Co-evolution
Josh Porter wrote an article about the co-evolution of humans and technology, which I think should be expanded further. To start, a little background from the one semester class I took with Hod Lipson when I was in school (see his TED talk for self-evolving robots). Co-evolution is a feedback loop where the fitness function of one actor is defined by the fitness function of the other. You can think of it as symbiotic or parasitic. A symbiotic example would be the bacteria in your digestive tract evolving to help you digest while your body evolves to require their presence for healthy digestion. A parasitic example would be the arms race between antibodies and antigens - each continues to evolve to outpace the other. (There is an interesting discussion about the influence of evolving man-made pharmaceuticals and other biotechnologies on the natual co-evolution of antibodies and antigens, but I’ll leave that aside.)
To get back to Josh’s article, I think he didn’t go far enough. Yes, individual’s behavior does change in response to technology, but what if we think about it generationally. Compare children today vs. people born in the 1950s or 1930s. They have a technological intuition that is astounding compared to their parents or grandparents. How is that happening? Now, I’m not arguing that there is some genetically detectable evolution going on with regards to the cognition of technology. I do think there is a behavioral co-evolution (in the same sense that Josh intends) where technology creates a generation of children who intuitively grasp that technology, and as that generation ages will produce even more advanced technology (leading to yet another generation of children more intuitive than the previous).
Where does that leave us? I’m not sure, but I do look forward to an ever-increasing rate of radical innovation in technology.
Tags: co-evolution, science, technology
Joshua Porter said,
July 5, 2008 @ 3:02 am
Good point, David. I think you’re right about newer generations having better intuition about technology. I just read a piece on Clay Shirky in which he says that the big difference between him and his students (a different generation) is that they don’t have to unlearn things. In other words, they’re better at grasping new technology because they don’t have the barrier of experience. Experience, for all its value, can be a pain in situations of extreme change.
So in terms of co-evolution, I would say that perhaps we simply evolve (behaviorally) more slowly than younger folks, since we have habits we’ve built up over time.
Thanks for bringing this back to real terms…is it our behavior that is co-evolving with technology, or is it co-evolving with other people’s behavior, leaving technology as merely the means of communication?