Gareth Kirkby
January 20, 2022
We live in a digitally saturated and technologically advanced world. This state may be advantageous to humanity in various ways, while concurrently damaging and destructing the structures of our existence. What we refer to as structures of our existence are agency- the ability of to take action, and rationality- the capacity of reasoning and thinking (Kirkby, Rationality and Agency, slide 8). These intrinsically related terms have been celebrated by several renowned thinkers. In historical terms, Immanuel Kant, a philosopher in the age of Enlightenment, would argue that humans’ capacity for rationality and agency can propel us into a prosperous and beneficial space (Kant, 1784). In a more modern sense, Steven Pinker, a Harvard professor and scholar of psychology would go on to echo this outlook, arguing that we must take pride and trust in our ability of rationality (Kirkby, Rationality and Agency, slide 19). Unfortunately, our world today is not one that would simply apply these optimistic views. Rather, the legitimacy and power of humanity’s rationality and agency is at risk like never before, combating waves of helplessness and hopelessness. Humanity’s reliance on the digital has brought us to the mercy of it, giving up our rights, control, skills, opinions, and overall intellectual improvement. In return, we are offered a sense of comfort, pleasure, and technological advancement all at the hands of a global business titan- that is big data. World renowned historian and author Yuval Harrari further explores these concepts in his book In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, arguing that agency and rationality are dissipating, an idea that we will be drawing on to further explain the risks of a digitally dominated world.
Historically, we witness an order of improvement where one era is a springboard to an improved one (Black, 2022). The Enlightenment era was a big departure from the Middle Ages, which propelled it into the era of the Industrial Revolution (Black, 2022). While that pattern took place in societies that did not acquire half of the digital capacity we hold now, despite our technological capabilities today, history
does not seem to repeat itself. Rather, we have arrived at a turbulent time of chaos that pushes humanity back to an inferior state of being. To better understand this, let’s explore the current state of our time.
Our reality is a dual one consisting of a physical realm where we use our 5 senses of taste, smell, hearing, sight, and touch and a virtual one where we can send messages from across the world, view news in a matter of seconds, and shop using virtual money. We live in these worlds simultaneously, attempting to stay active in both. While there is no doubt that our technological worlds have grown in sophistication and complexity enough to aid humanity in such simple activities, this has had significant adverse effects on our advancement. Advancement arises through challenges and the need for humans to achieve a given activity. We have arrived at such an advanced point in time where challenges don’t exist anymore, and everything is available to us through a click of a button. This is a problem to the
improvement of our societies. Edward Tenner, a scholar at the Smithsonian Institution in the U.S. discusses “revenge theory”, a concept that explores the negative, unforeseen outcomes of technology that backfire on humanity (Kirkby, Rationality and Agency, slide 56). Tenner explains in one specific principle, “repeating”, that technology has made it extremely easy and faster to do tasks (Kirkby, Rationality and Agency, slide 58). For example, we no longer need to understand navigation systems, because google maps simply tells you what turn to take. We don’t need to access the part of our mind that utilizes the skill of navigation. We’ve become so reliant on technology that some of the most sophisticated skills that our ancestors struggled to learn throughout thousands of years are now
irrelevant. This is an attack on agency and irrationality. Technology today does not work for us, but against us. It has brought us to a point where using the skills that make us human difficult, thus leaving our species in a reliant and helpless state of no return and no improvement. Advancement should not
only occur in the technological field, but also in our human minds- our skills, passions, and mental capacities. It is concerning that technology is growing at a rapid rate while we grow at a gradual one, turning insentient systems smarter than we are.
Other than the loss of human capabilities and intellectual advancement, we experience a loss of selftrust and free will. Our ancient ancestor believed in an all-knowing God, maybe a king, or an absolute state (Black, 2022). Today, we’ve replaced that all knowing entity and put our utmost trust and belief in big data, whether we are conscious of this decision or not (Harari, 2018, p. 62). It’s not a secret that every second of our internet behaviour is recorded. When we use a platform like Netflix and spend our time watching specific movies and shows, we find suggestions of other similar shows that we probably would enjoy too. On TikTok, we see more and more of similar videos we like, share, and favourite. This
seems innocent, and even helpful. But what about when this algorithm goes as far as knowing you more than you know yourself? The consequences of big data may eventually push us to count on Artificial Intelligence to know who we marry, what we study, and where to work (Harari, 2018, p. 55).
