An interesting thought occurred to me while I was walking back from a technical support call. What if technology is actually a selection pressure in an evolutionary context? Those “more fit” individuals who can embrace technology survive to pass on their traits to the next generation, while those who cannot or will not embrace technology find themselves out of work, starving, and ultimately not passing their traits on to the next generation. What traits come with the actual embracing of technology? Obviously intellectualism, idealism, curiosity, determination, independence and interdependence all come to mind. What other traits may be involved? Perhaps expanded social interactions, bolstered by technology will help push us, evolutionarily speaking towards being a more social and connected species. I find it fascinating to note that technology is rendering physical barriers to socialization meaningless. The idea of space being a limiting factor, and watching as that limit erodes is changing how we behave in a global and local setting. Eventually the ‘outside’ will evaporate as our social interests in that setting will have progressively less meaning than it did before. What will happen to us as we create new technologies and those technologies create a new us? Are we set on a path of technological and biological unity?
Technology, Humanity, Evolution
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