Inoculating ourselves from the Hive Mind, Pt. 1

Many models of social evolution point toward the idea that Man is evolving into a superorganism. Technology is trending such that the collective consciousness residing primarily in the Internet, outweighs the consciousness of the individual. The number one news source in the world is constituted as an endless barrage of poorly-researched 6-10 second clips fed by an algorithmic feedback loop based on users' narrow preferences, which provides a junk food diet of questionable information to the populus. This is not a solid foundation for individual reasoning, but the collective hijacking of the intellect and will.  This collective will tends toward particular ends, which when viewed in the macro, look more like a hive mind and a hive will created from the ruins of individual minds and wills. The hive mind is capable, and even particularly adept and agile when it comes to making decisions and coming to conclusions, but it is at the expense of individual minds and wills, which are left to atrophy.

We see this reflected in the tendency of individuals in developed societies to think less and less critically. We also see it in the societal overvaluation of people who do think critically, or at least who seem to be capable of thinking critically. How often have you, reader, gone to see a film and then immediately looked up video essays explaining the meaning of the film, without first trying to discover the meaning for yourself by thinking critically? How often have you yourself parroted a pundit, or a podcaster, without first asking yourself what you believe about a given issue? Our society is too easily impressed by anyone who retains the conviction that they have the ability to think critically about an issue. This is because our ability to discern good reasoning from bad reasoning is in a weakened state, and is malleable, susceptible to influence. Whereas in bygone eras, humanity respected those who rose to the top of public discourse for their debating skills or the depth of their thought, now anyone can create a platform wherein their reasoning demands respect by default, or because it is ostentatious enough to capture public attention. A podcast microphone equates automatically to a certain level of default ethos, regardless of what words are pronounced into it.

All of this has changed the way we as individuals socially process events in the real world. The cycle of socially processing events used to be as follows:

Thing happens - > Subject thinks about said thing -> Subject comes to a belief from their own reasoning -> Subject discusses with associates-> Subject changes or solidifies belief.

However, with the current state of technology, a person more often will parasocially process, and the cycle changes:

Thing happens -> Subject absorbs (algorithmically fed) media related to thing  -> Subject comes to a belief based on media diet -> Subject may discuss belief with associates (who have probably gone through the same media diet)-> Subject's beliefs most likely further solidified by echo chamber.

In addition, the echo chambers created in this cycle become increasingly disparate and hyperbolized. Most people would agree that what they are being fed is a significant distortion of what is real, because what they are being fed usually is oriented towards the benefit and power of others, rather than the good-faith informing and enriching of the life of the individual consuming it.

Thus, I believe that not only is the information provided to us of lower quality, but also the individual capacity to reason is becoming an endangered phenomenon alongside it. In the society in which I live, I am convinced that a person could live an entire life without thinking, or at least without thinking too much or too hard. I don't have to learn, because machines will do the learning for me. I don't have to formulate a response, because machines will formulate it for me. The machine intelligences will chew my food for me and regurgitate it in liquid form into my brain. I trust the machine to give me the role models and influencers which I can respect the most. If I don't know something, I'll just google it. I don't have to know where I am going, because the machine will tell me where to go, what street to turn on.

As a result, the individual by himself becomes listless and empty because he is incomplete without his machine, and therefore he is dependent on it for everything. The color in the world drains, because the individual is not capable of receiving or processing the real without the assistance of the machine, because he never developed the tools in his mind and will. He cannot comprehend the relationships and the events in his own sphere of physical influence because he does not know how to receive them, metabolize them, or enrich them in any meaningful way.

I believe this ultimately is dehumanizing, because humans are social animals whose primary identity is found in relationship (Thats why your gravestone will most likely describe you based on who you were to others in your life- for instance, Brother, father, husband, etc. - that's a tangent for another day)- and relationship is constructed by the interplay of difference and similarity. Each person has something which is shared and something which is unique and unshareable. We will not find fulfilment through merely melding into a single consciousness, because this on some level requires the abandonment of the truth of the self. And if we follow this path, we will experience deep frustration at the incongruence between our needs and our capability to ensure that those needs are being met.

I have a few ideas which I believe will help the individual immunize themselves against the draw of the hive mind. 

1. Write. I began this blog because I realized that I enjoyed the challenge of having to incarnate my thoughts on the page, even if there are no readers. It started as writing book reviews. I was invigorated that I could be the one in the driver seat, that I could say my own thoughts and give my own analyses. When I would go later to research what others thought about the books, I was always surprised to see ways in which my views harmonized or deepened theirs. Even in situations where my "takes" were different, I became less and less afraid of being "wrong". I cared more about having the courage to say anything at all, rather than saying the "right" thing. 

Through writing, I gain more ability to articulate my thoughts, and I also grow in appreciation for this faculty. I learn to trust my own thinking more. I think that blogs require effort and patience to interact with, and they are not so easily reducible to clips and tweets. Essays, pamphlets, articles, columns- These are the media which allow for the development of complete and well-ordered thoughts. Even if your ideas are "bad" or "wrong", merely the exercise of incarnating them on the page is valuable toward inoculating yourself from the hive mind, because you will have exercised and strengthened this muscle, and will already be in the habit of thinking when challenges come your way.

2. Fast from media. This forces you to have to process events, silence, inactivity, nature, being, relationships, and reality itself on its own terms, through your senses and your cognition. You will have no way to hide, redirect, or isolate. You must then choose to plunge yourself into the richness of reality, and allow your senses to be re-attuned to the pace and flavor of real life.

The above examples are pretty self-evident. The remainder of this essay will appear less concrete and more "speculative". It will certainly take a part 2 to substantiate, but I wanted to throw it out there because the picture is incomplete otherwise.

Now, these types of inoculations cannot affect natural evolutionary processes. It's true that we need communion with others, and that society continues to grow in interconnectivity. On some level, the superorganism may be inevitable. But is there a way for us to allow evolution to continue without compromising our integrity as capable, thinking, persons?

Finally, I would like to propose that there is a legitimate and perhaps even desirable means by which humanity evolves into a superorganism. What's more is that this superorganism, distinct from the one outlined above, is realized in a manner which emphasizes the experience of the senses over digital dissociation, the primacy of individual thought and will over its deadening, and the unique unrepeatability of the individual over its death. Conversely, it tends and hopes toward a union of heart which is far more integral than the aforementioned example, because it is rightly oriented and involves the whole person, especially the soul. Its serious members all spend 30 minutes or more each day in silence, disconnected from distraction, listening to the movements of their hearts, and discerning the path laid out before them. This superorganism predates the internet, and in fact it has been gradually gathering strength for the past two millennia without any real existential threat. You will laugh when I reveal what this superorganism is, but I think it may be the most successful, plausible, and functional example that one would ever be able to find. It is the Body of Christ, and in a particular way it is the Body of Christ, as incarnate in the everyday goings on of the Catholic Church.

3. Join the Catholic Church(?)

The aforementioned statement will require a part II to delve into, but for now, reader, I want you to receive what I have written, and process it as authentically as possible. I don't care if you agree. I care if you think.