A Man and His Computer: An Issue of Adaptive Fitness and Personal Satisfaction

• Authors: Tommaso Toffoli
• Venue: UMC '02 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Unconventional Models of Computation
• Year: 2002

Today man is living in a natural and social ecology extraordinarily different from that in which he evolved. Computers and communication networks have become an integral part ofour world's texture; in particular, they provide the "nervous system" for a variety of superorganisms among which and within which we live.Paradoxically, even though computers were introduced by man, the technological, commercial, and social superhuman "animals", thanks to their greater evolutionary plasticity, have been more ready than the human individual to take advantage ofthe computer's capabilities. Though this new environment provides us with a rich assortment of external information services and appliances, so far we have not gotten from computers much help in the way ofextending our very selves--nothing comparable, for example, with the deep, intimate empowerment given by literacy.We argue that an extension ofour personal capabilities and an attendant enlargement of our own private information space are possible. The computer, in one ofits many possible impersonations, will provide the additional processing power needed to support these extensions. But material instruments will have to be matched, on the human individual's side, by the acquisition ofnew competencies. Hardware is not really an issue: what is needed is the crafting of a new culture (in the standard sense of 'and integrated set of tools, skills, and traditions'). Thus, we are not thinking as much of a "bionic prothesis" as of a computational literacy culture as naturally integrated with one's person as other acquired cultural habits such as living in a home, playing a violin, or reading a book.The design of a culture is no doubt a delicate engineering task; one that involves both humans and computers will be doubly demanding. In this paper we shall examine and try to arrange some of the pieces of the puzzle: What is desirable? What is possible? Can we identify an evolutionary stable strategy? What are the scientific issues and the technical problems involved? What do we know already? What do have to study next? Who shall do what? Who shall pay for it? Who, if any, will be threatened by it?