Welcome to the new era of the human mind. This era is defined by the presence of the computer and other forces of synthetic nature created by the human species. We define this technology by the development of tools that effect the way we think about science, philosophy, mathematics, and our own presence in the multiverse - I would even add that the concept of multiverse is a product of modern technologies influences. With this thought in mind we can seek the understanding of how this has happened in both modern and old historical knowledge.

Before the computer, technological advancements have affected the way the human mind thinks. The start of these technological advancements do not have a date which we are aware of, but we do have an idea of what they were. The beginning of our future in tools and all inventions started with some basic, fundamental discoveries which started the domino effect to what we know today. The first of those would have been the discovery of fire, and then onto the shaping of the wheel and other such events. In the same periods the move to a hunting, gathering culture also was a drastic change to society. All of these first achievements in human history would have had a huge impact on the mind and body. Of course, I also would mention a relatively recent advancement in human culture, the industrial revolution. The few centuries this encompassed are arguably the most mentally and physically influential time period in recorded history. The ability to mass produce the same object allowed the western world to turn a page into the what is now know as modern technology. Being brief, as we look into history for answers to present day situations - in this case the mental change from technology - we do not have to look long to find even more significant changes in past events.

This post is not meant to give any history lesson, but to be a realization of the effect of the computer on the mind. So let’s continue on.

The past few decades have been something of wonder. Something as basic as a box has evolved from a machine the size of a modest house with little more power than a dozen accountants. To the same ability in a fraction of size. This box was now small enough for the average user, but lacked ease of use and functionally for the user. This was the case until a little over a decade ago when the Graphical User Interface (GUI) was introduced to the majority of everyday users (Yes I know apple introduced it earlier and even Xerox before them, but we must admit Microsoft was the first notable for everyone). Now in that short decade we are in an era where the possibility of sixteen terabytes of memory is a proposed theory, and we can have all of our life memories in picture, video, text or whatever format, all on a box the size of your hand. No one can argue that the advancement of the computer has progressed faster than any other technology in the whole of history.

All of these physical advancements have lead to the more digital and unknown advancement of things like the internet. With this new super power to connect the world, we have broken through the barrier of communication and created unlimited possibilities for the entrepreneur.

With all these changes in such rapid time period the average mind has yet to evolve to the level necessary to fully compute these changes. As generations die out we will evolve to a level at which everyone is familiar with the computer, and it will dominate our world. Still we must be aware of what this box of power and functionality has done to our mental realm. Because of this lack of understanding, we find our conscious and subconscious overwhelmed and sometime confused. To evolve our mind we must become aware of the influences of the computer and how to deal with the modern changes.

As we find ourselves in the confusion of the abilities and vastness of the computer, our brains come to the awareness of spectacular insights. We are so aware in our subconscious of the infinite possibilities of the computer and its processes that often we find ourselves in the paradox of profound idleness. This is the feeling of finding yourself in the presence of something so extraordinary that you are incapable of departing. The computer at its simplest form is able to perform the task which we find ourselves painfully exasperated with. To the common user these functions are unexplainable. Then this overwhelming feeling turns the user aware from the pure form of power, or because it seems unbearable the user comes to rely on the machine.

This is true in almost all advancement throughout the course of history. If the common user could find not find the ability to trust the new technology in their own usage, then the new product would most likely cease to develop. On the other end of the spectrum, we find what is happening more in today’s market - the number of users who find themselves taken in by the functions of the product’s features or abilities.

The mental state that this creates is one of a perplexed purpose in the essence of aura. You divide your mental capacity between the subjects of comprehending the actions involving your activity and the matter of looking forward at a faster rate or evaluation than previously possible. If you took one activity, such as writing out your life’s finances on standard pen and paper, and then compared its time to the same task done in a spreadsheet program or other financial aid, the end result would be that of a higher productivity level in the latter of the two. You not only achieve the result at a much higher pace, but your efficiency is an entire new level.

The initial reaction is all behind the vastness of the developed world’s citizens today. Some exponentially large number of users interact with computers everyday and disbelief is a thing of the past. What we do face today are the other effects on the mind that involve the computer and other usage set forth by the digital age.

These things include a profusion of events which are directly related to or include some of the following which I have outlined.

The acts which reflect upon one’s mobility.

It is no argument that the computer has a lasting effect on the populous’ activities. As is, you cannot deny that fact of America’s ever growing obesity, a statistic that is rapidly steering upward in the younger population. This truth corresponds with the growth in technology. The majority of our appliances are developed to make life easier. The simplest form of action is that of no physical movement. It is far easier to sit and do your job than to labor over the same end product. There is no objection to this. I think this is a benefit that we should relish. All progressions made should be that of simpler use and faster, cheaper development. All of these are reflected in the advancements of the computer and other similar products. We cannot rid ourselves of the need to use technology to further advance our productivity, nor can we try to avoid it. The evolution either needs to proceed into the ability to understand when the limits of effectiveness are overused or even underused. There are ways to manage your time effectively while achieving maximum amount of benefit, however, all of these systems are not built into any. By managing our time effectively we not only increase our amount of useful time in the day, but hopefully you can also achieve the body and health that is recommended.

Understanding the functions of existence.

Like many things in life we know it works, but we don’t know how or why it works. Consider electricity - we can use it, manipulate it, even store it - but the fundamental properties of its existence are still unclear and in debate. Even if the limited number of great minds or even if a supercomputer could compute the definition of electricity, the complexity would be far too vast for the simple conscious to understand. This is true with many of advanced sciences, maths and other courses that invoke the mental processes. This lack of understanding is usually acceptable because the user does not directly interact in an aware state with these speculations. This coincides with electricity, people know and understand its use and ability to some degree, but do not understand its properties. All of this is true when you look at the direct interaction with the common computer whose force of power is electricity though its circuit boards.

