These technologies are serving even more importantly as lifesavers (such as digitally monitored heart values). Building on DNA research and the technologies arising from this research, we now have access to a large amount of information about our ancestors and even the diseases we are likely to encounter in our lives. From neurobiological research we now have access to a large amount of information about how our brain works, how we react to traumatizing events and how what we eat impacts on how we think, feel and behave. From high-storage watches to chips embedded in our skin and clothing, we are entering a world of remarkable propinquity between person and device.
Psychological Implications of Technological Propinquity
While there are many implications, we wish to focus on just four: (1) use of the information received, (2) privacy of the information we receive or share about ourselves, (3) blurring of lines between reality and fantasy, and (4) the fundamental nature of consciousness.
Information Overload and Decision-Making: The first and most obvious questions is: what should we do with all of the information we are receiving about ourselves and our world? This question has already been addressed to some extent in which we have written about the new powerful technologies that may soon replicate human functions. We (and our technologies) already know more about our body and mind than ever before. We will also soon learn more about our buying habits and other propensities in our daily journey through life.
This new world of propinquity requires a tolerance of ambiguity along with comfort with the new technologies (most of us can no longer live comfortably as techno-peasants). There was a major field of research that flourished in psychology over several decades known as “human factors.” It concerned (among other things) the way in which people (such as pilots) gained access to and made effective use of complex information (such as altitude, speed and pitch). This human factor field is even more important today as we address the challenge of making decisions based on even more complex information as we navigate our own “airborne” journey. We are entering the world of “advanced human factors.”
Privacy and Our Exposure as Public Selves: Closely related to the issue of making use of the information we receive about ourselves is the accessibility of this information to other people. In many ways, we are more “naked” today than we have ever been—since Adam and Eve wandered through their garden. We now enjoy the services of “Alexa” who waits for requests from us to provide information, but we also know that Alexa might be providing our requests and related information to other people and institutions. We own computer-aided television sets that provide us with easy access to many channels of information, but also know (or at least suspect) that this television set is monitoring our own actions at home. And, of course, we are aware of the extensive information being collected by outside agencies from our hand-held devices and computers.
What do we do about this matter – a trade-off between access to information from outside ourselves and other people’s access to information from inside ourselves. This challenge is not just about law and ethics, it is also about what we want to disclose and what we want to keep private. It is about the multiplicity of selves we project onto and into the world–what Kenneth Gergen (2000) called our “saturated self’. Who are we and what does this mean for other people in the world with whom we wish to (or must) associate? Do we just create an avatar of ourselves for other people to see in a digital world? Is there such a thing any more as a true and authentic self who is known intimately by a few people (often set as a limit of about 150 people)? There are many psychological challenges associated with this management of the private and public self.
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