In the depths of the largest power outage in North American history a cyborg, an artist, and a philosopher took a bath in hot tub together.
The cyborg was U of T’s own Steve Mann, professor of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. Mann, who claims to have become a cyborg at the age of 12, is best known for his creation of the wearable computer. He was joined in a hot tub by two Frenchmen, “virtual reality artist” Maurice Benayoun, and “cyberspace philosopher” Pierre Levy, who holds the chair of Collective Intelligence at the University of Ottawa. The purpose of the hot tub was more than recreational-the three men came to examine and debate the influence of technology on modern life. Derrick de Kerckhove, director of the Marshall McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, moderated the debate at the DECONISM Gallery, across the street from the AGO.
The hot tub was supposed to be more than just a nice soak, with “microphones and cameras projecting the communal bath into another spatial reality”. Due to the power outage the bathers found themselves illuminated by a mere three light bulbs, powered by some generous audience member’s car engine.
Despite the setbacks, the debate heated up considerably throughout the evening, with most of the conversation exploring personal cybernetic devices. All three agreed that cyberspace is transforming the world we live in, most importantly by adding a whole new dimension to the way people communicate.
Benayoun stressed that cyberspace “will clearly be a full part of our experience of reality, it will be in every piece of our environment, every tool, every object, everything we wear, everything we do wear will be completely submerged in this cyberthing, and so we have to think about how we’ll…start dealing with these materials as a real piece of our environment.”
Levy went so far as to state that the creation of the Internet is nearly as important as the invention of a written language. Writing allowed human societies to record ideas and information, revolutionizing society by increasing people’s interconnectedness. As Levy put it, “writing added a new level to the collective intelligence.” As our world finds itself becoming increasingly connected today, so Levy said, “we need a new level of collective intelligence that is at the level of our interdependence.” He advocates that we try to expand the Internet beyond the written or spoken word, into something new and revolutionary.
Mann brought up some of the social ramifications that arise with the growth of technology. Having augmented his body with various pieces of electronic equipment for decades, including sensors, cameras, and visors, Mann has often found society hostile to his devices. In the paranoid and hyper secure world following Sept 11, Mann had a $500,000 wearable computer confiscated and destroyed by security personnel at an airport. Finding our modern world overly constrained and monitored, the cyborg “found that the places that were most hostile to [him] were those that had the most video surveillance.” Mann has a great interest in what he calls “sousveillance”, surveillance from below: civilian monitoring, through such instruments as personal cameras and web logs (or “blogs”, online diaries).
Left to ponder the implications of technology upon the way we all think, interact, and perceive reality, attendees of the event leaving the gallery were greeted by a city without any power or any idea of when the lights might come back on. One audience member asked “are we sure we should seek to increase our dependence on technology?”