When the object you are in touch with has an ability to function at much faster and adaptive rates than the conscious mind, you sometime tend to abuse the understanding of the situation. This, too, is part of the lack of critical thinking in the world. The computer is a tool that the user must master to unleash its fullest potential. When you think about it, what other physical tools do you own or use that you do not understand its abilities to the fullest? The basic functions should be understood if any user is to find the tool and prolific force in their day to day job. When the tool does its job, like finding the directions to your destination, add an equation, play a game of solitaire, or any other job the computer can attempt, the user does not require the ability to fully understand what is happening beneath the hood. When you multiply this effect by the hundreds of tools that are or will have this same dependency, you find that the only knowledge the user fully understands will be the functions of turning on the device. The populous must learn to think about what is the cause before the effect if we wish to create further advancements.

Separated the population, while congruently bringing it together.

What do you do while on the internet? If you are the average user, while being an avid one, you most likely are: Reading your email, checking the news, chatting with friends, watching videos, or maybe even writing your own blog or contributing to a website. Whatever you are doing you are most likely somehow interacting in some online social community. This not only includes social networking like Myspace or Facebook, but any other form of communication with someone other than yourself. For some this would be online forums, a chat application, a website that allows you to comment on the material, email, and all other means of conveyance. What you are doing is placing yourself in a new dimension of socialization. One might say dimension number one is that of the physical world taking part between two objects directly speaking to each other. This does not include body language or telephone. Dimension two would be that of the body. The gestures your subconscious mind recognizes and informs your brain of the feelings or mood picked up by those directly around you. The third dimension takes place on the telephone, where your voice is transmitted thought signals traveling though wires and towers. The last dimension that I wish to talk about is the one that takes place on the internet and other forms of communication that do not include speech or body language. All of your emotional feelings regarding the person or persons with which you are communicating are through the form of text. What does this do to your perception of the situation? First, you are instantly denied the privilege of understanding the person through the two most dominant forms of communication, speech and body language. Without these benefiting factors, it is very hard to get the your attempted point across, and finding the way to achieve this requires an immense skill in writing and creativity. As these forms of communication become more popular we must be aware of the lack of ability to understand and be understood.

My point in the preceding paragraph is to emphasize the change in communication with the coming of the digital age. Things such as online calibration bring both benefits and negatives to both parties. With the abilities to work in groups from across the globe without being present we open many possibilities of freedom from communicating restrictions. I expect to see large numbers of people eventually moving to more respective locations when their jobs have different requirements. If this does happen then we can expect to see a change in development in both rural and urban areas. We might see a separation in the physical socialization that we undertake in everyday activity, namely our coworkers, but maybe we will find ourselves in the involvement with simpler people. With the ability to live in the smaller towns in unpopulated areas, the culture of the urbanist may become that of a rural society. Some of the traditions and habits of rural societies may become part of our new day-to-day job. However, like all things previously mentioned, it will be one of the many possibilities whose future will only be determined by time.

Disproves the previous possibilities of potential.

The last point I would like the emphasize is the basic effect the computer has had on our thought processes. I touched on this earlier so I will only briefly go over this, but an important part of our new interaction with the computer is the way it changed how we perceive the world.

Lets start by asking what all has the computer taught us? It has taught us new, faster ways to perform calculations, thus changing what we previously thought possible in the world of mathematics and other sciences. The computer has also given us the ability to communicate over distances in less than a millisecond, thus reconstructing our belief that distance was incommunicable. One of the less talked about features of the computer is the size. Just a few decades ago the computer was required to be housed in a multistory structure due to the size. This giant computer could only perform a handful of functions even compared to a modern portable phone. Size is no longer a issue and thus proves to our mind that even an object so small has the ability to perform an uncountable number of functions. One last example of some of the beliefs the computer has changed is the new lack of security in previously unknown dimensions. Before the computer a criminal usually did some form of physical actions that disagreed with the area’s laws, but now a criminal can be someone who steals your credit card number that was stored on a online server, a person who attempts to lure young children into unsafe positions, and a criminal could be just an normal person who downloads something for free when it is normally paid for. All of these bring a new feeling of insecurity to the world’s citizens, essentially people have a valid feeling of being unsafe even in their own private homes.

All of the mentioned examples are a few of many possible mind changing effects the computer has had on society and the individual. Some of these are positive changes that open our conscious to the new possibilities of explanations, but some are negative, and we will have to adapt to these changes if we are to feel secure once again.

These highlighted possibilities are some of the most likely situations that we can come to expect in the age of tomorrow. This will be the time when the virtual world shapes the physical reality and the new systems become par with even our minds. This is, however, the future, and the thoughts of this post are centered around the present scenario and how our brains react and change to these situations. Modern times require modern minds is a saying I have made for this evolution of our mental thought coinciding with the evolution of technology. Our minds have evolved into a form of idle/active state that takes part while we are interacting with the computer. I believe this state is a positive new development in our productivity and ability to communicate with the ever expanding world market. Without an ultimatum of negatives that is a by-product of the expansion of computers and digital communications we find ourselves changing more rapidly than the more aged can adapt. When the generations born into this era of technology become the issuers of a new standard, the market of digital technology will reach a unimaginable limit and our brains will truly be interconnected with that of a fabricated machinery.

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