This book review first appeared in New Dawn Magazine number 172, January - February 2019.
© Brett Lothian
© Brett Lothian
Book
Review:
In The
Shadow Of The Machine: The Prehistory of the Computer and the Evolution of
Consciousness.
By Jeremy
Naydler
In The
Shadow Of The Machine is an accessible, in-depth study of the relationship
between human consciousness, technology and the computer. The vast changes and
ideas that paved the way for its creation and the dramatic effect that machines
have had upon the human psyche in the modern era, in this timely and thoroughly
well researched book. The author’s comprehensive writing style, coupled with
his skillful recapping artfully intertwines the subject matter into the greater
scope of the overall narrative, making what are quite complex topics both
easily understood and interesting to read. In this outstanding book by Jeremy
Naydler, we are taken along the fascinating journey of the human mind from the
dark ages at the very dawn of time into today, the age of the computer and in
doing so, we are forced to question the very nature of our reality, our current
way of life and our relationship to the ungodly creation we have fashioned in
our own image, the thinking machine,
AI.
This book
is not so much a history of the computer, machines and the differences they
have made to our modern life, but more a history of western human consciousness
and the radical changes that have taken place in our minds since the very
foundations of our culture unto today, the changes that have not only allowed
for the creation of automatons, machines and the computer, but made them
inevitable due to our ever increasingly soulless modern mindscapes and worldview.
The author highlights how in the bedrock of the ancient Egyptians animistic religion,
holding everything to be sacred kept in check their desires for technological
innovation as for them, first and forefront in their minds was a devotion to
the gods in their every act of daily living and being. For them, the gods were
not abstract concepts “somewhere else,” but the spirits of the natural world,
all around them, in everything, all of the time. Picture for yourself how
living with this worldview must have been, with everything being alive, interconnecting
and corresponding, amongst the magnificent monuments of ancient Egypt… A truly
magical earthly experience, something we have long since lost.
We are
shown how the threat of war and invasion drove the technological innovation of
the day almost reluctantly, how the rise of the clever man, the cunning
trickster like Odysseus was championed and how the move towards otherness, a separateness
from the divine led to the great philosophers of ancient Greece, more “logical”
thought. Naydler explains that whilst the gods of course lived on in the minds
of the ancient Greek, the philosophers such as Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle began
to dissect the natural world with reason, stripping it of its divine qualities
and replacing them with mere quantities and mathematics in a quest for pure
truth. With the creation of the ancient academies, a radical shift in the way
people thought began, away from inhabiting a literally divine world, to living
in a world of abstract concepts and logical thought, longing for an ‘ideal’
world as if the greatest minds of ancient Greece somehow sensed that something
had already gone terribly wrong. This change to a more technical, more cold and
logical way of thinking, would have profound implications for the western world
going forward.
Through the
middle ages we follow along the train of thought that would eventually lead to
the industrial revolution, forever altering the fundamental ways in which we
live and work. Science gained ever more ground in the minds of the times
thinkers, with religion beginning to be openly challenged for the first time,
logic, reason and the scientific method now held the promise of answering the
great questions and mysteries of life, such as electricity. Now under the
watchful eye of the mechanical clock, the human mind became even more detached
from the rhythms of the natural world and began living in the influence and
shadow of the machine. More than ever before, the world’s great minds focused
their attention on practically applying knowledge, not for its own sake or for
some higher metaphysical purpose, but for commercial success. Technology, long being
removed from the sphere of the priests and philosophers was now unchained from
any spiritual purpose or consideration, being turned towards the pursuit of
pure profit, what it did to us as people however was given little if any
thought.
The harnessing
of electricity, despite us still not knowing what it actually is, illuminates
the modern mindset, with our technical understanding far outstripping our
wisdom and maturity. Jeremy Naydler expertly explains how, In The
Shadow OF The Machine , through the long process of the changing of our own minds,
of changing the very way we think and picture the world, we have created a
completely new world that we are not yet adapted to, that is both redefining us
and our place in the universe around us. In an era of an ever increasing
reliance upon technology and computers for almost everything, the creation of
artificial intelligence and interconnected “smart” technology that we barely
understand, we now live firmly In The Shadow Of The Machine, if not right in
the palm of its cold, digital hand.
Examining
the philosophical and spiritual implications of the hemispheric shift in the
way we think and interact with the world, this fantastic exploration of the
human psyche and its projection onto the physical world, is right on time for
those who are questioning their reality, how and why it all came to be and
where we are going in the future. This important and deeply thought provoking
book should be read by absolutely everyone that has that itch in the back of
their mind, that something is very wrong with the world today.
