How will technology reshape our existence

One day, while attending Mark Mekki’s webinar on Design Thinking, among all his valuable insights, one particular sentence did get me thinking:

Digital transformation has very little to do with technology.

Those who, just like me, have witnessed the early stages of computerization in the business world in the 1980s will probably agree that, despite all the technology change, nothing has changed about how we place it in our lives. Those who have not will naturally think that much has been changed about us. Just as if somewhere in history we got trapped in a misconception of what technology is about.

The survivor

I wonder what must have been like to go into the Stone Age. From hitting and smashing to hammering, cutting, filing, molding, and building, we went a long way in evolution. It means more power in fighting for life and defending it, just by refining movement and precision, getting more done in less time, then building communities, defining family, establishing territory, creating rules, improving communication…gaining more time and the ability to explore new worlds of possibilities, and uncovering new perspectives. All that from stones!

Now, was it stones that changed us? Well, I would say stones will be stones. And as far as our perception — to this day — is concerned, they still keep still unless something or somebody gives them a different purpose. And still, they will not move for it. You have got to shape them, place them, and apply them.

To this point, technology was about shaping nature to survive nature itself. Without changing our very nature, we transformed reality and reshaped our existence — from a passive being in a wild, untamed world into one that designs their world.

The new tamer was now an explorer daring to try everything, even the mighty fire. With fire under control, we were then to extract from nature to manipulate the elements and shape new things — byproducts that gave us a sense of possession and ownership. A new era was on: Metal Age. The first and, perhaps, greatest of all disruptions, through which the world was never to be the same. From mere survival to industry and trading, from clans to kingdoms… All that from fire!

But was it fire that changed us? Well, I would say the fire will be fire. It will simply burn everything on its way unless something or somebody gives it a different purpose. And still, it will not burn for it. You have got to fuel it, place it, contain it.

At this point, technology was about transforming the state of nature to survive one another. And again, without changing our very nature, we transformed reality and reshaped our existence — from the power of taming to the power of ruling.

For thousands of years, we went on exploring and extracting from nature in pursuit of uncovering its secrets to understand how it works. Here comes philosophy, science, and the value of standards. With it, the imitation of nature, reproducing its systems to the smallest detail on large scales, building knowledge, reaching out to other communities, and repeating the formula everywhere despite local differences and context. Schools, machinery, vaccination, new habits, culture imposition… From kingdoms to empires, from manual to mechanical… All that from the knowledge!

Was it the knowledge that changed us? I would say any knowledge will not create anything unless given some purpose. And it will not know anything about it. You have got to share it, learn it, and apply it.

That was the point where technology was about recreating nature to go beyond survival. Once more, without changing our very nature, we transformed reality and reshaped our existence — from the power of ruling to the power of control.

Beyond survival

If a system is nothing but a set of interconnected parts that, once triggered by some force, transfer and enhance it to perform a specific job, then systems produce energy. It was a matter of conducting it. From mechanical to thermal, electrical, chemical, and nuclear… we invented trains, light, production lines, automobiles, airplanes, telegraphs, telephones, propelled rockets… All from energy!

So, was it the energy that changed us? I would say energy will produce no power unless something is put to work, which is always for a purpose. You have got to start it, tune it, preserve it.

Then, technology was about producing, regardless of nature. Still, we have not changed our very nature, but yes, we transformed reality and reshaped our existence over again — from the power of control to controlling power.

From electrical to electronic, we were now conducting information. From the telegraph to the telephone to television, a new era was on: Telecommunications Age. That is where standardized mass media, including textbooks, come in. Millions of people are within reach in their homes and schools, a passive audience subject to a schedule, dependant upon it to be entertained and informed. Culture, behavior, morals, politics, tendencies, beliefs, curricula… now, more than power, information was under control. All from mass media!

Did mass media change us? I would say, at the time, it depended on our time and space, over which we have complete control. It will not fulfill its purpose unless you are there. You have got to turn it on, watch it, act upon it.

This time, technology was about controlling our nature, and yet without changing it. We transformed reality and reshaped our existence once more — from power control to centralizing power.

As it happened, conducting information went from analogic to digital. Now we were not just transmitting, but also producing information in and from a device called a “computer”. Soon this computer was in many homes as well. While televisions transmitted information, computers gave access to it. While those were connecting, these were interconnecting. A new kind of network was on, replacing the one-source-for-all with the all-sources-for-each — the Internet. No schedules. Access to information at any time. That was Web 1.

