In a Ted Talk, the philosopher David Chalmers speaks about information technology as an extension of the human mind, comparable to a physical prosthesis that extends the human body. Just as we can outsource walking to a prosthetic leg, or hearing to a hearing aid, we outsource memory and thinking to electronic gadgets. iPhones remember our friends’ email addresses. Night vision goggles enable us to see in the dark. Social networks expand our conversations.
There’s a reality to this, but the new digital extensions also intrude inwards. They bombard our brains with more information than we ever had before. If technology really “outsourced” our thinking, our brains should have less to do. The old fashioned prosthesis reduces the amount of work the body has to do. Digital technology makes us do more mental work than ever. And there are consequences.
It’s my observation that few minds experience much peace. There’s a kind of worried restlessness in most people’s everyday thinking. Perhaps this was always true (Buddha would have said so) but I believe the angst is exacerbated by an ever-increasing information load.
So I’ve become interested in the problem of being at peace with large volumes of data. Not merely managing it better or analyzing it better. But finding ease amidst the overload. This may require a fresh approach to thinking: New strategies for management and analysis, to be sure, but also new thinking skills. It’s a terrain I’ll be exploring further in this blog.