This morning, I woke up to my alarm ringing. I turned it off and went back to sleep. I could have woken up and gone about my day, but I exercised my free will and ignored the alarm. Though there are deterministic arguments that would disagree with my claim about free will, for the purpose of clear argumentation, let’s assume that I possess the ability to freely choose between waking up and going back to sleep. Because of my actions, I was rushed to get ready and didn’t have a good morning. We can recognize that I have a responsibility to wake up on time, and my bad morning was a consequence of my failure to follow it.
Making free choices and having moral responsibility over them is what makes us human. Now, imagine if I had a computer chip in my brain, and I was manipulated into ignoring my alarm and going back to sleep. Not so free anymore. I no longer have moral responsibility over my actions, and the consequences of those actions are not mine to bear. This is an obvious infringement of my free will and humanity. On the grander scale, due to recent intellectual and societal advancements all of our free will has been compromised, which will inevitably lead to the complete loss of individuality.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy dubs the system of free will as categorical analysis. By definition, if I have the ability to choose, decide, intend, or try to go back to sleep after my alarm, I possess the free will to do so. Reintroducing the computer chip idea, if a third party is infringing on my right to choose, decide, etc. my actions, by categorical analysis I lose my free will. In the current technological world, this chip can be made. Not only that, we’ve already been suffering from this control for a while. With the rapid advancements in this century, every year the grasp technology holds on us becomes stronger.
In the book, “Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now,” Jaron Lanier describes this technological hold as behaviorism. Through algorithms that monitor and predict our behavior, companies spanning across all industries are psychologically conditioning our behavior. He mentions that “[w]hat might once have been called advertising must now be understood as continuous behavior modification on a titanic scale.” This argument has been exhausted and explained to us in a million different ways. What is less explored, however, is what this means for our free will and individuality.
If a third party, for instance, Google, constantly feeds us carefully crafted cues to act in a certain way, though not entirely controlling, our free will is being attacked. The hold that these cues have over us has been growing at a threatening rate. An exponentially growing amount of screen time and online shopping have led to a far more easily influenced society.
Technology is an attack on our free will, but what does it have to do with individuality? Following the rise of technology and communication is globalization. Globalism is the practice of operating economic policy on a global basis, but its effects span much further than just economics. The world is becoming increasingly social, and the spread of Western ideals is drowning out other systems of thought, and individuality along with it.
Following the Cold War, professor Benjamin Barber wrote “Jihad vs McWorld,” an article addressing the change in global culture. He outlines the two major global cultures in the world currently. Jihad, the first ideology, is a non-Western school of thought centered around tribalism and preserving individual culture. This is the antithesis of the McWorld culture, which centers around globalism. McWorld globalism leaves little to no room for any culture besides the most economic one — spending money.
In the Western world, and increasingly everywhere else, this globalist ideology is spreading. With it, undoubtedly, there have been many improvements, such as the spread of agricultural technology and humanitarian aid. There is a dark side to these improvements, however. The spread of new (Western) ideals has taken away many individual cultures and traditions from natives with long-standing histories.
One example of this is the loss of indigenous languages around the world. According to the World Economic Forum, 1,500 known languages may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. Hand and hand with this statistic is the rise of English speakers and learners in all corners of the globe. English is replacing many lesser-known languages, which is leading to global Westernization. Sure, having a uniform language in different parts of the world is economically advantageous, but the drowning out of smaller cultures is dangerous.
People are increasingly pushed towards a monogamous “West” centered culture. With this, people lose their identity and heritage, something that is a defining trait in personal identity. Soon, we will all speak the same language, follow the same social structures, and have the same values. We are heading towards a global culture where individualism is sacrificed for the sake of advancement.
If our will is manipulated and crafted for us, can it be free? This future scares me, and it should scare you too. To fight it, we must hold new technology to a higher ethical standard and focus on cultural preservation rather than modernization.
Or we can turn off the alarms and go back to sleep.
