Humans, to Cyborgs, To Algorithm Interns

Are we single handedly giving away our humanity?

Disclaimer: This is a multimedia essay. It is meant to be read, watched, and listened to in order as your read it.

Please start by clicking the video below.

Are we humans voluntarily giving away our own humanity? Within half of a century we completely altered our primary forms of interaction and “entertainment”.  We’ve given all our thoughts, hopes, fears, dreams and main forms of communication to a middle man.  Even the human android apostle himself, Elon Musk stated in 2016 that people are already cyborgs due to our dependance on our devices. And I’d have to agree. The amount of times I googled just to write this very paragraph fully proves that point all on its own.  What started as a capitalistic tactic to be able to anticipate and influence sales on a mass scale to major corporations has now completely altered the inevitable handoff of humanity. 

I’d say it started with the printing press, which then matured to radio and television. At first we were measured by sales and ratings. Entertainers, advertisers and thought leaders threw a bunch of the first forms of edible “content” our way, and based on what we bit into the most, we were fed more of it.  From the comfort of our homes while dining on a tv dinner our brains fed on what was put in front of us.  Which further shaped our way of thinking, perceiving the world, even our interactions and topics of choice with one another.  I’m sure you can remember when a certain TV show, or breaking news that seemed like everyone was watching, became the very thing you talked about with your peers the very next day, right?  I rest my case. 

The next phase was the computer which started on websites and chat rooms, and found its cozy home in social media.  Now, rather than simply consuming what was given to us, we were able to have our information on demand.  And what’s even better, we began being able to give our own input into this virtual universe. 

With social media in particular, it first began as a way to share your thoughts, feelings and experiences with family, friends and associates.  I remember starting my facebook profile in 2007 when I got to college. At that time to get onto social media you still had to either be a collegiate student or at least of a certain age.  And you only interacted with whom you accepted into your cyber stratosphere.  Still a form of straight human to human connection. No harm no foul.  Or so we thought.  We without realizing it began feeding all forms of our human experience and consciousness into one place. And we didn’t realize just how valuable this information could be. Facebook realized it, and began sharing the bed with corporate strategy.  This is where all the people are, and where their energy is going, so how can we take it and sell them more of what they want.  And the human algorithm as we now know it is born.

The next stage was the suggested posts, and the advertised post. What you see in your feed is no longer completely gate kept by your own autonomy. Sure we saw ads in previous forms of media, but it used to be viewed as a blaring sign you knew you didn’t ask for, and wished you could skip altogether.  On social media, the platform will throw another post into the mix that you may or may not wish to see.  But in order to keep having this experience you have to accept that.  Even if some business paid to be here. Depending on how well the algorithm anticipated your mood and wants that day, you may even appreciate it at times.  

Then along comes tiktok which mastered the social media algorithm. Painstakingly monitoring and studying your every swipe and interaction.  Whatever you show even the slightest attention to, it instinctively gives you more of it.  The suggested post is now the primary post.  You’re now seeing more posts from people you don’t know with information you didn’t even know you asked for.  And we all play a part in the circus.  

Backtracking briefly to the notion of us presently fully being cyborgs.  Have you gone out in public for a few minutes and taken a look around?  We are currently unreservedly reliant on our devices. We rely on them to capture information, share information, and consume information. You could say we do the same with our experiences.  Whether we’re on social media or not, our phones and other devices are an extension of ourselves.  And while in public with strangers (or even ones that we know and love) we tend to be more attached and involved with our devices than one another.  Scary to realize isn’t it? All of our sci-fi dreams are beginning to come true.  

For the last 12 inches of shoveling needed to make the final resting place for human interaction, we have Artificial Intelligence. Don’t worry, they had already slipped into the party hours ago.  You just didn’t notice them at first.  For those who know this buzzword, but don’t know the official definition, here you go. 

“Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Specific applications of AI include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision.” 

 In simpler terms “Artificial intelligence is the science of making machines that can think like humans. AI technology can process large amounts of data in ways, unlike humans. The goal for AI is to be able to do things such as recognize patterns, make decisions, and judge like humans.” 

At the moment we are seeing AI features being integrated into more and more applications we use on a regular basis.  People use AI to take notes, create content, even copywriting. I recently saw a new AI suggestions feature in my mailchimp account. It’s only a matter of time before AI suggestions and auto responses are fully integrated en mass into our social media, captions, emails, text messages, etc.  With the fast paced advancement of technology, by the time you read this it’s probably already here. 

The more we feed it, the better and more “human like” it gets.  Via social media, and other application usage we’ve all been free working interns to feed the AI algorithm.  Yes, it makes our experience easier and allows our machine to think for us.  Yes, our technology is advancing, but are we?  

Have we as humans reached our full potential?  In our attempt at playing the role of god have we inadvertently created a being that will eventually out create us?  At what point will artificial intelligence be our intelligence?  When does the machine become more human than the one who created it in the first place?  Have we reached a point of no return on human to human existence?  

I worry about all of us beginning to look at the thousands of faces we see on our screens everyday as content, and not another person on the other end of the internet connection.  Someone with a heart, emotions, opinions, struggles, loved ones, hopes, dreams, ambitions, privileges, injustices, fears, strengths and flaws just like you. The genocide happening in Palestine is one extreme example of the ability to see others under immense affliction and turn the other way, do the bare minimum, be complicit with human suffering, or even worse nothing at all. 

Humanity in definition are all the qualities about us that are not robotic or alien such as the ability to love, have compassion and creativity.  Our care and inclusivity for one another.  I know it could in theory be easier to give that work to the machine. It may be harder to be truly human, but I hope that those very tough but beautiful portions of life are never lost. 

Sighborg

Written & performed by Alfred Nomad

Video by IcreateArt