We live in a world where everything
comes and goes like dusts blown by a strong wind. Reality has become a treadmill
set to a rapid pace and to avoid falling from it, we have to keep up with its
speed. Indeed, we are moving so fast that things seem to become blurred as one
stands still in the middle of it all. New technologies rise and old trends die
in every tic of the clock. Often, we find ourselves so occupied by our express
lives that we just lose the sense of who we are and where we are heading for.
This realization eventually brings us back to one of the most fundamental keys
towards survival, “knowing thyself”.
In a TEDTalks podcast, Interaxon CEO
Ariel Garten talked about the importance of self-awareness in dealing with the
pressures of our day to day life. According to her, the old maxim, “Know
thyself” was an expression of the “confusions of consciousness”. Self awareness
is one characteristic that sets us humans apart from animals. Most of the time, we are stuck in this
lifestyle of bits and bandwidths that we lose the essence of all that we do and
that is ourselves. Garten believes that instead of reflecting on what is deep
within us (our thoughts and feelings), we struggle to find ways that will bring
a temporary escape from the nerve-racking reality that is confronting us. We
tend to engage in the so called “retreats” that offer a quick break from our
stressful lives. The problem about these getaways is that we eventually have to
get back to our usual routine. As the speaker pointed out, these are just
“successful escapes” and the problem still remains at large.
In order to provide the solution,
Garten’s company has come up with the remarkable mission of ‘humanizing technology’
to help in the pursuit of self-awareness through “thought controlled computing”.
The birth of this technology will enable a form of artificial intelligence to
find out how relax or focus a person is by analyzing patterns in his or her
brain activity through a brainwave sensor. This innovation promises greater
work efficiency, more relaxing breaks and better relationships. Aside from
enabling people to control things by simply thinking of commands, it also
responds to how people think. This mechanism knows something about a person,
interprets it, and tries to help out through a response. Garten perceives this technology
similar to a mirror that could reveal the things about a person that he or she
is unaware of. She even coined the term ‘intraactive’ to describe how it
understands you and channels what you feel inside through a stream of data that
allows a person to know himself from the inside out.
The development of thought
controlled computing and the whole concept of fusing technology into our quest
towards self awareness brings a new set of indefinite possibilities. In the
thoughts of a young mind that is living in the era of discoveries, I deem this
innovation as a major breakthrough in the field of science and technology. In
fact, it will give rise to a new landmark that will allow us to see beyond the
horizons that bind our present vision. At first sight, the brightness of the
future with it is truly blinding. I mean, who wouldn’t want increased work productivity?
Who wouldn’t give in to the sheer excitement of making things work simply by thinking
of them? It is as if this would enable us to have the supernatural ability of
telepathy. There are countless applications that are being explored. One of
which is psychological aid to children with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) to
assist their learning and focus as well as help them cope with their social
environment. However, if we look pass the glaring beacon, we could see that
there is actually a dark side to it.
From my perspective, the use of this extremely
powerful innovation could imply both good and bad in the same way nuclear power
had been used to improve and kill thousands of lives. The convenience of
thought controlled devices is just too good to be trusted. Thinking about the
future with all of these amenities, I am reminded of the movie Surrogates. This sci-fi film depicted
how people lived as everything became controllable with a few buttons and
robots controlled by human thoughts. It narrated how technology isolated people
from the real world to the point that they weren’t actually “living”. Although
the scenes from this movie were works of fiction, I am actually convinced that
when this new form of machine intelligence will be put into indiscriminate use,
the future would look very much the same as what the movie has shown. Of
course, this technology is still young and fresh. What it can do, how it will
affect people in the long run and what it will it become is yet to be explored
deeper. But given the lessons learned from the past, I hold the glimmer of hope
that the power of developing thought controlled applications will be used
responsibly and morally by those to whom the gift of knowledge has been given.
The
astonishing features presented about ‘humanized technology’ are only the
toppings of the main point of the talk which is about how technology promises
to take us into what’s within the core of our being by equipping us with the
‘Second Sight’ (brain scanner) to gain access to what is hidden deep within our
thoughts which will then give us a clearer view of who we really are.
