Society and Man under the Sign of Virtuality

The virtual Triad, outlined in this essay for the Honeywell Futurist Competition 'Be Brilliant', is a processoriented model that offers both a taxonomy of different technological developments and a frame of reference for the analysis of resulting social impacts. This essay is based on the general assumption that a need exists for such a sociologically informed perspective on the new media and technologies, as the following quote from Howard Rheingold suggests:

The virtual triad as a model of virtuality in modern society offers two main features:

The process of virtualization is the main process of the virtual triad. At its center stands the diffusion of virtual realities - virtual worlds, virtual databases, virtual networks, ...etc. - and their embedding into the social fabric. In the course of virtualization virtual realities are becoming more and more an important part of the daily life of modern man. Thus, life in the 21^st century will be marked by a multitude of virtual and non-virtual lifeworlds, which will compete with or complement each other.

The technologies of data processing, telecommunication and the technology of 'virtual reality' are the three core technologies to be identified in the process of virtualization. Within the field of data processing the tendency of a steady increase of processor performance and reduction of size will continue to prevail during the next 25 years. In the field of telecommunication, higher capacities will become available thanks to optic fibre and satellite networks. Furthermore, the convergence of telecommunication and information technology leads to 'telematic technologies', which will finally result in a digital, multimedia 'supermedium', described by Beat Schmid in the following way:

Another core technology for the process of virtualization and the evolution of cyberspace in the Gibsonian sense is 'virtual reality' (VR) technology (see Gibson 1986, 67). The aim of VR is the precise stimulation of the five human senses in order to create an accurate simulation of reality and a full experience of immersion. With different HMD (head mounted display) technologies a perfect stimulation of the visual sense will become likely within the next 25 years; in the field of accoustic stimulation the aim of VR is nearly reached through digital sound and three-dimensional headphones. Still, it is doubtful whether the haptic, olfactory and gustatory senses can be stimulated perfectly within the following decades, as until now only small steps have been made. The key technology, however, could be neurotechnology, which would make an exogeneous stimulation superfluous thanks to neuro-silicium-couplings in the respective regions of the brain.

In the course of the process of virtualization a digital code, which is based on binary arithmetic with the digits one and zero, becomes the dominating code for processing, transmitting and storing data, gradually replacing the original, analog codes. Through this convergence to one standardized, digital code a common format for handling data and media evolves. Pictures can be processed and edited as well as voices, music, video films, journals or a book. The common digital code makes it possible to send and receive all data through the same channel.

Besides digitalization, virtual databases will increasingly be linked to each other within networks and can thus be accessed independently of time and space. This evolution of networks is already observable in many ways, and influences both workplaces, public institutions, educational institutions, libraries and exchanges or financial markets. Thus, the means of data transfer are as irrelevant as the storage media - e.g. electromagnetic disks, harddisks, tape streamers, RAM chips or CD-ROMs - on which digital data is saved.

New technologies are more and more becoming a part of everyday life in modern society. In that sense we can speak of a virtualization of daily life, whereby virtual realities will increasingly overlap the non-virtual lifeworld. The remaining part of face-to-face communication will be substituted by mediated, virtual communication within the next 25 years. As a result of these new possiblities and necessities, virtual relationships and virtual communities evolve.

One of the foundations of the process of cyborgization was laid by Norbert Wiener (1948; 1954) with his concept of the 'cybernetic automaton'. He described the leitmotif of cyborgization as follows:

The most important technological developments of the upcoming 25 years concerning the process of cyborgization will most likely evolve in the field of nanotechnology, bioengineering, neurosciences and bionics.

The history of medicine is also a history of opening, decoding, exploring and invading of the human body. Nowadays, there is a considerable amount of invasive and non-invasive technology available, whereby especially angiography, magnetic-resonance-angiography, endoscopy and computer tomography are most prominent. However, our visual and accoustic senses are being improved as well through invasive artificial devices, for example through permanent contact lenses which are planted directly beneath the cornea, or cochlea-implants, that are directly placed into the cochlea of the human ear.

This process of prosthetization can be observed with exogenous prosthesis, worn on the outside of the body, or endogenous prosthesis, which functions within the human body. Examples of cyborgization through exogenous prosthesis are pagers, mobile phones, personal communicators, palmtops or multifunctional watches, while heart pacemakers, artificial limbs or retina-implants are good examples of endogenous prosthesis.

In the course of the prosthetization the natural body is being disposed of and gradually left behind. Thus in the following 25 years man will keep on trying to get rid of the imposed, bodily restraints and to overcome the limits of nature, a development described by Peter Gross as the

The process of bionization is diametric opposite to the process of cyborgization and aims at the assimilation of machine to man, whereby the machine becomes a biological-technical hybrid. The process of assimilation takes places both at a hardware and software level, where technological developments in the field of bionics, neuroinformatics, artificial intelligence and artificial life play an important role.

The final goal of bionization is the creation of virtual and non-virtual artificial life. Thus the process of bionization - as well as the process of cyborgization - will fundamentally change the relationship man-machine and man-technology and lead to a new definition and re-evaluation of this ambiguous relationship.

