Dreams of Utopia and the Zombie Apocalypse

Abstract

            Thesis: In spite of the wonders of our latest technologies, humankind remains prisoner to its evolutionary heritage.

            The basis of this conversation originates from The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson where he poses the questions: “Where do we come form? What are we? Where are we going?” and answers with a chilling insight into human nature. The utopian potential of information technologies is informed by ‘Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus” by Douglas Rushkoff, who offers the prospect of hope in the digital future of humankind.

            Fundamental to Wilson’s argument is the central idea that co-evolution of biological and ‘social intelligence’ separates humankind from all other species in the animal kingdom, which over the millennia has enabled humanity to proliferate and dominate the natural landscape and life forms.  

            Rushkoff relates how the nascent power of information technologies to promote unfettered proliferation of ideas that transcends boundaries of socio-political-economic status, education, race and religion also provides tools that could overcome addiction to economic growth and be replaced by productive sustainability.

            However powerful these innovative technologies may be, human nature’s drive for conquest has managed to impose its primal patterns of colonization to hijack this digital realm in a way that dehumanizes and commodifies modern life, in spite of utopian aspirations by its technocratic creators. The unintended consequences of this accelerated human and technological footprint upon the global ecosystem lays the groundwork for a potential Zombie Apocalypse: an eventual consuming of life-giving resources that support human existence.