Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Virtual Identity

I was thinking about something on the plane into Arizona, and my first evening here at Arcosanti only intensified my conviction of its truth.

The life I lived in Baltimore, and even in Silver Spring (as in, my parent's basement) was something of a virtual life. In a lifestyle that is dependent on constant (internet) connection, in a world of relationships that are defined by Facebook and text messages, and where the only way to stay sane is to have a constant inflow of information, no matter the quality or the content—"real" becomes a word, and not a definition. It's like not knowing what is up or down. My moods could be mapped by my music collection. My web of relationships delineated by my Facebook Friends list. My recent interests by the latest web pages I visited, and the projects that require my most attention, the most consistently opened files. I'm living in suburbia, and the economic downturn of this time necessitates that I not have a car, so I am landlocked unless I wish to take the bus downtown—but why would I do that? To shop at Borders to spend money I don't have?

So I stay put, in front of my terminal screen, moving onto the next task or train of thought without moving from my seat. I am an actuator at the keyboard—a mind surfing the infinite internet, defined by a biological clock based on necessity, and not the sun.

It is frightening to think about it. Virtual reality, originally a conduit for Real Reality, suddenly begins to define Real Reality, or at least mirror it such that the difference becomes moot. Who am I? Am I person, with dreams, hopes, visions, and fears? Or are these just binary recordings on a harddrive, and I am an agent that happens to exercise them via QWERTY at specific intervals of the clock? The idea that my brain is actually twin silicon disks, and that the gray matter in my head was nothing but a tool for inputting information into those disks, was a freakish idea, but one not at all a far-fetched one. My brain is the computer, and my identity being exercised, like an application, in the cloud.

And it's not just about being locked in one certain place and "not getting out." It's the urban identity—maybe a term Soleri would coin. The human identity that has become so dependent on machines—whether they run on gasoline, are powered by lithium-ion batteries, store data on a server, or transmit information via cell phone towers—that, if the machine were taken away, the entire organism would collapse (I think that's the definition of a cyborg; an organism that is as dependent on its machine parts as it is its mechanical parts). Or, and I think this is even better—if the machine was just programmed to do all the things the organic agent was doing, and the organic agent disappeared overnight—the world would continue running as if nothing had ever happened. It's encouraged by our lifestyle, by our urban sprawl, by our business models, and by advertising. We are becoming the passive agents of a technological civilization that would run itself, if we just gave it the code.

Obviously, we're all Cylons. I miss you, Battlestar Galactica.

Seriously though. If there was ever an antithesis to this "Urban Identity," it might be fostered at Arcosanti. Even though I've only been here a single night, I can already feel it. The organic structure of this microcosm of city forces humans to notice and interact with other humans. The nearly tee-total recycling programs reminds one constantly that nothing needs to be wasted. Moving from one place to another requires a bit of walking and fresh air, and the human presence integrates with presence of nature beyond, with either side being little disturbed (I doubt you will ever, ever find this in a place like Phoenix or Baltimore).

For me, this workshop is a bit of an experiment in combating the urban cyborg. I was fully aware of my virtual identity, and on most days I did not stop it. I dared it, wishing to see how far it would go. At this point, with everything from the car to Twitter—I see no reason to believe that my body could just be—that I myself could be—nothing more than a passive ghost in the machine, with odd bodily requirements that are little more than an annoyance to my 24/7 operating schedule. I am not interested in seeing Twitter be wiped away in favor of a monkish life without computers. We will all end up being Cyborgs—the thing is, we have to learn how to be healthy Cyborgs—Cyborgs that affirm the human side, and tend to its holistic, and not just bodily nature, just as we do our remotely wired technological selves. And this means changing everything, not just our technology. It means changing our educational institutions, the products we consume (I always thought the marketing term "consumer," which is now a cultural one, to be horribly betraying of the wastefulness of our society), the foods we eat, the programs we create. It means a shift in the American Dream, which never saw past its own white picket fence, to a shift in popular religion.

Humanity can be eaten by Twitter and Facebook. It's a shame they're so addictive, and so useful.

