and I quote

Hey There, Mighty Brontosaurus

by A. E. O'Neill

[Originally published July 6, 2000]

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
— Robert A. Heinlein

Terry ScottOne of the greatest discrepancies between our capacity for intelligence and our animal instincts is evident in the way that, the more we complicate the earth and our minds with ever-increasing reams of information, the more we crave the comfort of simplicity.

Advanced societies have, in the past, fallen to ruin shortly after achieving their greatest strides in art, literature, science and music. In those declining periods, societies of old crumbled under the pressure of opposing forces. Not only intellect versus instinct, but also conflicting desires for peace versus power and for progress versus control.

The difference this time is that we have surpassed a certain critical mass — of population and of information — beyond which there is no turning back; no fall into ruin that could eradicate all that we have achieved.

[All photos by Terry Scott.]

Now every thought, theory, hypothesis or discovery is documented the moment it's conceived and published or uploaded to a place where the masses can consume or discard it.

The difference this time is that we are unwilling to be toppled merely because the patterns of the past dictate it. It's not that we're more enlightened or even more equipped for basic survival. In fact, we are more dependent on the constructed systems of our civilization than any other in recorded time. So many histories have been lost to us by mundane means such as fire, earthquake, volcanic eruption and the whims and unreliable memories of those who lived to tell.

Terry ScottWe've done our part to painstakingly record the past, to learn from it and pay a kind of homage to those who came before us. The one thing that the past undeniably teaches us — for which we have no use or ability to fathom — is that our failure is inevitable. Surely, "he who fails to learn from the past is doomed to repeat it," however, it is equally true that he who learns only from the past is doomed to fail. Now, with our racial knowledge ingeniously stored where it is external to ourselves yet universally accessible, we are liberated from it.

That we are in the midst of a renaissance of unprecedented magnitude is unquestionable. The developments and achievements in technology alone indicate a surge in human comprehension. Technology, though, isn't a factor to be taken alone. It is the very means by which we are directing our own evolution.

The technology that marked our progress in the last century is a mirror of our own minds; an unconsciously replicated manifestation of the systems that work in biology forged of manmade materials. In creating machines that imitate the inner workings of ourselves, we begin to comprehend the enigma within.

By externalizing our global history and developing communication tools that lower — if not eradicate — barriers that formerly prevented true freedom of expression, we have changed not only the way we store and process information, but the very way that we think. We have essentially freed our minds of the need to store what we conceive and create by constructing a hive brain for the archived memories of mankind.

 

The Internet, with its endlessly regenerating streams of information, intangible and omnipresent, is our greatest creation, in which we see the image of ourselves.

Since our design, as humans, does not seem to include an ability to comprehend the infinite, it comes as no surprise that the burgeoning vistas of intellectual and spiritual awareness opening up before us instill more anxiety than ambition. Never before in recorded history has a society sought to regiment itself so completely, to divide and identify every enigma.

Eager to make sense of the complex vistas of human psychology, we try to apply the same scientific models that we use to analyze our inventions to turn the microscope on our own minds. We are obsessed with finding a reflection of ourselves, clear, concise and complete, in even the most simplistic and blatantly inaccurate systems of categorization.

Terry ScottThe religions of the modern world have equated peace of mind with simplicity and detachment, so it's no mystery why we feel out of synch with our own minds. Desperate to defend and maintain the achievements we've made, to reap some reward from the incredible mental and physical labor of living, but lacking the spiritual grounding and purity of thought we believe is the key to happiness, we feel robbed of the simplicity we feel is our birthright. The past is all we have to cling to but the past can teach us nothing about where are heading.

The availability of pseudoscientific information at our disposal has enabled every one of us to develop a certain amount of analytical prowess in defining and categorizing human idiosyncrasies. We are out of touch with our survival instincts in reference to other people but so well versed in the basic principles of sociology that we feel we can accurately judge people at a glance. The media perpetuates this idea in the preponderance of talk shows and half-hour trial shows, advice columnists and radio psychologists. In two or three sentences or a brief bio, a handwriting sample or a handshake, we believe that we gain enough insight into the other person to accurately judge, advise or condemn.

