The Edge Of Reason: Death By Connectivity

Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.

Since those words were spoken by Robert J. Oppenheimer, father of the nuclear bomb, there have been several times whereby they have verged on prophecy.

During the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union the threat of an all out global thermonuclear war was palpable. By the time we got to the 1980s both the Soviet Union and the States had enough nuclear weapons to kill everyone on the planet sixty times over.

We faced Armageddon each and every day, we knew that if the world ended it would be down to the button being pressed, a nuclear war, would be the last war.

“I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”.

- Albert Einstein

Today the biggest threat to our continued survival isn't nuclear war, it is our connectivity, the very thing that has enriched billions of lives and allowed countless opportunities, could be the very thing that wipes us out for good.

Idea Bombs

It can reasonably be argued that the success of the human race is largely due to our ability to spread ideas. First we developed complicated speech patterns, then later text, later still we came across perspective and technical drawings. Today the main way we spread ideas is via the internet.

With each communication upgrade the human race has implemented, the speed of ideas whizzing round the world has increased. Word of mouth could only take us so far, after that written text took us further, yet was still limited by distribution and literacy.

Now down the line someone in China can share an idea with someone in Kenya in little more time than it takes them to type it out. This state of affairs has enriched our lives, yet it is a double edged sword which threatens to cut us from the tree of life.

The way we spread ideas before had in-built filters that stopped stupid ideas and ridiculous notions spreading. If someone in 1974 thought the earth was flat, they wouldn't be able to spread that idea very fast or far, the notion would quite literally die with them.

Now that same person can jump onto a dozen websites and be horribly misinformed about scientific principles and can then go and spread their newly found ignorance at a frightening pace.

The Science Of Google

Back in the pre-internet era, if you felt ill you went to a doctor whereupon you would be examined and diagnosed. If the doctor wasn't sure of your ailment, they would send you to a more specialised medical professional who would then diagnose you.

Nowadays if you're feeling ill you are just as likely to check Google for your symptoms and attempt some kind of self-diagnosis.

In the same way if you wanted to learn about nuclear fusion or the speed of light, you went down to a library and found books on physics and astronomy, now of course you simply tap in a search term.

All of this has given us a collective false expert syndrome, whereby we believe that just because we have easy access to vast swathes of information, we are therefore experts in any and every subject.

This is kind of like believing that having access to all the ingredients for making a cake, means you are a master baker, even though you've never once taken a cooking class in your life.

The Curse Of Connectivity

On one side of the connectivity coin we have the opportunity to speak to relatives on the other side of the world. Or being able to find out about news and events in far flung places. It also allows us to connect with groups of like minded individuals and share interests.

The flip side of that coin is the very same tools that allow us to connect, also enable us to isolate ourselves in silos of like-minded agreement, amplifying our beliefs and feelings whether we're right, wrong, sane, mad, good or bad.

Where The Wrong Things Are

Our hyper-connected world has brought us to a point where anything goes, all points of view are valid and equal. If I say the sun is a ball of ice, then as long as I get people to agree with me and create videos and websites 'proving' that the sun is not a giant glowing ball of hydrogen and helium, but is in fact a huge chunk of ice, then that will become an accepted truth.

As this new paradigm takes hold of society it will eventually halt progress and ultimately destroy us.

If you think that's an overly dramatic statement, I bring your attention to the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump's tweet the other day. Whereby he claimed that climate change is fake science. A man who has never done a single scientific experiment in his life, and I'm guessing has never read a science book of any kind.

Yet he confidently declares that climate change is fake science and that carbon dioxide is the building block of life. As far as he is concerned carbon and carbon dioxide are the same thing, and of course lots of people will agree with him. Not because they are science students, simply because they are part of his particular silo of ignorance.

It is one thing when Kevin from Wisconsin, or Ade from Lagos thinks that life spawned because of carbon dioxide and that climate change is a myth, quite another when the person responsible for science funding in America believes it.

A Blast From The Past

I'll leave you with the words of eminent philosopher Bertram Russell who gives us this chilling warning from the past, and could very well have been talking to us right now in the year 2019.

By the way, thank you @fredrikaa for turning me onto this amazingly powerful 2 minute video clip.

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

- T.S. Elliot, Hollow Men

WHAT DO YOU THINK? WILL WE DESTROY OURSELVES IN IGNORANCE? ARE THE IDIOTS TAKING OVER THE ASYLUM? OR AM I SIMPLY BEING A DRAMA QUEEN AND EVERYTHING IS FINE?

AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!