http://www.en.monde-diplomatique.fr/2001/05/14idleness
Le Monde diplomatique, May 2001
IN THRALL TO THE COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY
Slaves of idleness
Internet, cell phones, videophones, virtual reality devices, computers,
modems, data banks: the communications industry is taking over.
Productivity, utility, management are the watchwords.
But are we masters or servants of our devices ?
by LUCIEN SFEZ *
Information highways, despite the hype, are no more than a combination of
telephone, video and computers, as are the gadgets telecom engineers devise
for the future. They are all really just cell phones plugged into the
internet, linking with fixed stations, videophones, virtual reality devices,
computers, modems, data banks, tradesmen, managers, repairmen. All are
logged in to technical, social or professional networks.
There are no black holes, no negatives, no opposites in this joined-up
world. Everything runs smoothly in electronic silence. Even the occasional
audible signal can be turned off. Communication is easy when all it involves
is using machines to connect with machines. If you want to stop
communicating, to enjoy your own company, all you have to do is put down the
handset and switch off the screen.
Anyone using such machines is free and happy in a world of instant
communication, without time to think ill of himself or of anyone else. The
long term doesn't exist in this world, only short-term gains. The
communications industry dreams of productivity, utility and management, the
watchwords of homo communicans.
Homo communicans is inseparable from his communication devices. They are his
life and he takes on their characteristics. He is their servant as much as
their master, but he is unaware of his chains because he believes himself to
be in control and as powerful as the machines. They make his life easy.
Everything is positive, everything in its place. There is no price to pay
and no other side of the coin in what Douglas Coupland, in his novel
Microserfs (1), calls the "flatland of cyberculture". Cyberculture uses the
language of clans and communities but it does not share their reality, for
to join the clan, you have to make sacrifices. And in cyber flatland the
only thing to fear is the loss of the machines: breakdown.
When I asked Martin Landau, an eminent researcher in organisation science at
Berkeley, California, about theories of communication, he replied: "Do you
know why the 747 is the safest aircraft in the world? Because it has four
separate control systems, one for each engine. And the pilot also has a
manual control system separate from those four" (2). It seemed a strange
answer. In aviation, breakdown means death. But breakdown in communication,
loss of relationships or position, is also a kind of death, the end of homo
communicans, who lives by communication and is defined only by the links his
machines give him to other machine-bound human beings. Think how people
panic when their computer or television breaks down or their phone is out of
order. The gap in their lives causes real distress. These machines have
become part of us; we have become part of them. When they break down it is
like being in pain, the fear of it is a nightmare.
That is the system's only contradiction, the only conceivable misfortune.
The fear of breakdown has replaced the old apocalyptic fear of the devil,
and it is only the threat of that breakdown which gives life and feeling to
a system that has none. This is the communication system's last vital
opportunity. In his book Anatomy of Criticism (3), Northrop Frye shows that
the Apocalypse is a text that advocate union between the city, the
individual and God. And just as fear of the Apocalypse exists to serve the
Christian faith, so fear of breakdown exists to consolidate the cult of the
computer.
But homo communicans, ignorant of the sacrifices of communication, does not
know this. He thinks he is always on the winning side, not knowing that in
order to win you also have to lose. He doesn't know what he is losing.
Driving for you
Machines are created for productivity and efficiency, and have unexpected
consequences: they make men into idle and superfluous creatures who no
longer do much on their own initiative. Men are assisted in everything, even
getting to work, since with their self-guided cars they can dream at the
steering wheel until the device tells them they have arrived. The old
hauliers' slogan "driving for you" now applies to us all. As technology
continues to develop, homo communicans faces a future of total, profound
idleness. And the first signs of this are already visible in our daily
lives.
We let machines remember things for us, from our address books complete with
telephone numbers and email addresses to the management of bibliographies,
texts, business meetings, accounts, planning. Our voice, or better still a
synthetic one, answers for us, recorded once for all time. We open doors and
change channels on the TV remotely. We are not far from spending our entire
lives in a semi-dormant state.
Our listlessness is encouraged by the sense of security we derive from all
the surveillance devices that surround us. Idleness goes hand in hand with
freedom from fear, a sense of comfort, of being safe, warm and protected.
With sophisticated devices to watch over us, there are no enemies to worry
about. Voice and face recognition, digital fingerprints and cameras with
access codes free us from fear of intruders.
If they do not need to defend themselves, people's existence begins to seem
pointless. As if they are present by accident and might as well not exist.
Machines do human work to perfection, while people are clumsy and hesitant
and make mistakes, trying falteringly to follow a pattern. The idea of the
human brain as the poor relation of the all-powerful computer has lead to a
sense of powerlessness and futility. Our memories have grown unretentive but
we don't care; the business of remembering is being safely managed.
Contrary to common belief, homo communicans of the future will not suffer
from pressure and stress. Why should he? His mistakes will be corrected by
machines. Society with its faults of inequality, poverty, war and death,
will be corrected by technology. This world where communication is all will
not be fast-moving, but slow, inactive, contemplative, full of play. Not the
slowness advocated by Pierre Sansot (4), the slowness of taking time out to
enjoy life and savour the pleasures of fruit, fresh air and dreams, but an
enforced slowness, reassuring and with no place for expectancy or surprise.
Homo communicans is good at dreams and contemplation, and his dreams will
probably generate new ideas for communicating machines, more invention and
innovation. That may be the real work assigned to human beings in the future
of communication since the rest, engineering and production, will be done by
machines.
Plato warned young philosophers against books, which he likened to dead
memories that replaced living ones on the pretext of being more convenient.
He said that writing and books make for idleness, making the reader passive.
His advice seems archaic (today's educators would give anything to get
people to read). But although the medium has changed, Plato's message has
not. We are still handing our obligations over to an external device. From
Plato's viewpoint, the idleness resulting from freedom from work done by
machines idleness would be evidence of enslavement unworthy of human beings.
* Professor at the University of Paris I - Sorbonne
(1) Douglas Coupland, Microserfs, Flamingo, London, 1996
(2) Critique de la communication, Seuil, Paris, 1988, third edition 1992.
(3) Penguin, London, 1990.
(4) Pierre Sansot, Du bon usage de la lenteur, Payot, Paris, 1998.
Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
************************************************************************************
Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion
list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic
study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
*************************************************************************************
|