Authority and decision making have shifted to external forces, thinning our sense of free will and self-control in the ability to think for ourselves and take calculated action (Harari, 2018, p. 56). You have stomach pain, you run to google to search the symptoms. You have a relationship issue, you run to reddit to find discussions on what you should say to your partner. The internet has become a concoction of external thoughts, opinions, and emotions- an unstable ground in which humans rely on. Immanuel
Kant was optimistic of human enlightenment, rationality, and agency as forces of change and enhancement of human flourishing (1784). We can predict through his passage in What is
Enlightenment? that he would disapprove of our current state of extreme reliance on technology and
would go as far as considering agency and rationality at risk. Kant expresses that allowing others to think or make decisions for you is a danger to humanity: “If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on--then I have no need to exert myself.” (1784). In modern terms, this would translate into what we previously mentioned as browsing the internet for answers or allowing AI to make decisions for you on what to eat, watch, or do. We have lost the ability to take supervision of oneself and act on our own values and experiences.
In simple terms, our rationality is impeded on. This prompts the question of: is it really sound to say that we live in a democratic space when we are under such a high influence from our digital world? Sure, politically speaking, in North America, we are able to vote for the proponent we want to see in office. Democracy in its textbook definition exists. But can we describe this as true democracy when our decisions are influenced by online emotions, campaigns, and cancel culture every way we look? At what point can we confidently say that these are our real, sound, and honest decisions and opinions? The big
business of data collection has given governments and companies an all-encompassing surveillance system (Harari, 2018, p. 66). They tailor their advertisements straight to us through our phones, the devices that are attached to us. It’s difficult to say that we practice true democracy when the opinion of an angry uncle online makes you doubt your own, or NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s video on TikTok dancing turns a Gen-z into a supporter because it’s relatable. In the past, humans were rational, seldom relying on emotions and feelings to arrive at an opinion. Today, we use feelings to reason through our feelings. (Harari, 2018, p. 49).
We often see people in our societies who like to live minimalistic or simple lives. Whether that’s through the decreased amount of spending or diets like the paleo one which replicates the eating
behaviour of the primitive ancestor. Spiritual leaders preach that seeking monetary pleasures such as the latest iPhone is unhealthy for our being, and some will go as far as travelling to a secluded village to live a life away from the busyness of society. This all points towards the idea that humanity is overwhelmed. We search for ways that take us back to simpler times. Humans don’t know what to believe in anymore and struggle to live a life outside the influence of big data. Our intelligence, the creator of the digital world is what brought us to this point. Ironically, it is an enemy to our rationality and agency and has propelled us into a world of chaotic consequences. Pinker (2018) says that Enlightenment, through our sense of agency and rationality moves us from an ignorant species to a skeptical one that celebrates science and Kant (1784) pushes us to question modes of authority. To do this, we must first realize that our digitally affluent world is doing more harm than good. Our intelligence drove us to a point where rationality and agency are impugned, impaired, and at risk in a digital world that seems to be moving us in the direction of no return. We’ve managed to exchange our most precious human attributes for the convenience technology brings.
Kant, I. (1784). What is Enlightenment? Columbia Education. (pp. 1–3).
Pinker, S. (2018). Chapter 1: Dare to understand! In Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism and progress (pp. 7–14). New York: Viking.
Harari, Y. (2018). Chapter 3: Liberty: Big data is watching you. In 21 lessons for the 21st century. (pp. 44–73). Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
Kirkby, G. (2022). COMM329 - week 3 -–Rationality and Agency. [Powerpoint]. Moodle. Retrieved from https://moodle.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/folder/view.php?id=564844
Black, D. (host). (2022) Week 3 Podcast – Rationality and Agency.mp3
[audio podcast]. Moodle. https://moodle.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/page/view.php? id=564839