The discipline of bionics designs machines and electronic parts following the model of biological organisms (see Steele 1995, 55). Thanks to such an 'Èlectronique embryonique' smartifacts are created, that work more efficiently and better than common artefacts, as biological principles have been formed and improved in a thousand-year-long selective process of evolution. Thus in the near future neuronal computer systems, smartifacts and products which are based on biological principles will increasingly be embedded into everyday life. "Intelligent" neuroprosthesis, for example, are researched within neurotechnology, that are able to interact with parts of the human neural system (see Eckmiller 1990). Thus, within the next 25 years, biocomputers based on biochips with neuron-silicium-interfaces will appear that support a further merging of man and machine.

The key problem and at the same time the biggest challenge for any assimilation of machine to man lies in the development of bionization at the software level. No consensus has been found so far within the research field of artificial intelligence what intelligence actually is, how intelligent behaviour could be measured and whether intelligence can be actively created or just simulated (see Minsky 1986; Moravec 1996). In spite of many criticism from different perspectives (see Dreyfus 1985; Weizenbaum 1985; 1994; Rammert 1995) this discipline is expected to make advances within the next 25 years.

The implicit goal of the process of bionization is the creation of artificial life. To this end, two general approaches are taken: the creation of artificial life in a virtual environment, e.g. within a computer system, and the creation of robots for non-virtual environments.

The discipline of robotics (see Randow 1997), which could also be called the entering of artificial intelligence into the real world, has not yet achieved any significant break-throughs. The virtual approach, however, has been successful in simulating flora, bacteria and viruses in virtual environments, whereby genetic algorithms and neural networks are responsible for reproduction, the sensory system and interaction with the environment. It can be assumed that both approaches will achieve several break-throughs within the next decades, that will bring us closer to mankind's old dream of creating artificial life, a dream that can be traced back into human history over several millennia.

The three processes of the virtual triad outlined above are closely linked to each other. Through the convergence and the social impact of the three triadic processes, the reality of modern man in the 21^st century will be changed dramatically within the next 25 years.

Man as a 'cyborg' (Clynes/Kline 1995; Haraway 1995) in the 21^st century is an 'artificial man' (Lem 1996, 31), who looks better and has better physical abilities than genuine man. Physical capacity will then depend solely on technical advances, whereas intellectual capacity can be improved with the help of bionic brain implants. Such a 'homo cyber sapiens' (Steels 1996) is the logical answer to the information overload of modern society.

The process of cyborgization leads gradually to the leaving of the human, natural body and the gradual casting-off of natural restraints. Thus cyborgization harmoniously joins the programme of modernization, always trying to improve everything, and at the same time fulfills the old human dream of individual immortality and full control over nature.

Virtual realities and virtual worlds are becoming part of our daily life as a result of the process of virtualization. Depending on individual lifestyle and preferences, modern man of the 21^st century will spend a significant part of his day in virtual worlds, within which we will work, communicate, inform and entertain ourselves. Virtualization also opens new opportunities in different areas of daily life. With the end of 'monogamous work' (Gross 1996) telecommuting makes it possible for the individual in modern society to become an enterprise, a 'one-person company' (Nohria/Berkley 1994, 123) or 'infopreneur', and to hold a portfolio of gainful occupations (see Dance 1994; Fischer 1995). At the same time. a decline in importance of the immediate, geographic neighborhood and the family network takes place within the private sphere of daily life, resulting in a gradual dissolution of community and social structures. Through virtualization, however, alternative means of communication and social networks spring to life. These enable experiences of interpersonal relationships and community independently of time and space. Virtual worlds, created through the process of virtualization, are becoming the new social spaces that are available to the cyborgs of modern society as an alternative world to non-virtual daily life.

The newly-created worlds of entertainment and simulation have a strong fascination for man in modern society, because they offer a more beautiful and better world, compared to the one that is perceived by a non-virtual look out of the window. In virtual worlds everything is possible: you can change your identitiy and your looks completely and at the same time enlarge your non-virtual portfolio of roles with any virtual role of your dreams. Virtual worlds of simulation are beyond time and space and are under full human control, and thus they let the dream of omnipotence come true. The project of modernity lies heavily on the shoulders of modern man in the 21^st century, and this pressure for more can only be sustained through technological progress. A global abandoning of the 'coercion to correct and improve the world, man and oneself' (Gross 1994, 412, translation by the author) is thus very unlikely and the dynamics of the project of modernity will further be accelerated by the processes of the virtual triad.

And the categories of beauty, sickness and impediment continue to be defined within the media, which dazzle us with supernatural standards and at the same time accelerate and justify the processes of the virtual triad. For 'the media is the pacemaker of the optionizing of all realms of being' (Gross 1994, 40, translation by the author) in modern society and thus the most important catalytic agent of the project of modernity.

In 25 years a multitude of virtual worlds will exist as a consequence of the processes of the virtual triad. These worlds will temporarily be inhabited by partly disembodied man-cyborgs and by an abundance of artificial lifeforms that behave in a more or less intelligent way.

These virtual worlds will have excluded non-virtual aspects of daily life to a significant extent, as they offer space for work, leisure, entertainment, communication, relationships and community. Only the basic functions of the human body will still play a role in the non-virtual part of life, as long as they haven't been substituted by the process of cyborgization.

In the course of this development a multitude of social questions and challenges emerge, that have to be tackled, researched and brought into social discourse as soon as possible. It is important not to forget that any new technology cuts both ways, a fact that Stanislaw Lem describes in his witty aphorism: