A recent thought that has been swirling around my inner space has been the idea that technology may be using us as a resource as much as we use it. 

This calls upon the ideas of evolution applied to technological advances, in that those technologies that can replicate and evolve are driven towards self perpetuation, out competing bad or unfit technology.  If we look back in human advancement, it can be seen that the drive of science has worked hand in hand with the technology it helps create - as technology helps to push back our perceptions of the universe so new phenomenon appear that we look to fit into our version of order.  Fire leads to smelting leads to glaziers leads to optics leads to telescopes leads to astronomy leads to gravitational theory and so on.

Temes

Sue Blackmore talks of these ideas as independent entities playing on the idea of memes to create "temes"

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html

One thing I think everyone could agree on is that our technology could out survive us - in fact it could even destroy us if you believe fiction such as The Matrix or The Terminator.  It is a theme often visited in sci-fi; that our legacy may not be our organic forms, but our ideas and our creations that gain the ability to replicate and improve themselves without needing our interference. 

No Time for Technology

In these scenarios I try to think of the perspective as if time wasn't involved: firstly because I'm sure our perception of time isn't one that is consistent with every interaction with the universe; and secondly that time could also be just a man-made limitation that limits our scope.  With this perspective, an object exists not just at one moment, but in every moment it ever has or ever will.  Every atom that makes you up, used to exist in the middle of stars before being blown out in supernovae to reseed and settle on planet Earth and help create our ancestor.  Particles that have no mass, so moving at the speed of light, experience the entire history of the Universe in one moment.  This is a nice way of looking at things and makes me feel very connected.

"Don't worry! From the light's point of view, home and your eye are in the same place, and the journey takes no time at all! Relativity saves the day again."

And so it is with technology - thinking about the entire history of Technology (I will call it an object and capitalise) - if we and our creations survive then the evolution of Technology could feasibly become an entity within the Universe that could have great power and influence.  We can see what it has already done to our planet - with our help Technology is the greatest driving force of change affecting the Earth, one that has terraformed 80% of the planet's surface and could be classed as a geological period, Anthropocene.  (I would argue that the next period or maybe even this one should be called Technopocene - the era of Technology.)  What would Technology need to do if it ever has the power to reach back in time and create itself?  What would the small pebble need to be that would start the technological avalanche - a black monolith talking to ape-like ancestors?  A spark of abstraction in a sentient mind, allowing replication of stone tools?  Or just a strike of lightning at the right place at the right time making the burning bush? 

Moore's Law leading to the Technological Singularity?

The difference between this period with any other is that the pace of change is ever increasing, and is visibile almost before our eyes - whilst the gap between fire and domestication of animals took eons, today Moore's Law shows that a doubling of processing power occurs in half the time the last doubling occurred - as each new processor is produced the first edition is immediately put to use creating its successor.  People often talk about the Technological Singularity, a theorised time where this doubling process occurs second to second, although I think this may be abusing mathematical models, the same process that predicts by looking at current trends by 2050 the entire US population will be either in prison or working for prisons.  Trends change.

The disturbing thing for me is that it is now a Leviathan completely out of our control is all around us - no longer can a Renaissance Man read all the books that exist - the knowledge of one subject can preoccupy one individual all their life, as the volume of information (most of it arguably useless) balloons.  And the forces of information organisation looks to be driven by evolutionary principles - the strong survive and the weak die.  Within social media and the web this video describes the process fantastically and sparked off most of this blog posts musings:

God of Fire

Human beings are helping organise the world; could we then be regarded as a resource to be used up, as much as coal and water is used by power stations?  If evolution favours any information process that can replicate and evolve, are we the agents controlling that process, or are we just constituent parts? 

And so, welcome to the worship the God of Fire, Technology - the spark of innovation that has breathed life into most of the inanimate things around us.