Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious proposes that there is a layer within our unconscious mind that is comprised of knowledge and iconography that is shared amongst all of humanity that is inherited from birth.
For instance, across every culture there is a universal idea of what a mother or maternal figure may be, commonly shared phobias such as the unknown or the dark, and an idea of what good and evil are. On an individual level, we are the sum of these shared ideas, however we invariably contribute and add to these collective concepts, causing perpetual growth and change. While a literal interpretation of inheriting these concepts through genetics is within the realm of pseudoscience, the symbolic interpretation has arguably become reality. When thinking of the collective unconscious as a database or comparing it to cloud computing, it's almost analogous to the internet and social media.
The world wide web has eroded borders between people. In this virtual domain, no one is segregated by geography by geography or social-economic status. Social media interconnects us, allowing complete strangers to share experiences and pass down concepts or memes. This collectively shared pool of knowledge is more than a communication hub. Nothing here is forgotten, everything added to the amalgam known as the internet will mold and influence future cultures and humanity as a whole.
In 1976, biologist Richard Dawkins published a book on evolution titled The Selfish Gene. In the last chapter of the book, the word “meme” and the idea of what they are is introduced. Memes from the perspective of biology are styles, behaviors, and concepts that are spread between individuals.
Think of the latest craze sweeping the campus, fashion trends, slang, or a popular single playing on the radio. These memes invariably spread throughout their culture, then go on to mutate into new variations, almost like a virus. To Dawkins, these cultural transmissions were the equivalent to a gene, passed down and altered from one generation to the next.
A couple decades later, the early internet would be introduced, allowing people from across the world to interact with one another virtually on message boards or email. In this context, the word meme was applied to internet discourse. Online groups and forums became conducive to propagating memes quickly as they had large and diverse user bases and encouraged communication. Videos, text, and images could be posted, and rapidly altered as they are shared across the web. This virtual phenomenon would only continue escalate as search engines and social networks allowed for even more ways to spread information. Even if these memes spread on a micro scale, their impact can be observed on the macro, molding ideologies and social norms.
At this point in time, we are living in a facsimile of George Orwell's 1984.
Arguably, the inception of the smart phone is what paved the way for a society operating under mass surveillance. While these devices are most certainly convenient and offer users many benefits, they are monitoring you and your behavior. I painfully admit that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to make the comparison to tracking devices. In exchange for the ability to make calls and browse the web, we have indirectly allowed our service providers access to extremely personal data and information.
Currently, I’m under the impression that developing entirely unbiased algorithms for the internet and other purposes can only be mitigated.
In the present, algorithms are being used for purposes such as skewing the market place in favor of certain corporations which in turn influences online users to shop at their specific stores or sites. Likewise the U.S. court system has been using algorithms to detect the likelihood of a defendant in court becoming a recidivist, though research has proven that they have been inaccurate and have skewed the justice system against blacks even further. Social media sites start to only show you posts that have correlation with your search history and interactions, which has arguably created political echo chambers and bombards individuals with ads for products they might not even need or want. However, there are tools currently in development that would train algorithms and learning models as well as to analyze them in order to detect unwanted biases. Likewise, the tech industry has acknowledged that the design of AI systems has been the byproduct primarily of white male engineers, and universities are beginning to address the absence of inclusivity within AI culture. From my point of view, there’s some hope that things can get better in time, but I’ll have to wait and see.
As a white male, it’s not an exaggeration to say that I have quite a lot of privilege.
I don’t have to worry about being followed if I shop alone, my demographic is widely represented in the media, should I need to move I wouldn’t have to worry about my neighbors being polite to me, and I got to grow up learning about my heritage in school. These privileges could enable one to potentially coast through life without giving consideration as to how these unchecked privileges ultimately contribute to a system of oppression. By knowing this, those who wish to become better allies (myself included) should do their best to listen to less fortunate folks. Doing so can deepen our understanding of their cultural experience, perspectives, their hardships, and hopefully lead to change in the long run.
The emergence of the digital age brought an influx of new technologies such as mobile applications that can make our lives more convenient (for instance, finding a method of transportation home) and social media sites such as Facebook which can connect hundreds of millions of individuals together globally.
However this convenience has had insidious side effects, the cost of our personal data. Every photo uploaded and tagged gets eternalized in the cloud where algorithms can identify who you are based on appearance. Devices such as phones can track our daily routine through GPS. EXIF data can be mined from photos to find out where individuals live. Even the savviest of tech users have difficulty mitigating the spread of their personal data. In a sense, we are in a technological stranglehold. While I don’t believe there is going to be a quick solution to this issue, Dori Tunstall’s interview certainly gave me some hope. As a designer she believes that to truly innovate, you need to move past designing on for the individual, but rather the community. By establishing connections, we allow ourselves to be held accountable for screw ups. If a faux pas were to occur, they can point it out and allow for the creation of a more efficient end product that benefits more users. We need to start holding large tech companies with this same level of accountability so that in the end, it shouldn’t get to the point where people have already been hurt in order for changes to be made. Perhaps then, we may regain a little bit more agency with how our data is spread through the net.
It's really strange trying to picture what the internet may look like within the next five years.
Thinking back to to a little over a decade ago, we got our first real smart phone, the iPhone. It lacked the bells and whistles of contemporary models (front facing camera, 5G connectivity), but it enabled greater access to use of the internet on a global scale. This trend has since continued across different devices, and I think it's inevitable (and possible happening soon) that all devices will be connected to cloud-based services and the net all the time. I can imagine 3D printing becoming more mainstream, and widely used for mass customization and batch orders. In this hypothetical scenario, working from home would be incredibly commonplace. Automated vehicles will most likely be in service for public use. They'd be able to access GPS and traffic data from the cloud and plan for an efficient route. As a result, we'd see less traffic and crashes due to vehicles running on autopilot. Perhaps we'll begin transitioning from touch based computer interfaces to AR systems. This is all speculative, and I could be overly optimistic, but I'm excited to see how the internet will develop and benefit society positively.