Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, used a particular illustration many times to explain the potential of the personal computer for the betterment of humanity. He would begin by explaining a study that was done with animals to measure the efficiency of their modes of travel over a distance of 1 kilometer. The study placed condors at the top of the list since they need the least energy to travel the given distance. Humans, on the other hand, appeared about a third of the way down. We are not well adapted to efficient transportation.
In an interesting twist, the study added a factor to the human locomotion measurement. They looked at our efficiency on a bicycle. The impact of the bicycle cannot be overstated. The bike made humans the most efficient traveling creature by far, leaving the condor in the dust. The use of tools is an advantage for humans. Our advantage is as thinking and creating beings. Applying that advantage to problems is a game changer.
Jobs’ point is quite in character to the life he lived: “And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” He pursued this idea with gusto, to the point where he put a personal computer in our pockets. He conjured up a device that is essentially the Swiss Army Knife of our mental lives: the smart phone. Our phones, laptops, and desktop computers are truly the “bicycle of the mind.”
This technological revolution forces us to ask an important question: “Are our technological toys benefitting our thinking in the same way that bicycles did for our locomotion?” I find myself answering this question “yes and no.”
My reasoning for the “yes” is simple. Computers are obviously enabling us to reach greater and greater heights with our thinking. Beyond that, they are increasing the speed of our accomplishments to unheard of levels. We are even on the cusp of inventing technology that does our thinking for us. We are nearing the point where our inventions begin doing the inventing. The truth is that computers have impacted our thinking potential far more than the bicycle impacted our locomotive potential.
The reasoning behind my “no” is a bit more complicated. While computers and smart phones have multiplied our greatest asset (our brains), they have also multiplied the weaknesses in our thinking organs. You see, the human brain is designed to do far more than just think. Our brains also perform functions that are necessary for our survival and thriving. Our brains steer us away from danger and into pleasure, for example. The pleasure mechanisms of the brains help us find food, reproduce, learn, form communities, etc. The problem arises because our technological toys excel at more than just improving our thinking potential. They also trigger those pleasure centers with startling efficiency. Herein lies the problem. Steve Jobs’ “brain bicycle” impacts our pleasure mechanisms so efficiently that it can begin to short-circuit how our pleasure seeking mechanisms work to advance our survival.
As an experiment, go to a crowded park or restaurant and spend some time observing families and peer groups. You will quickly notice a lot of people spend their time together staring at their phones. This is happening because apps, notifications, social media likes/comments, apps, games, and all the other bells and whistles our smart phones come with push the pleasure buttons in our brains. We interact with each other to meet our emotional needs. Meeting those needs pressed the “pleasure” buttons in our brains. That system kept us seeking connections. Now, the smartphone and its technological family press those buttons without meeting our relational needs. Social media likes and comments
on our posts do not meet any of our internal needs. The result it addiction to devices that have usurped the social institutions that fed our souls. There is no “bicycle” replacement for the age old social technologies of family, friendships, and marriage.
I would argue this is one of the main reasons our culture is turning more and more often to anti-depressants to deal with life. We are looking for an “emotional bicycle” to fill the void in our lives created by the unintended effects of our “thinking bicycles.”
I own several bikes and love riding for fun, health, and transportation. However, I decide when it is time to start riding and when it is time to stop. I am in charge. Our “brain bicycles” should be no different. We should consciously choose when to put it down. Beyond that, we must realize that we have to put it down and turn to the bicycles of the heart and soul: our marriages, families, friendships, and churches.