One more step and instant messaging was the new thing. Access to information and people at any time. Telephones went mobile, and so did computers. Two in one. Now we can access and give access to any kind of information — text, audio, video — and people at any time from anywhere. The network went social. We are all broadcasters. From the all-sources-for-each to each being a source-for-all. That is Web 2. The one you and I, and everybody else use day-to-day.

And was it the Internet that changed us? I would say that what tells us apart is not the amount of information, but what each of us can do with it. Information is only valuable when it adds to building knowledge. And knowledge is of value only if applicable. And as far as interconnecting is concerned, socializing will be socializing anywhere. Unless we interact and build bridges, we will still be isolated from one another, no matter how close we are physically or how close the Internet can bring us.

At this stage, technology is about transposing the limits of nature. Still, without changing our very nature, we turned reality into virtuality, reshaping our existence — from centralizing power to the first steps in decentralizing it.

What now?

As philosopher Merleau-Ponty said — according to my understanding — about the phenomenology of perception, everything that is real exists, but not everything that exists is real. For example, there is a clock on the wall, on top of the door inside the room. When you go in, the clock is behind you. The clock exists, but until you see it, it is not real. So, reality depends on perception. And so does virtuality, with one difference: it does not exist in space; it does on time. And that is why it is perceivable. That is also why we say music is virtual art. It only exists and can only be perceived during execution. Time is its very structure. And the sound is nothing but perception itself. When decoding music, between the external ears and the brain, we transform energy to conduct power. From the movement of particles of air to vibration, then hydraulic, electrical, and finally, information. Does it sound familiar?

In the meanwhile, we connected mechanical, electronic, and analogic. And when we put those to work to the same end, we join systems, power, and information. We are recreating nature to transpose its very limits with a purpose to produce regardless of it, using the power of control. That is robotics. It produces much more than nature will ever do. So powerful and human-like that we fear our own invention.

But could robots change us? Well, I would say robots will be robots, while they have the power of control but not the control of power. You have to build them, program them, and turn them on.

That is an ongoing stage, where technology is about outperforming nature. And neither at this point was it necessary to change our very nature, even though it also does change our reality and reshape our existence — from spending time for a living to gaining time to spend living.

We are still on the quest, though. We do not own anything on the Internet on Web 2, not even our “own” domain name. Everything is controlled and rented from some entity. Even the new robotics, which now is run by digital as well. The new threshold to cross, now, comes as web 3. A completely new level of decentralized power. I like Somi Arian’s definition. She says that Web 1 is reading, Web 2 is reading and writing, and Web 3 is reading, writing, and owning — a simple and effective way to put it. Thanks to blockchain technology, smart contracts, and tokens, virtually anybody can create and trade their virtual currency and goods. Finance, ownership, media… all enter the same path, demanding traditional power controllers to become power givers (power, not energy, nor control neither information). Thanks to augmented, virtual, extended, and mixed realities, there is a virtual space, the metaverse, for those goods, building a bridge between two realities. Here we create new perceptions, therefore, a new challenge is on: : the Data Science age — Big Data, Cloud Computing, RPA (Robotic Digital Process Automation), Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT (Internet of Things), Blockchain… Are we more likely to confuse realities, or will we be smart enough to apply them to reshaping our existence again? For example, if we add two extra arms to our avatar and successfully operate the four arms in virtual space. The two extra arms will begin to exist in our brain, making us miss them physically. But this very principle will also allow us to lead our brain to make us function in disabled parts or tasks of our body, among so many other possibilities. All from perception!

Will the metaverse change us, then? I would say that any reality is a matter of perception, which we can use to reshape our existence. Ever since the Stone Age, we have been transforming reality. We changed the world when we changed perception and repurposed.

At that point, technology is about enhancing reality, where we can be in there and become out here without changing our very nature. There is a lot to unveil about that nature, and probably nothing to be changed after all. From taming, ruling, controlling, and transposing the limits of nature, to outperforming it, all we did was change perception and, thus, reshape our existence. The reason nature itself will not change us is that, as we are part of it, perception is our very nature; our power. The reason technology won’t, either, is that if we are the driver of change, technology is part of us. We survived against all odds, the highest, the lowest, the hottest, and the coldest places on Earth, just by making a living out of them, by giving them purpose. We are not the strongest, the biggest, the tallest, or the fastest. But we are the only creature we know of that was given The Power Of Changing.

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Recommended readings

• Book: The Visible And The Invisible, Maurice Merleau-Ponty