A Man and His Computer: An Issue of Adaptive Fitness and Personal Satisfaction

Abstract

Today man is living in a natural and social ecology extraordi narily different from that in which he evolved. Computers and commu nication networks have become an integral part of our world’s texture; in particular, they provide the “nervous system” for a variety of super- organisms among which and within which we live.

Paradoxically, even though computers were introduced by man, the tech nological, commercial, and social superhuman ‘animals’, thanks to their greater evolutionary plasticity, have been more ready than the human individual to take advantage of the computer’s capabilities. Though this new environment provides us with a rich assortment of external informa- tion services and appliances, so far we have not gotten from computers much help in the way of extending our very selves— nothing comparable, for example, with the deep, intimate empowerment given by literacy.

We argue that an extension of our personal capabilities and an atten- dant enlargement of our own private information space are possible. The computer, in one of its many possible impersonations, will provide the additional processing power needed to support these extensions. But ma- terial instruments will have to be matched, on the human individual’s side, by the acquisition of new competencies. Hardware is not really an issue: what is needed is the crafting of a new culture (in the standard sense of ‘rsand integrated set of tools, skills, and traditions’). Thus, we are not thinking as much of a “bionic prothesis” as of a computational liter- acy culture as naturally integrated with one’s person as other acquired cultural habits such as living in a home, playing a violin, or reading a book.

The design of a culture is no doubt a delicate engineering task; one that involves both humans and computers will be doubly demanding. In this paper we shall examine and try to arrange some of the pieces of the puzzle: What is desirable? What is possible? Can we identify an evolutionary stable strategy? What are the scientific issues and the technical problems involved? What do we know already? What do have to study next? Who shall do what? Who shall pay for it? Who, if any, will be threatened by it?