I added a twitter widget to my sidebar. I think the concept is interesting. Its not enough to have email, or a blog, or telephone #, or RSS….now there is a way to feed your whole life….every mood, every action. The next step would a webcam that streams a picture of my room to the website at all times. Ever see that movie Ed TV?
The final step would be to steam your entire day…..actually, there is a guy that wears a webcam around his neck at all times and is basically broadcasting his whole life….like the Truman Show. Justin.TV is designed specifically for that.
I like the blog so I can write; however, all this connectivity makes me wonder how far it can/should go. Sometimes I wonder too whether it is altering us in some way; actually, in this case not so much altering as reflecting changes already happening.
The reported rise in Autism Spectrum Disorders makes me think. For the past 100 or so years society has really rewarded “systemizers”. These are people that see patterns well, are accurate (like a computer), and task focused. On the flip side, they miss social cues, obsess on insignificant details, and are unable to form meaningful (from a normal point of view) relationships.
I know that in basically 2 or 3 generations you wouldn’t expect to see natural selection at work…but maybe it does work that fast, or at least fast enough for us to see the uptick in “systemizer” disorders.
For a systemizer, something like twitter would be a way to interact. It could really replace human interaction based on their rules.
There are other explanations too…like 30 seconds of fame, a genuine desire to keep friends/family apprised of what you’re doing, or even “I would’ve done it before if it were technologically possible”. I think a combination of all that is the likely explanation….there are too many people interested in micro-feeds (twitter-like apps) for them to all be systemizers.
Regadless, the term “disorder” to refer to over-systemizers is interesting…because there are a number of folks with Aspergers and other Autism spectrum disorders that are saying, “We don’t have a disorder. We don’t need to be treated. We’re just different from other people.”
Its true but odd. They live fine. They just don’t relate in a “normal” way to other people.
I could envision a future full of systemizers where all people interacted transactionally….there would be no Aspergers, or other “non-emotive” disorders…because everyone would be on board. Those with disorders would be the “emotives”…..people who were overly sensitive or obsessed on insignificant social cues that didn’t affect the overall outcomes…people who were “dumb” (which means they were unable to see obvious patterns, and were prone to inaccuracies).
Why can’t you have both? Why can’t you be emotive and systemize? I suspect its a trade off brain wise. Not everything can have the driver’s seat. The brain is metabolically very costly (consumes 20% of our energy). If you focus that 20% on systemizing…you’ve got a lot of resources at your disposal…however; you can’t do both, as it would require a rework of the brain circuitry to pay attention to more things and require you to consume even more energy.
I read recently the “smart” people aren’t those who are better able to remember things, but those who are better able to forget. They have basically the same resources at their disposal (a brain with a 100 billion plus neurons) as “dumber” people, but they are better able to forget the non-significant and remember what they need to: ie. they focus on the important stuff.
What’s important? Well…that depends. If you’re a systemizer, then details and patterns are important. If you’re an emotive, then people are important. It depends in which direction you want to wield your metabolically costly, 100 billion neuron brain.
What about my brain? Hehehehehe. I am an emotive systemizer. I do have a special talent for being right in the middle…but that does mean that I am annoying to both the systemizers and the emotives as I’m not enough of either for them to totally identify with me.
There is actually a researcher (Simon Baron-Cohen) who divides the world between systemizers and emotives (he calls them empathizers) as well. I don’t know the guy but I bet he’s a lot like me.
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