On the Dangers of Complexity

Parallel processing, meaning the ability of a computer (or a human brain) to perform multiple actions at the same time, is the litmus test of a processor's power. This draws attention to a major danger. Increasing complexity requires increasing processing power- and currently the human brain is not upgradable.

This means that the capabilities of our tools is now vastly superior to our ability to keep them all straight in our minds. We are leaving broken fossils of our virtual selves all across the Internet and in a multitude of company records. Our own personal virtual network of programs and sub-routines engaged on our behalf is beyond the ability of brains to manage.

We carry notes books full of passwords, because we aren't supposed to reuse them. Everyone needs a filing cabinet now, because the age of paper just keeps stacking up.

We are disappearing within our own abstract organizational structures.

To quote Tyler Dirden, "The things you own, end up owning you."

We end up over stimulated and in need of mind numbing entertainment in order to function. Stimulate and then sedate, rinse then lather and repeat.

Transhumanism tells us we need to upgrade ourselves in order to keep up. The Amish suggest a slower response. The rest of us are caught somewhere in the middle, with the bleeding edge driving complexity forward as we flounder to keep on top of all the changes.

Every time a new petition appears complaining about the new Facebook layout is a cry for help. People like to understand the world that they live in. Every time the ground moves under their feet, the become novices, helpless against the world once more. The increasing complexity coupled with arbitrary change and supposed progress is destroying our ability to cope with the world we live in. And so we post impotent Facebook petitions and rant on blogs nobody reads.

We need to walk away and re-take the real world, the one we can effect with our hands. We need to get dirty again. The real world can be learned over a life time, and changes in that real world follow understandable rules. The concept of a 'game changer' is very rare in the real world. 

The horse and buggy still works just fine.