We want to believe this because it fits the model by which we have come to understand every other aspect of the world, observation, analysis, documentation and recognizing patterns. We want not only to believe this about others, for our own safety and security, but also about ourselves. If we have a problem that we don't understand, we seek out the quickest known solution as we have learned to do with external problems. We want to be able to plug all the variables into a trial-tested formula and receive an answer that will make it possible to set aside the problem and move on.

Terry ScottIf we could just get past these psychological impediments, we sense that our minds would be freed to focus on greater things, and there is ample evidence to support this theory. Overwhelmed by conflicting desires and by the burdens of modern life, we are compelled to reveal, or at least externalize, the thoughts that we fear to keep inside. Hiding our emotions, keeping childhood traumas locked within, refusing to deal with feelings of loss, anger and pain leads to psychological disorders, we know. Without dealing with or at least externalizing them, we won't be able to function, and functionality is essential to our survival.

 

We crave and require order for a feeling of security, but we also need something to strain against. Without the restrictions of church, state, family and society, we have no reference point for individual identity.

We must know where we stand in the social order, even if we don't agree with the analysis, so that we can surpass that measure, if only in our minds. But we are as impatient and demanding towards ourselves as we are in solving external problems. If we can't figure out the cause and solution, we feel confused, frustrated, helpless and angry. And why shouldn't we? What do we have to compare our chaotic minds to other than a broken machine or crashed computer?

Terry ScottEach of us deals with this "externalization process" in a different way. For some, group therapy or private psychological counseling, for others, writing, art or music. A new form of group therapy has emerged, made possible by technology and made desirable by the sociological side effects of technology. Believing that all human impulses and idiosyncrasies are universal and symptomatic of solvable problems — glitches in the machinery — we are detached enough from our emotions to commit them to the hive mind. This intangible web of disembodied confessions, every ambition and apprehension of the collective, is at once accessible and safely distant, either feeding our vanity or protecting our identity in an anonymous thread.

The process of unburdening our minds and recording our lives for ourselves and for posterity is not without precedent, but global access to the formerly private thoughts of others, without the need to reciprocate, is peculiar to our time.

We are allowed access to a great library of emotions and secrets in which we can see that we are not alone in our confusion. We've all observed the way that detached communication methods reveal new facets of our personalities, enabling reclusive people to thrive socially and unearthing talents and ambitions in the unexpressive.

 

Now we are able to observe the daily documentation of lives like our own, or very unlike our own, without guilt or obligation.

Both author and audience benefit from this faceless exchange. A kind of confessional quality exists, certainly, but more than that, it allows both parties to take an observer's viewpoint of the complexities of thought, emotion, opinion and the trivialities of the mind. It is the logical extension of what we do in conversation, relying on the verbal shorthand of cultural references to television shows, books, news stories and events in order to convey broader concepts. If we meet someone and have a spirited discussion about our favorite band or sports team, we have quickly forged a bond based on common experiences that would have otherwise required an investment of time and emotional exposure.

We need human contact for our intellect to thrive, but technological society makes it increasingly difficult to devote time and energy to anything that doesn't offer immediate or tangible rewards. Ingenious and adaptable creatures that we are, we're finding ways around those limitations to get what we need from each other. For recognition, understanding, attention, approval or simply comparison, we use every contact with another human being to better ourselves.

Terry ScottThe civilization that we've created offers endless ways to exercise our desire to consume knowledge, to build and invent and express ourselves. We are a compulsively curious and restless race, unable to remain silent when we have something to say; unable to turn away when there's something to see. Once stimulated, we are voracious for more information and experience. With so many options to explore and so little time in which to do it, we must find ways to absorb those things that we can't experience firsthand, through the experiences of others.

Our passion to understand and be understood, to share the wisdom we've earned throughout our lives, is our greatest survival instinct because it is through that global web of consciousness that we perceive the promise of immortality.