Opinion
posedly smart tech to micromanage our daily lives
for the sake of cheap convenience.
The Internet provides us with seemingly limit-
less data, prose, images, video and other raw ma-
terials that could in theory enhance our intelli-
gence and enable us to become more knowl-
edgeable, to be more skillful or to otherwise use
actionable intelligence. Maybe we could improve
our decision-making, reflect on our beliefs, inter-
rogate our own biases, and so on.
But do we? Who does? Who exactly is made
smarter? And how? And with respect to what?
Are you and I, and our siblings and children, en-
gaging with the seemingly limitless raw materials
in a manner that makes us more capable, more
intelligent? Or do we find ourselves outsourcing
more and more? Do we find ourselves mindlessly
following scripts written or designed by others?
We’re easily led to believe that we’re extending
our minds and becoming more intelligent with a
little help from the digital tech tools, when in reali-
ty, those are often just illusions, sales pitches opti-
mized to pave the path of least resistance. Every
time someone suggests they’ve extended their
mind with their smartphone, that they are thinking
through and with their phones, I respond by ask-
ing them about who’s doing what thinking.
Are they extending their mind or extending the
reach of others into their mind? When you rely on
GPS, who’s doing the route planning? Who is
gaining what intelligence? Are you smarter be-
cause of GPS? What impact does outsourcing
navigation and awareness of your surroundings
have on your capabilities? Certainly, Waze or Goo-
gle gain intelligence about you, your surroundings
and even others around you. That could be good
or bad, but it’s not really extending your mind or
expanding your intelligence.
As everyone knows by now, many digital tech
companies know a lot about each of us. Advertis-
ers, Cambridge Analytica–like firms, large plat-
forms and so on. They’ve gained considerable in-
telligence and, as a result, power. But note that for
the most part, they feed on different raw materi-
als. They don’t get smart by consuming the same
materials that we’re fed.
They gain actionable intelligence by collecting
treasure troves of data, gleaned from digital net-
worked technologies. Everything that occurs on
the Internet—every interaction, transaction, com-
munication, etc.—everything is data, strings of 0s
and 1s. And all of our activities generate data.
Digital tech companies gain actionable intelli-
gence by collecting and processing data, mostly
about how we behave in response to differentstimuli—what we’re fed. This empowers those
companies. They may, for example, personalize
their services to induce desirable behaviors, such
as sustained engagement. Or they may develop
new salable insights about consumers. I could go
on. But the bottom line is that digital tech compa-
nies get smarter, more capable, more powerful.
But what about you and me? Do we also get
smarter? Do we extend our minds and thereby
gain intelligence and increased capabilities? What
actual capabilities are extended or enhanced? Are
they in fact practiced? If so, to what end? What
actionable intelligence improves the quality of
your life?
Upon reflection, I remain uncertain. Again, the
lawyer in me emerges, and I can reach no defini-
tive evaluation. Does that say something about
me and my reflective capacity, the ambiguity of
empirical evidence, or something else?
The Internet promised the library of Alexandria
at our fingertips, delivered instantaneously wher-
ever and whenever we like. It delivered that and
much, much more. One might describe the ex-
change in Faustian terms, as trading one’s soul
for knowledge. Putting aside concerns about
what’s been lost (our soul, humanity, etc.), it’s not
even clear that the promised knowledge was de-
livered. To make matters worse, evaluating the
Faustian bargain is even more difficult when the
intellectual capabilities required to do so seem to
be waning, at least for many of us.But the
bottom line
is that
digital tech companies
get smarter,
more capable,
more powerful.