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Sit down, pour yourself a drink, what dimension are you in?

Posted on May 14, 2011. Filed under: Uncategorized |

PREFACE: This is a little heady, and i definitely missed in places, but i think there are a few nuggets if you persist through the post. Sorry, wrote it on the back of an envelope on the street…

So much of the data we consume that informs  our decisions and our being is “pushed” at us, we do not “pull” or ask for it.  We place ourselves in contexts where we are likely to consume certain patterns of data, but it is the decisions and will of other individuals that move through the context in which we exist at any given moment that determine what we do and who we become.  A man walks by me in a purple shirt and a yellow hat and I am literally changed forever.  There is not a single moment of my life that will not be influenced by this occurrence.  My local decisions (where to live, where to eat, etc.) are simply attempts at placing myself into contexts in which those that move into them and therefore shape/define me will be of a type and quality that furthers me in a direction consistent with my concept of my future self/life.

In an analog life, people fearlessly move into a physical environment where others see and observe them.  They are conscious of the context which they have entered and there is a predictability around the result of their presence in it.  As we shift into a digital age, there are increasing numbers of those who view the digital realm as an extension of the context they enter (“physical/digital thinkers”).  They are aware that their position in space is not the only dimension they enter and act accordingly.  They have no fear of their visibility and presence in the non-physical dimension.  Those that grew up in a world where this dimension was not a part of day to day context (“physical world thinkers”), cannot process or understand their presence within it and therefor fear being “consumed” by others within it, despite the fact that they lack fear of similar self-exposure and consumption within the physical context.

One potential mitagant to this type of fear is a stronger feedback loop from the digital realm.  When a “physical world thinker” is observed in the physical world, his image, movement, words, and even affinities are observed by those within eyesight.  The observed can not only gauge reaction from thsoe consuming his image, but he can also make some assessment and observe “who” is consuming his image.  Although he cannot attach an identity to or attain certainty around the qualities of those within his physical context, he takes comfort in the consumption of even light  and insignificant data about those consuming him.

Conversely, when an image of that same person is captured within the physical world, but then housed in the digital dimension of the same “context” (i.e. a photo stored online), the consumed is no longer capable of seeing “who” is consuming him.  In neither dimension does the consumed actually know those consuming him, but without a visible and physical representation of those consuming, the “physical world thinker” perceives instability and lack of safety.  The “physical/digital thinker,” who recognizes this newly emerged dimension to context does not fear her presence within the digital dimension, as she can “see” it despite it’s lack of physical visibility in the moment.  She carries around a device in her back pocket (smartphone) which is a window into that dimension of her present context, accessible only seconds from the point in which she demands entrance.  We increasingly move between the physical and digital dimensions of our context, to the point where the “self” exists no more in one dimension than the other.  I believe fear of the self being visible in the digital dimension will one day be perceived in a similar vein to our present day concept of agoraphobia.

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