Step 2: Determine Your Best, Wisest Use of Technology
Note: This is a rough draft. Still to do:
- Minor modifications to add and contribute content
- Full attributions and references
In his book “What Technology Wants”, Kevin Kelly defines technology as “any construct that is not naturally occurring; something that is invented”. The constructs he defines go as far back in time as humanity itself: tool usage by the Cro-Magnon people, language, and agriculture are three examples of technology. Everett and I are not here to discuss or persuade readers that adopting language or farming methodologies is favorable to one’s development of their digital bodyminds. In fact, most people assume that such technology really isn’t; the common parlance is to think of technology that is strictly computer- or software-related. However, the examples I used describe how inventions and advances in technology are ever-present and have been with us since humanity started.
This step takes a journey into how to come up with one’s best, wisest use of technology. For the most part this discussion involves the physical layer of humanity: what and how we interact with technology itself. A further discussion of building a digital bodymind and some of the current technologies to do so are covered in Step 3 and 4.
Before starting a discussion on the best and wisest use of technology, it is essential to understand some of the trends that are occurring as of February 2011.
Some Technology Trends
At a high level in the digital world, there is a confluence of using communication and computing technologies together. This is an extension of what Jeremy Rifkin describes in his book “The Empathic Civilization”; humanity is advanced by technological breakthroughs in power production and communications technologies. This has been apparent when we look at breakthroughs in communications and computing technologies over the past two decades. For instance, widespread usage of cellular telephones didn’t happen until around 1990. Even then, cellular telephones used to be as big as backpacks or shoulder bags. Mobile internet access wasn’t available in any widespread capacity until 2001, and using tablets as computing devices had a very rough start until the iPad had its commercial success in 2009. So some perspective is required when we look at the trends in computing and digital technologies, as they have arrived very quickly and will evolve even quicker.
One lasting trend is the availability of connectivity to the Internet, especially using wireless technology. Consider that wireless Internet and computer communications has existed since the 1980’s with amateur (ham) radio operators as “packet radio”. Yet commercial solutions were hardly approachable until the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. The development of wireless routers and access points have allowed for near instant connectivity to the Internet. Over time, one didn’t have to even need an access point to connect to the cloud; mobile access provided by cellular telephone networks has become an increasingly attractive and available option in the past few years. No longer do you need to have a wire attached to a desktop computer to get Internet access in parts of the world. If you have access to a cell tower, you can check your e-mail.
Another huge trend that is expected to continue is the increasing use of mobile technology. Besides cell phones, this includes the use of tablet and laptop computers. Advances in producing electronics have come a long way since the first computers were built using discrete logic components in the 1970’s. I had a laptop for two years in the late 1990’s, but it was bulky and lacked significant computing power. Chris Guillebeau managed to build his entrepreneurial empire using expensive satellite phones, ship-to-shore (or even radio/satellite) Internet capability and the latest computing technology (mobile or otherwise) in 2003, but that was a relatively rare occurrence back then. Now people like Everett Bogue, Tim Ferriss and many others can instantly publish content and be productive as long as they have internet access and a device that can connect to it. This has opened up a way of being location-independent without requiring a princely sum or inheritance to travel while being fully sustainable in one’s career.
Mobile technology also extends to applications that can be used to assist with tasks that used to take dedicated people and resources to accomplish. For instance, I remember having to telephone into the airlines or using travel agents to buy airline tickets. Even Southwest Airlines existed without a Web site for several years before being one of the first to allow for online booking of air travel. Just recently, Everett used ZipCar to rent a car for a few days without him ever setting foot in a rental car agency. He used an application downloaded onto his phone to find a car, book it, and unlock it once he found where it was parked. Recently I booked a three-week trip and priced airline tickets using applications on my phone. One can even check in to board an airline and show a scanner code to the gate attendant, bypassing the step of checking in to a kiosk and printing a paper boarding pass. There are more examples of this that extend way beyond travel, but these are just a few examples of what is possible now and what will become more prevalent.