But again, it's all about unity and harmony. I'm not for the abolition of technology, and not from any ideological perspective—simply from a pragmatic one. The internet was invented, and there was never an off button. What we've started will continue, whether we like it or not, and whether it is healthy for us or not. I believe it can be healthy, but that depends on how we use it. And it may not be the internet that's the problem. It may, in fact, be the city itself, and how we build it. At least, that's what Soleri would say.

And I don't think he's too far off.

2 comments:

  1. As an engineer and a physicist, I continue to love science and the exploration of truth perhaps even more then when I was in school. I incessantly read about it and discuss, ponder and study its implications it along with the nature of reality in general, and find my personal philosophy continually evolving as a result. And yet, conversely, technology as a whole bores me apart from the science it's based upon. But it's not that I disdain technology in the way so many seem to these days--as some kind of enabler or driver of overly networked, yet emotionally disconnected humans who are now able to retreat to a universe more virtual than real. Sure, we all know people who prefer to hide behind avatars, inflated online profiles and in the worst of cases, who employ the "Anonymous" moniker-- or worse--to facilitate their more destructive passive-aggressive tendencies. It's the choice they've made, and true, for better or worse, are able to make precisely because the technology now enables them to do so.

    But it's not everyone's choice, and a great many of people I know have instead chosen to live with and utilize technology in more meaningful ways that promote service, philanthropy, charity and yes, even healthy communities. There's no doubt that technology can be abused--and certainly is--but this is exactly what we say about a great many other things, such as opiates, alcohol, food, work, sex, leisure time and religion. There's nothing in this list that hasn't contributed to my well being in the past, and nothing that can't, if used improperly, contribute to my downfall. I accept that opiates saved me from severe, excessive pain after my back surgery last year, and respect the hell that would have inevitably come my way if I had chosen to use them irresponsibly.

    I live in Urban Baltimore, and have at my disposal pretty much everything I need to function in my specific neighborhood. I can walk to my favorite grocery store, dry cleaners, boutique clothing store, coffee shop, wine bar, hardware store, restaurant and pizza joint. My neighbors are not simply the people living adjacent to me, but they're also my friends and constituents in my inner circle of support. I spend a great deal of time directly interacting with live human beings and, interestingly, also on Facebook, email and blog sites. But far from constraining me into a life of sterile isolation and a cocooned existence, these tools, with all of their inherent risks, allow me to extend into regions well beyond my immediate community and give me the ability to build and grow relationships outside my local spatial coordinates.

    Now I realize that not everyone has this luxury. In some areas of Baltimore the smartest place to be is either in your home or far away from it. But that's always been the case, and was well before the advent of AOL, MySpace or XHOM 4G. Or electricity for that matter. My point is that I get that technology has changed our lives and as it becomes more and more a part of our existence, carries with it some risks and ramifications, some of which we simply won't know until we reach a certain point in time. But on a person level I'm okay with that, and I certainly don't fear what has already become such a routine part of my daily existence. We grow and evolve as humans and things change. We either learn wisdom along the way, or risk defeat by the poor choices we then make. But at the end of the day, I maintain it's still our choice.

    But that's just me. As for you, have a great time at Arcosanti. I'll be interested to read of your experiences, and what you ultimately come away with.

    Best!

    Tommy

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  2. Great insights Tommy. And it is definitely true that technology, just like anything, can be abused and addicting. And not necessarily in a consumerist sense, but in a lifestyle sense. I'm with you in the effort of using technology as it was meant to be—a tool. No doubt it will influence our lifestyle, but it is only one element in a cohesive, coherent lifestyle. It's funny to think that Paolo Soleri and his Arcologies are pre-internet by a great few decades. I wonder now what an arcology for the internet age would look like (I'm also thinking about asking Soleri what he thinks about the internet and how it's changed the world, when we get to meet him).

    In the end, it is all about balance. My whole thing with the "virtual identity" was the nature of and my personal experience with a lifestyle that was innately imbalanced, and was not just visible to me, but to others as well. I still think Facebook is a wonderful thing on the whole, but I'm sure you got that. :)

    By the way, sorry we never got to meet up in Baltimore. Hope it's finally starting to get warmer up there—it's quite sunny here. ;)

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