Shall we cherish dignity in our high-tech world?

Everything is fun, until one’s expectations are crushed. I thought I was getting the convenience of online shopping for things that were previously literally unavailable. Instead, the local stores closed and I’ve lost the convenience of local purchasing. I thought I was getting expanded communication via email. Instead, I’ve been overrun by people taking advantage of the ease of access.

Today’s internet is largely shaped by a dialog between two ideas. One position considers personal data as a form of property, the opposing position considers personal data as an extension of the self. The latter grants inalienable rights because a person’s dignity – traditionally manifested in our bodies or certain rights of expression and privacy – cannot be negotiated, bought, or sold.

~ David Schmudde from, Beyond the Frame

In 1989 I was excited by what we could all do with the Internet. So excited, that in 1994 I quit a funded research position and dropped out of graduate school.

Acknowledging our fundamental dignity, recognizing our potential and actively working towards its blossoming with sincerity, patience, and integrity, is what makes a life worth living. There will be challenges, and new gaps will constantly open, but recognizing and closing these gaps will make a difference in absolutely everything we undertake.

~ Vincent Thibault

There’s nothing wrong with the Internet. There’s nothing wrong with people. The problem is in everyone’s failure to think things through. “Can” and “should” are very different animals. Until a plurality of people think things through—until a plurality of people stop delivering themselves into the power of ideas they do not know they have accepted—there will be nothing new under the sun.

I want to be very cautious when making observations at the intersection of biology and society, even if this is a part of biology that specifically deals with social groups. My purpose in looking at the Internet through a major transitions lens is that I hypothesise (for reasons detailed below) that the Internet’s role in a (broader) major transition for humans is more than just an analogy, and that looking at it this way informs our understanding of our troubled times, of the risks we face, and of how to address them.

~ Robin Berjon, from The Internet Transition

Okay, on second thought, there clearly will be new things under the sun. Going even farther out on the proverbial limb than usual, I’ll say: That article will change the way you look at technology.

The alternative is an interaction that creates a connection instead of destroying it. Where is the eye contact? Where is the dignity that comes from recognizing another? When we humanize the person at the other end of the counter or the phone or the Internet, we grant them something precious—personhood. When we treat the people around us with dignity, we create an entirely different platform for the words we utter and the plans we make.

~ Seth Godin

Dignity is the thread this week upon which I’m tugging. A little more than a year ago, I posed seven rhetorical questions in Dignity.

In that spirit, consider the two paradigms that follow, not as you would two spirited debaters but rather two paintings hanging at opposite ends of a gallery. You are in the middle, bathed in natural light, forced by history to judge their color and attraction.

~ Mark Helprin, from The Acceleration of Tranquility

The punchline from my Dignity post is: When one violates another’s privacy, is that only attacking their dignity? Isn’t that also diminishing their autonomy? Isn’t that also attacking their physical integrity? “But,” some say, “it’s just data.”

Today’s society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness.

~ Viktor Frankl

This idea has stuck with me for years. It’s now a sort of foundation that I take into conversations and the way I look at all interactions. The more it seeps in, the more I’m aware of all the spots where there’s related nuance I’d never before noticed.

The practice of politeness is a collection of habits of mind and expression you do on a daily basis. You learn to say “thank you” because you are honestly grateful and “I’m sorry” because you honestly don’t want to contribute to the pain of the world. You learn to say “it’s ok” because you’re honestly forgiving and letting go of small things other people do wrong. This practice makes the rate of unproductive and acrimonious conversations go down, and the enemies you make are usually only the unavoidably unpleasant.

~ Quinn Norton, from How to be Polite… for Geeks

Dignity, of course, is not just something Geeks need to practice cherishing.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

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