Cyborgs and Eskimos

My mother, not at all a 21^st Century type, recently visited and commented that students seemed almost to have their cellphones growing out of their ears.  It struck me at the time that this is the first step in the cyborgization of humanity.  In particular, the people who use the Blue Tooth hands free cells remind me of the Borg on the TV series, Star Trek, the Next Generation.  All of which sparks some thoughts on “appropriate” technology and the future of humanity.

Where do Eskimos come into this?  Well, the Inuit population represents a group that had developed an exquisite technological adaptation to an extremely hostile environment.  In the bleak circumpolar regions where most dwellers in more temperate climes would perceive few possibilities for survival, they managed to carve a relatively comfortable niche.  Indeed, most 19^th Century European polar explorers depended upon the good graces of the Inuit for their survival.  Where that assistance was not available, as in the famous case of the Hecla and Fury, they died almost to a man.  Chalk one up to “appropriate” technology.

But wait just a minute, Inuit populations to this day make use of local resources (mostly marine mammals and caribou) for their subsistence.  However, the seal bladder buoys, wood and bone harpoons, and walrus skin kayaks are long gone.  In their place are the gleaming products of Euro-American technology.  It is also well to remember that the life expectancy of those 19^th Century Inuit was probably only in the 30s.  Although still tragically low relative to the European descended populations of the US and Canada, it has still climbed appreciably.

Consider also, a true cyborg wirelessly connected to a database dropped into the Artic wilderness.  Just as the Inuit had a culturally derived appreciation for the resources available and method appropriate to access them, the cyborg can call forth the information from her database.   That data collected by generations of Inuit and the anthropologists who observed them, would probably represent the essential margin between life and death for the stranded cyborg.

The point: appropriate technology is that technology which allows individuals to cope successfully with the environment in which they find themselves.