We Cavemen Are Cyborgs

I've never made a secret of my affinity for Google. Their products and platforms drive, house and link—in some way—the majority of things I do professionally and personally. So when they roll out a WAVE or a BUZZ, I want it to work and I want it to work for/with me.

But here's the thing: 100% the time, when a new technology gets introduced into your life, you have an idea what it will do and how you will use it. However, both how you use it and what you use it for can and will change from what your original vision was—if only because the introduction to and use of this new platform changes your needs and wants—as well as you.

Let me explain it this way: If the foreseen function/utility/effect of new object "A" on your life "Y" can be described as "X", then the actual utility/function/effect of Object A on Y will almost always necessarily be "ΔX". That's not because the foreseen effects were miscalculated or misread, but because the introduction of A to Y necessarily changes Y, thus creating different and unforeseen functions/utilities/effects (ΔX).

Think of all the people who bought cellphones back in the mid90s "only for use in an emergency". That was the foreseen utility of the object, but as the object was integrated into the life of the consumer, the consumer's life changed—thus changing the function/utility of the object. Rate plans evolved to meet this new demand, and eventually this altered what the consumer required from the object—thus spurring the evolution of the object to incorporate new utility—and so on and so on. What you have there is the evolution of a species (remember this point, because I'll come back to it, I promise).

The introduction of new technlogies and platforms into our daily lives changes us, changes how we interact with our world and thus changes our world and lives. This is no earth-shattering statement. It's basic. But as we keep going, the iterative process of introducing newer, different platforms into our lives creates exponential changes in how we relate to/depend on/live symbiotically with technology.

Side note: You need to remember that I am, admittedly, a mere dilettante in this arena, and there is some insanely awesome/next-level thinking going on in the field of cyborg anthropology. My favorite of the bunch by far comes from a woman named Amber Case. So to really get hip, check out her stuff and dig it.

So anyway, back to BUZZ. From the moment it went live (this happened in the middle of snowpocalypse, so I was working from home and so had a few extra hours that day to explore and play), BUZZ was far more intuitive than WAVE. It scored far higher marks for immediate usability and functionality—as well as ease of connection to others (part of which can be linked to the privacy challenges folks surfaced almost immediately and that Google remedied in quick order).

And whereas WAVE was rolled out with a kind of "behind-the-velvet-rope" invitation system, BUZZ just kind of showed up. People just started using it. It just kind of exploded from there. But the effects of these two introductions were vastly different. Some folks got scared off, others dove in. It created a bit of cacophony, sure, but that all settled down.

The main issues I heard surfaced by colleagues and comrades regarding WAVE was that they A) felt like they needed to watch another "how-to" video every time they signed in B) had trouble locating contacts C) used it in clunky, inefficient ways to collaborate when they already used platforms like wikis, basecamps and docs to collaborate effectively.

Now I'm not here to weigh the merits of WAVE vs. BUZZ. I personally think time will tell. Troy Harlan said this the first day or so BUZZ appeared, and I tend to agree with him: "I get the comparisons between Buzz & Friendfeed or Buzz & Facebook or Buzz & Twitter, but comparing Buzz to Wave? Nope, not yet."

Troy was right and what got me thinking was his "not yet. " So here's my point: WAVE is like an automobile plopped down in the middle of a caveman village. Most of us can't really use it because we can't understand it. Hell, we don't even have roads to drive it on. We don't understand leather, let alone a stitched interior. We just mastered fire, so an internal combustion engine is like an eclipse caused by some otherworldly sun god hiding behind the moon.

The car in question is in perfect running order, but it's beyond our needs, wants or even understanding (in most cases). Now, there are a bunch of people out there who use and thrive on WAVE, so obviously some of my peers are not cavemen...let's call them sophisticated lords and ladies of post-enlightenment Europe. Bottom line is, most of us out there are running around bashing rocks with sticks and calling it cutting edge technology. We can't understand this car.

But maybe we can understand the wheel of this car. And that would be a pretty awesome leap forward, wouldn't it? Maybe we can break a piece off the car and utilize that. Maybe the wheels from the car are just what we need right now.

I see BUZZ as the wheels of the car named WAVE. It's just one piece of the ultimate platform/product, simplified and broken off so we can understand it, see why we want it and use it to our best advantage. Once we cavemen use the wheels, maybe we'll break off another piece and another, eventually getting to the car in total. Maybe not. Maybe we'll focus on building smooth paths and roads for those wheels to run on. Maybe by the time we get to the car we'll be on to jet packs and dirigibles.

You can't really say for certainty because it's all part of the imagined effect of technology in foresight vs. the actual effect of technology in hindsight. And that's all part of the iterative technology introduction/utility process I mentioned above. The function/utility/effect of BUZZ on users will alter what they do, what they need and what they are looking for next. And that's progress, holmes.

Darwin's natural selection is at work every day in technology—the technology kingdom is made up of genus, species etc just like the animal kingdom. The strong species of technology survive while the weak die off.

And each species lives, thrives and evolves (or eventually becomes extinct) based on its ability to become engrained and a part of our lives—while continually upgrading/evolving so as not to be replaced. Trace the development, introduction and evolution of any personal technology in the modern era and you'll see these patterns. So as BUZZ evolves and is utilized—or as the Ipad gets launched—think of Darwin and survival of the fittest and see where things go.

Because here's the truth: we cavemen are cyborgs. Our symbiotic relationship with, reliance on and utilization of all the technology that gets us through our days has evolved to the point where the "new" changes us while we progress to invent whatever we need/want "next".