The Raw Feed
Where technology and culture collide

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Is Technology Causing Humans to Mutate?

Consumer technology evolves fast. It's hard to believe that just two years ago, the Apple iPhone, Asus Eee PC, Amazon Kindle and Twitter didn't exist. Only college students were on Facebook. And Bill Gates still worked at Microsoft. What's harder to fathom is our own evolution. As technology changes, technology changes us -- how our minds and bodies physically work. It's not evolution, exactly. Call it culturally induced mutation. What's happening to us? I say we're growing super thumbs, faster fingers, outsourced knowledge, tolerance for repetitive stress, screen tolerance and dependence, pocket vibration sensitivity, shortened attention spans and heightened CGI perceptiveness. The Associated Press says technology is re-wiring our brains.

Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder if this means growth will be centered on the parts we used. Soon our reproductive organs will be the size of peas, to compensate for the energy use that will be diverted to something that we humans will use more, our hands or our brains.

Friday, December 05, 2008 4:26:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As someone who deals with other peoples' technology use all day, I can tell you there is very little energy being diverted to the brain during use.

Friday, December 05, 2008 6:03:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speak for your self... my reproductive organ may become my only organ...


:-)

Friday, December 05, 2008 9:19:00 AM  
Blogger Gamma said...

Don't forget, "growing fat".

Friday, December 05, 2008 10:08:00 AM  
Anonymous Angie said...

I think your concession that "it's not evolution, exactly" is uncalled-for and panders unnecessarily to those who insist "Micro-evolution" is not evolution as described by biologists, and only a continuation of god's plan and design, as set forth in the bible or koran... etc.

I think my favorite hypothetical example of our bodies and physiology being altered by our reliance of technology was seen in Wall-E... but I'm hoping we make a concerted effort to prevent such destruction of our planet by our ever-expanding technology and we don't get to the point of blubbery idiotic masses... well, no more so than we are already.

Friday, December 05, 2008 12:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

From Wikipedia: "Microevolution is the occurrence of small-scale changes in allele frequencies in a population, over a few generations"

Mike is talking about adaptations within a generation which do not modify the genetic code. This is as much evolution as lifting weights causing increased muscle mass is evolution - the evolution part comes a few generations later with the assumption that the individuals who are most successful at adapting breed more regularly than the people who don't.

Friday, December 12, 2008 9:06:00 AM  

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