One more advance occurring in the digital world is the building of miniature online communities. With the advent of mobile technologies and ubiquitous Internet access, people have found a way to communicate and connect with each other, bypassing gatekeepers and extensive searches to find people who have similar interests. Social networking sites allow for instant connection and sharing of content and information with group sizes ranging from a few people to the entire world (i.e. Twitter). Participation into these technologies will be discussed further when we look at the key players in the social media space in Step 3 and how they can be used in building your digital bodymind in Step 4.
Internet access, mobile computing, and building online communities are three key advances in technology today that Everett describes in Augmented Humanity. With this in mind, we can have a conversation about choosing the best and wisest use of technology.
Best and Wisest Technology Usage
It’s important to understand when we discuss “best” and “wisest” is that not everyone will have the same solution. The conversation about the best and wisest use of technology lies fully within yourself. Not everybody is going to adopt technology at the same rate and with the same amount as your neighbor, your co-worker, or someone two continents away. Age, technical capability and the openness towards the adoption and experimentation of technology go a long way in determining one’s use of technology, but it doesn’t describe everyone.
Having said that, technology is evolving towards allowing for more connectivity, more mobility and more freedom in its applications. Technology is best used by someone when it solves a perceived need or allows for an easier, less painless solution than previously thought of. Also, there is a shift in the mass consciousness from consumption to contribution that cannot be ignored. Therefore, the best and wisest use of technology will depend on being clear on what you would like technology to help you solve and what you can leverage to be productive and a contributor to society. This means the conversation to yourself regarding your use of technology – regardless if it is for entertainment, productivity, travel, communications or anything else – needs to focus on a) what you can contribute; b) what you best do; and c) what you choose not to do or would like to avoid doing based on the current process that you do use to complete a task.
For example, Everett uses only has three primary pieces of technology: a laptop, a smartphone, and a Kindle e-reader so he doesn’t have to boot up his computer to read. Within that, the software he uses is primarily focused on content creation, contribution to social media sites such as Path, Twitter and Instagram, and travel needs (like Zipcar). Your solutions may be and will likely be different. A chef may need something to hold their database of recipes and allow for easy inventory calculations, thereby eliminating waste in their restaurant business. A real estate investor or agent may want to have an iPad available to show options for buying and selling properties in a given community. The possibilities are endless and are only limited by the imagination, but it requires clarity on what you want technology to help you accomplish.
There are some additional considerations when it comes to choosing the best and wisest technologies. First and foremost is the amount of choices available to everyone. Anyone who has visited a big-box electronics retailer like Best Buy or Fry’s understands that there is a massive amount of technology available to everyone as long as they can afford it. In this case, it is best to adopt the minimalist framework when it comes to acquiring technology. No longer is it a necessity to have one gadget to perform one task unless there is a personal preference to one technology over another (i.e. A Kindle e-book reader versus an iPad). The less technology required to solve a problem, the more physical and mental freedom you will be able to enjoy because of requiring less total upkeep of the gadgets that you own.
It is also easy to get into the “analysis paralysis” mode of not being able to choose technology, or worse, holding off until “something better” comes along. As Kevin Kelly said, technology evolves along similar timelines as humanity. Demand for technology evolves with the evolution of the technology itself, though they may not be as well-correlated as you think. When choosing technologies to use in your life, allow for some play and experimentation and be clear on what will and will not satisfy your current needs. If something doesn’t fit or doesn’t appear to exist, communicate your need to the cloud. There might be answers out there that someone has that can best help you solve your perceived need. I’ve found the global online community has run into a similar problem as I have, and most searches using Google come up with a viable offer to solve a problem. Therefore, it is in your best interest to understand how to construct Web searches and extract information from the Internet instead of committing the facts themselves to memory.
With the conversation about the best and wisest use of technology complete, we can start to look at building a digital bodymind while also using some platforms for communication. The next step in the Augmented Humanity HOWTO describes some of the most common social media platforms and tools available on the Internet and how Everett and I approach their use.