Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Our Digital Extended Phenotype

The way we interact with the web today is becoming an extension of ourselves, it's our Extended Phenotype as connected human beings. Like Richard Dawkins book describe it in his book The Extended Phenotype, I feel like what we do on the net is part of ourselves, and what we see on the net influence who we are.

We feel connected to things that are way out of our body sphere of influence. Like the famous tweet from a quite funny American in February: “Only Australians are crazy enough to complain about mowing the lawn in the middle of night when there is 10 inches of snow outside!”

Our posts, our pictures, our friends are linking us to this thing that is “us on the web!”. It grows in size, it grows in influence, we have a strong urge to check “its” state every time we start to be a little bit bored by our real life.

Since the beginning, a lot of “troll” use this extension of themselves likes it does not have any moral limits.

But, because of the growth and the quality of these web connections, the actual human impact of our actions on the web is a “real” impact. More and more of us start to “behave” on the net and follow the Wil Wheaton's rule.

I love my new extended phenotype, and I'm getting ready for big impact!