Humour

Are you ready to be pixilated?

T A Balasubramanian on how technology will make people inexpensive pixels in the near future.

Stepping in again into his role of the ‘Oddfather’, Dr Don Jong initiates another peppy interactive session with Bobo Jitter, the perpetually unsettled CIO of Bazooka Company. Recognized for the eccentric solutions that he confidently evolves to meet the quirky situations of his clients, Dr Jong bumbles on merrily through the labyrinths of IT and technology, drawing from his vast repertoire of stories and studies.

“You seem to be extra fidgety today, Bobo. What seems to be—ahem—the fly in the ointment?”

“Well, Doc, I feel dreadful thinking about the prospect of technology forcing me to become ever more remote from people.”

“Ah, you mean, you spend more time on the telephone, so you fear that it prevents you from directly meeting people?”

“It’s not just the telephone, Doc. I was with El Gizmo, my project leader a few days ago. He thinks we’re all going to become inexpensive pixels in the near future.”

“And what does that mean—becoming inexpensive pixels?”

“It is this rise of technology that enables you to be literally a convincing image with a voice—we see it already in cell phones with our talking pictures. We can act from a distance and cope with lots of information, and it will all be driven by pixels.

“And what does El Gizmo feel about this—pixel way of being?”

“El Gizmo was very excited. He told me about a TV news program yesterday. It was about this modern hotel that has a ‘virtual concierge’ who is actually meeting with customers and taking care of their needs from her home office over a hundred miles away from the hotel. There is a large video monitor at the Concierge Desk, so customers talk to her just as if she was sitting there. She is looking at them from her office, of course, and has the same online access she would have had if she were physically in the hotel, so she can order tickets, contact airlines, or whatever else her customers need. The technology makes her just as present as if she were sitting right there in the hotel—and the customers are just as happy interacting with her pixels instead of her in person.”

“And why did it create such excitement in our El Gizmo?”

“He now thinks that Bazooka should invest in technology that allows him, and everybody else, to be turned into pixels that can be sent on a teleconferencing system—mainly so that he can work right from his bedroom and not bother to commute to work any more.”

“Mmm. And why does it make you unsettled?”

“Apart from the fact that I like to see my IT people in the flesh each day, it perturbs me that we have reached a stage where technology just seems to make us all so isolated. Don’t you find it strange, Doc, for instance, that people seem to prefer to interact with each other in the digital domain rather than the physical?”

“It strikes me as unusual, yes. However, I do not expect that anybody—with the possible exception of El Gizmo, who, admittedly, is not your average ‘anybody’—will be advocating that one should live in a virtual ‘pixel cocoon’ in isolated places and never meet face to face. After all, we are gregarious animals and we like to gather around our watering holes and interact in the flesh—seeing and noticing subtle facial expressions like smiles and grimaces, exchanging handshakes or even hugs and pats.”

“That is indeed reassuring.”

“All this preference for physical proximity has something to do with our animal origins, my boy. If we notice the society of monkeys, you see that they travel in close bands, pulling each others tails, grooming to establish close bonds and exchanging chatter constantly.”

“How is it that we don’t physically groom each other as much as our monkey cousins?”

“Oh, that is purely because of the inconvenience.”

“Why is it inconvenient?”

“Well, my boy, apes and monkeys, our closest kin, differ from other animals in the intensity of these relationships. Grooming is a way to forge alliances, establish hierarchy, offer comfort, or make apology. So all their grooming is not so much about hygiene as it is about cementing bonds, making friends, and influencing fellow monkeys. However, once a population expands beyond a certain number, it becomes impossible for each member to maintain constant physical contact with every other member of the group. So for humans, grooming as a way to social success posed an early problem: given our large social groups of 100 or more in a typical community such as a village, our earliest ancestors would have had to spend almost half their time grooming one another—an impossible burden.”

“I see what you mean, Doc. We would all be sitting around trying to get our daily fill of grooming, and we would get nothing done.”

“Precisely. But being creatures of inherited habits, we have discovered something even more potent than grooming to keep our physical bondage intact—something we do not even consider seriously.”

“And what is that?”

“Gossip. Or what would be called chatter among monkeys. In his book, ‘Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language,’ my fellow psychologist Robin Dunbar looks at gossip as an instrument of social order and cohesion—much like the habitual grooming with which our primate cousins pander to their social relationships. Now what Dunbar suggests—and his research, whether in the realm of primate studies or in that of gossip, confirms—is that we humans developed language as a tool for exchanging juicy information morsels about each other. It serves the same purpose as grooming, but far more efficiently. It seems there is nothing idle about pointless chatter. It binds together a diverse, dynamic group—whether of hunter-gatherers, villagers, soldiers, or office workgroups.”

“Ah, so all that backroom banter and tattling has a purpose, after all.”

“Indeed it has. We have always needed gossip to stay closely connected. We still need it in ways that will not be satisfied by mere pixels or digital forms like teleconferencing, email, blogs or any other communication technology—howsoever advanced. As Dunbar explains, the impersonal world of cyberspace will not fulfill our ancient desire for face-to-face contact.”

“Exactly my thoughts, Doc. So how do I deal with El Gizmo and his new-found passion to be pixilated?”

“Indulge him. Let him stay at home. Let him be pixilated and see if it is something that works in practice.”

“What? And what do I tell the others who may demand the same treatment?”

“Bobo, we may like to cling to our old ideas about having physical togetherness and we may even make rules to meet and indulge in our gossip sessions. Yet, on the other hand, we are only distant cousins of the monkeys and we should recognize that technology has made us what we are today. Do we not write fewer letters on paper because we have learned to indulge in email? Do we not call people and speak our hearts out on mobile phones?”

“I guess we do. Maybe Bazooka could think of making video conferencing available to all those who want to be pixel images.”

“Voila! Think of the productivity gains if you can have online video interactions that are as good as the new HDTV pictures. El Gizmo would show up on your screen and smile or frown the same way he might in front of you. Sitting in your living room, you can always turn off the picture, catch the gossip on your favourite blogs, and resume your work at Bazooka Virtual.”