SHEP MCALLISTER
“Hey, have you seen my mind?” The answer to the question “where is my mind,” is becoming increasingly difficult to answer. I would like to say that it is still “in my head,” though today’s society mandates that your mind be everywhere at once. We are not yet at the point described in “The Girl was Plugged In,” but we are certainly moving in that direction. While this can all seem very scary at first, I don’t think it is all bad. At this point in history, if someone asks me “where is your mind,” I can say with some degree of certainty that it is anywhere I want it to be.
2.33 The brain as an evolving, timetravelling structure. Excerpt from Timothy Leary’s Neurocomics (Last Gasp Press, 1979).
Our history books are filled with examples of men and women who externalized their minds in some meaningful, lasting way. Egyptian engineers built the pyramids. Greek philosophers wrote volumes that still affect our society today. Great generals developed strategies that changed the landscape of the world. These people could have completed their great projects from the comfort of a chair, thinking about their craft and passing on orders to others. In this way, their mind was (and still is) embodied in their masterpieces. Until recently, most people did not have this luxury. Most members of our species have made our livings with our bodies. Lately though, it appears that this is changing. Most of us don’t really use our bodies anymore, and survival is pretty much a foregone conclusion in this part of the world. We buy food in supermarkets, we take medicine when we are sick, and we use planes, boats, and cars to travel extreme distances. Daily life is no longer a struggle (again, in this part of the world). These days, most of us use our minds for nearly everything. We wake up and check our e-mail, and send out our thoughts to others. We go to class or work, often by car, and rest our bodies in a chair while using our minds to fulfill our assigned tasks. In this networked society, we leave our mark in so many different places and in so many different ways these days that we almost take it for granted. It is a unique and exciting time, because we all have the opportunity to use our minds to make a tangible difference in the world, a privilege which we have never lived without, but has been reserved for the lucky few for the entirety of our existence. Things are great now, but we have only lived in this society of opportunity for a very short period of time, and have no guarantee that it will last forever. It may not even last for my lifetime! If tomorrow you took away computers and the Internet and the means of mass production, what would happen? If our modern society crumbled and we found ourselves in the world that existed 100 years ago, how would we cope. Most of us don’t have any idea how to farm, build things, or produce clothing. These things are taken care of for most of us. We have never lived in a world that required us to use our bodies to survive, and if you asked us to suddenly figure it out, it would be a disaster. Living through your mind is preferable to surviving with your body, but as a society we must not forget how to take care of ourselves.
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Reality Hackers : Transhuman : Where is my mind?