I would definitely agree with Garnet’s
insights on self-awareness. Self-awareness, as defined by the College of
Canyons, is a way of exploring our individual personalities, values, beliefs,
natural inclinations and tendencies. In
a chaotic world like ours, I share the same belief as the speaker that without
knowing one’s self, a person could not truly grasp the reason of his or her
existence. Without knowing who we are, we would not be able to grow as
individuals in all aspects of our being. The knowledge of one’s self will
empower us to modify and build our areas of strength as well as identify those
things that we still have to work on. Furthermore, self-awareness will also
help us improve the emotional quality of our relationships because by knowing
how we really feel, we could relate to others better. I would also take the
same belief that “Our feelings about how we feel are often notoriously
unreliable”. On the basis of personal experience, we are, to some extent, always
uncertain of our emotions. For instance, there are times when we are happy but
being able to tell how happy we are is another thing.
I am blown away by simply thinking
of the complexity of developing the algorithms for this technology to the point
of doubting if it would really fulfill its great promises of making us become
more aware of ourselves. The widespread and growing branches of Psychology, I
think, is enough evidence of how complicated we humans think and behave and to
quantify this seemingly qualitative science would be a herculean task. I believe
that how we think, our concept of “the self”, our attitudes, behaviors and
emotions are comprised of a variety of variables some of which are yet to be
unveiled. I doubt that simply observing patterns in our brain activity would
suffice the conclusions that will lead us to know who we really are. I am quite
certain that the data used in analyzing brain activity has been generalized to
a single pattern like observing how a certain variable changes as the emotion
changes. But then again, there is always that degree of uncertainty in people’s
emotions. When these data were gathered, we could not neglect the fact that a
relatively high level of uncertainty exists. Thus, using this data in order to
conclude who a person is would be somewhat unreliable. Self-awareness covers a
huge array of variables and these variables interact to create “the self” that
is unique for each one of us. I take the stand that one does not simply
quantify the emotions and other factors that make up who we are because a
slight difference in percentage for one person could possibly mean a disparity
to another.
Even though the brain scanner could
provide certain data like how focus someone is or could keep track of all the
things that made a person relax or happy, these things only comprise a very
small fraction of our identity. Quoting what Garten has said, “Humanized
technology could create the big picture of who we are out of these little
pieces of information.” Yes, it can provide some of the parts. But I think it
could not give us all because we are not really sure about everything. An account of the past events a person has
experienced might give a slight glimpse of who he is but future events could
change who he is or who he has been.
Garten compares humanized technology
to the human narrative which has been a timeless tool for understanding
everything about humans. She also sees the used of this innovation as a canvas
that holds pure possibilities. Thought controlled computing is like a brush
that unlocks the inner world and she believes that if you could think of
something, then you could bring it to life.
We have long set sail towards
discovering who we really are. We have seen how technology has helped us and
for some parts, detracted us from the path that we are taking. The possibilities
that follow the breakthrough of humanized technologies are endless. The
knowledge of certain things, I supposed, does not guarantee knowledge of
everything. The point is, the use of technology can make or break us even to
the edge of losing our identity or our awareness of ourselves. Now, if we
solely rely on technology to rediscover ourselves, is there really an assurance
that it would bring us back on track or would it only keep us off track? From
the view on which I see things, I hold the belief that the search for who we
really are, the essence of our existence and the story that we are writing with
our lives should not be dictated or predicted by numbers and formulas. Although
we could use them to fill in a few details, the bigger piece of the puzzle is
left for us to explore. In addition, our mistakes, the stress we feel, those
sad moments that we shed our tears, they are all part of who we are. They are
inevitable bits of the picture. Avoiding them could mean missing the most
amazing parts. After all, life is more meaningful and worth living because of
its uncertainties that are a part of our quest towards revealing our true being.
Sources:
“College
Survival Tip #13: Self Awareness.” canyons.edu.
College of the Canyons. n.d.Web.8 Feb 2012
Garten,
Ariel. Ariel Garten: Know thyself, with a brain scanner. Youtube. TEDTalks. 26 Jan 2012.
Podcast.
Christine C. Balili
English 10 Reaction Paper
February 10, 2012
Submitted to: Ms. Rapunzel Tomacder
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