Our DNA is a rigid collection of information. It is like a very slow-evolving version of software that writes it’s own hardware. When necessities made humans realize that there is a need to pass on information outside the DNA to other humans and crucially to future generations, the visual language was invented. Symbolic forms that provoke mental contents in the form of meanings. Ideas began to travel in the form of writings and paintings from mind to mind, like a very primitive, static, one-to-one network. From the pre-historic era when tribes were isolated all around the globe, each one invented and evolved their own language. Thus, we have thousands of languages all around the world. There is a hypothesis that the language you speak determines how you think. So, are Sanskrit speakers smarter? Denis Villeneuve depicted this in 2016 movie: Arrival. [ok, no spoilers, go watch] Another crucial expression in the film as I came to observe through Nerdwriter1 is that “Communication is limited by perspective”. This brings us to the main topic of this post. Communication.
Communication is something that, I think, fundamentally drives one of the biggest technological advancement of our time. The Internet. A hyper-active-web of information flowing all around at all times (n-to-n network). The Internet now is young but expanding fast, turning a meta-idea of “global brain” into reality. With each passing moment, we develop new ways to interact with each other. The analogy could be: “people are like cell-bodies connected in a vast backbone of diversified neurons”. Earlier, communication was associated with the living. Humans have now broken boundaries. We build languages to communicate with the machines and even teach machines to communicate among themselves making communication non-exclusive to living forms. Internet will only expand as soon, there will be more people online (A large number of people still don’t have an internet connection). In parallel, we have an ever-expanding network of machines forming the IoT. We are shaping the future. A future that we dream of individually as well collectively.
But can the future influence the past? Now, this is a very delicate philosophical statement that is also expressed in psychology and even in quantum physics.
Yes. “It sounds impossible, indeed as though it is violating one of science’s most cherished principles – causality – but the researchers say that the rules of the quantum world conspire to preserve causality by “hiding” the influence of future choices until those choices have actually been made. At the heart of the idea is the quantum phenomenon of “nonlocality”, in which two or more particles exist in interrelated or “entangled” states that remain undetermined until a measurement is made on one of them. Once the measurement takes place, the state of the other particle is instantly fixed too, no matter how far away it is.” - PhysicsWorld.
I’ll re-write a sentence with a little change: ‘At the heart of the idea is the psychological phenomenon of “ambiguity”, in which two or more persons exist in interrelated or “entangled” states that remain undetermined until a relationship is made on one of them.’ What I’m trying to say is that a one-on-one communication between two strangers is similar. They could end up being lovers or enemies or friends or have brotherhood or parenthood. It all starts with what ‘perspective’ the two people share when they communicate, how their ideas couple. In our online social platforms, it is necessary that the true perspective behind permanent-communications (news, articles, public statements by leaders) should be well founded cause ‘it spreads like fire’. Have you observed that the ideas that are often more communicated become the majority? (Like everyone thinking they can have a billion dollar startup in a time when most start-ups fail.) An unclear perspective causes incomplete/wrong/deceiving communication that causes what we call a ‘misunderstanding’ or a ’trouble’ (like trump being elected?). Hence, perspective limits communication. What else limits communication?
Also, would you get paranoid If I told you about the free will of our clicks on social platforms? Say, for example, Facebook earlier used to know what posts we like, whose posts we like. Now, it also knows what do we feel about a post (react). It also knows what websites you visit and what merchandise you browse. Don’t they have algorithms to tailor our feed and ads based on that? If it is true that the one who controls the menu controls our choice then who has the control now?
Other limitations to communication like human senses, personality etc are also reinforced into our reality. “Our screens can connect us. They can also divide us and it’s the same with communication.” The possibilities of a meaning in communication lies in a process we call ’the mind’. The universe can not be observed without the mind entering into it. Thus our minds communicate cause communication (and hence language) is a constant thread in our fabric of future. The big picture. The technologies of the future should keep in mind to fill the spaces, break the limits and protect individual perspectives, an important pre-requisite for a better world.