Accessed: 13-May-2018].

[17] S. Berinato, “A Framework for Understanding VUCA,” Harvard Business Review, 05-Sep-2014. [Online]. Available: https://hbr.org/2014/09/a-framework-for-understanding-vuca. [Accessed: 04-Dec-2016].

[18] “Thought experiment,” Wikipedia. 20-Jan-2018.

Note:

1. This was previously published on http://letter2humanity.org/. This is part 3 in a three series compendium.