AND I GOT SIDNEY’S LEG

The Non-Transformative Nature of Technology

Have you ever noticed how two things seem to be true of just about every generation, at least in the modern age: Every generation believes they are special and will change the world. Somehow they represent a new and innovative form of human and/or citizen, and every generation seems to believe we’re just about to enter the Epoch of Science Fiction, wherein technology, human evolution, and, well, who knows—maybe magic?—combine to transform life as we know it.

I don’t really expect this to ever happen, to be honest; technology has been marching on for thousands of years, and while the pace of development, invention, and adaptation appears to be increasing, so far nothing has quite managed to alter the fundamental aspect of humanity—what it means to be human. Technology certainly augments our abilities, but the goals we ply those abilities towards haven’t changed all that much, nor have our motives and limitations as a species.

I think this is reflected in most of my fiction: Even in stories where some serious technological voodoo is being bandied about, the people in them are pretty similar in essence to types you’ll meet today on the streets of Manhattan, you know? Technology changes the way the world works, sometimes, but it never actually changes us.

So, when things like invisibility cloaks come along, someone, somewhere is going to start talking about The Singularity and how Everything is Going to be Different In the Future. Or, possibly, How We Are Already Living in The Future. Or, possibly, Complaining About the Fact That There are No Replicators and Holodecks Yet, What’s Up With That?

Now, I tend to agree with Scott Adams on the subject of the Holodeck when he said “I’m afraid the Holodeck will be society’s last invention.” Damn straight. The Holodeck may in fact be the only technology that I believe will actually alter human beings in a fundamental way, in the sense that they will be extinct. Under that category I suppose I must also include nuclear weapons and possibly Britney Spears, but those are both subjects for another post. The point is that technology transforms existence only superficially, it has so far in all of history not changed the fundamentals of being a human being one bit. Technology can get us places faster, allow us to kill more efficiently, heat our food faster, put us in touch with others faster and over greater distances, and even put us physically in outer space or on other worlds, but we’re going to remain the same sort of dimwitted, meanspirited, animalistic creeps we’ve always been.

I mean, think about it—we are, after all, living in someone’s future. Go back a few decades and realize that so many of the technologies we now take for granted were nothing but science fiction—Dick Tracy wristwatches, Star Trek communicators, take your pick. And yet, somehow. . .the basics are still the same. The life I lead is largely the same as the lives led by other quietly desperate men even before the advent of cell phones, iPods, easy international air travel, and first-person shooter games that allow us to train for the coming Zombie Apocalypse.

Somehow I think the invention and availability of an Invisibility Cloak will not alter basic human nature. All that would happen, I think, is a rapid increase in the number of arrests for trespassing, criminal surveillance, and vandalism. Because the one thing that people always seem to forget is that when new technologies appear that give folks a decided edge against, say, Society At Large and Civilization Itself, a counter-technology is usually developed pretty quickly. You want invisibility cloaks? Fine. I’ll bet you the police have countermeasures pretty quickly, if they don’t just start employing thermal monitoring as the path of least resistance. Society is, after all, self-healing to a certain extent, otherwise it would have collapsed a long time ago, long before the widespread availability of invisibility cloaks at WalMart.