The Abstraction Machine

1. Abstraction

An abstraction is a representation of something, using something else. Another word for it would be a symbol, or a reference. A wedding ring is a symbol of marriage. The word “banana” is not an actual banana, it’s just a reference within the english language. Or you could draw a picture of a banana. The famous René Magritte painting “This is not a pipe” plays on this theme, because although it depicts a pipe, in more literal terms, it’s just a painting.

2. Who cares

Nobody except René Magritte, from what I can tell. But we should, because abstractions are quite dangerous.

3. An Ancient Warning

Consider the old proverb: “The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.” It’s a fun little saying, but it’s not so much clever as it is a warning. The warning is that it’s in our nature to confuse our references with reality, and then get lost in them, like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

And yes, that sounds a little fantastical on its face. But recall that our ability to think abstractly is not just philosophical banter- it’s the single skill that launched humanity to the top of the evolutionary hierarchy. Located in the frontal cortex, our ability to manipulate abstract concepts was so important that our brains began growing too large to fit through the vaginal canal. Evolution of course solved the problem by birthing partially formed brains that require many years to develop.

And those brains have been quite busy.

4. Abstractions are Everywhere

Abstractions are so common they’re practically invisible, but make no mistake, our entire society is built on them:

• Words (Representations that allow us to communicate like we are now)

• Math (Double abstractions: variables + quantity)

• Maps (Representations of space)

• Money (Representations of value)

• Computers (Abstraction into binary language)

I could go on, but considering the start of that list, hopefully we can agree that representational abstractions are everywhere, and intrinsic to our existence.

But do we really have a problem confusing them with reality?

5. Money & Value

In early human history people kept economics nice and simple. They traded valuable things for other valuable things (eg. a goat for a knife). But as civilization grew larger and more advanced, we started trading symbols of value instead of the actual things. For example early banks issued receipts for items left with them for safekeeping, and people began trading the receipts, because it was easier and made no difference to the transactions. Except it did. Because the Bankers soon realized they could create additional fake receipts, and nobody would know.

And thus we inadvertently created the worst tool for oppression since religion: money. Every time a banker put a fake receipt into circulation, the value of all the real receipts went down a little bit. By the time half the receipts in circulation were fake, every real receipt was worth half its original value. So even though your herd of goats was the same size, thanks to the invention of money, it was now worth half as much. Systems of symbolic value are easily corrupted by those who control the symbols.

Time and time again through history, control over money has been used to subjugate and oppress. And today is no different. Consider the cruel duality at the core of modern life- despite our incredibly advanced society, much of the world population lives in poverty. We have more than enough food yet 9 Million people starve to death each year. Here in the United States, the richest country in history, people are working 60 hours a week and struggling to survive. How is that possible?

It’s because our symbolic value counting system has been compromised. Life has become a game of collecting receipts, not creating real value. And it’s only getting worse as more layers get added on top of the original symbols. Our value system is literally lost down a rabbit hole of abstraction.

6. Computers & Virtual Reality

Ok enough sad human history, let’s turn to the future. As we all know, the future begins and ends with computers. So what is a computer? A computer is an abstraction machine. Whether it’s pictures, video, music, or the entire internet, everything put into a computer is abstracted into the digital language of ones and zeros (binary). And it’s been a real success, because just like trading receipts, digital bits are much easier to manipulate than actual reality. Rather than going down to the bank, we can just tap a few buttons.

But what exactly are these abstraction machines doing to us psychologically?

Over the last 10 years we have spawned a new “online” version of ourselves. Sure, the “online you” is just the “offline you” punching buttons, but as more and more daily activities go online, the line between the two is getting pretty blurry. Walking along the beach at sunset, all I see are people taking pictures to post on social media. Ten years ago everyone would have just watched the sunset, but now we are all constantly managing this parallel version of ourselves that feeds on our real life experiences.

Don’t get me wrong, maintaining your virtual self is hardly a meaningless exercise. We also get our jobs online now. And meet our romantic partners. So there is very real money and very real sex flowing out of our virtual reality machines. Teens (digital natives) are navigating this by maintaining multiple instagram profiles. One uses your real name but is known as your Finsta (Fake Instagram) because it’s heavily manicured for family and acquaintances. The second uses a fake name but is your Rinsta (Real Instagram) because you can post actual pictures to your real friends and say whatever you want without repercussion. So to review- the fake one is your real one, and the real one is your fake one.

The implications of all this virtuality are important because the amount of time we spend online is accelerating fast, and whatever balance you maintain today will soon be obliterated. In the next ten years our “smart phones” will be replaced by “smart glasses” featuring two modes: overlay (augmented reality) and immersion (full virtual reality). Pretty crazy stuff.

So let’s return to the ancient proverb. Once the majority of our life is virtual, which will be the moon and which will be the finger? My guess is that our online lives will become more compelling than our actual lives. Because virtual reality doesn’t have the same limitations- in a virtual world we can all be beautiful. We can all live in mansions, and fly like birds, and go anywhere, do anything, be anyone.

Meanwhile your body will be sitting in an empty room, wearing a headset.

7. Your Brain & You

And inside that body will be your brain. Your very own big, beautiful, abstraction machine. This is the part where things get a little weird, because what I left out before is that we are already waaaaay down in the rabbit hole. Remember all that time our brains were growing bigger? They weren’t just developing abstraction tools for us to use, they were literally abstracting us. Inside each of our brains there is a map of reality, a representation of the world created with neurons. The mental map inside each of us includes a representation of time, and space, and most importantly, it includes a second version of you. This internally abstracted you is the origin of consciousness, or sentience, or whatever word you prefer for the knowledge of your own existence. We think, therefore we are, and thinking is just an abstraction machine happily chugging away inside a skull.

As it turns out then, the ancient proverb wasn’t a warning; it was a map of the way home. With each evolutionary step forward in our capacity for abstraction, we also walked a step further from reality. Consider how present-moment oriented animals are; they don’t sit around thinking about something that happened years ago, or worry about what’s going to happen. They just exist in the moment. But humans are different; we think about the past and future so much that we often forget how to exist in the present.

And we ask ourselves difficult, abstract questions. Where are we? Why are we here? Unfortunately they are questions with no answers, for the same reason time has no beginning or end- because they are just concepts. They are qualities of a representational reality that don’t apply outside of it, the same way we wouldn’t try and eat the word banana. But we’re so far down the rabbit hole of our own minds, it’s hard to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s a construction of our brains. And the more you tug on that string, the more the entire sweater will fall apart. Because it’s all an abstraction. All of it. Even our genes are just tiny maps of ourselves, a blueprint copied over and over again.

8. Suffering

And that’s fine. We’re all abstractions, and that’s ok. In fact it’s pretty cool. There’s a uniquely beautiful quality to consciousness that I feel lucky to experience. It’s also ok that we’re adding a new digital layer on top of it. Hell, it’s downright predictable once you look back at our history- abstraction is what we do.

But what’s not ok is to confuse very real suffering with some sort of abstract concept. I am as guilty as anyone else on this, because the fact that 9 Million people are starving to death a short plane ride away feels very abstract to me. Right now, scrolling instagram on my iPhone, with my big screen TV on in the background, those people starving simply don’t seem real to me. But if my neighbor lost his job and knocked on my door, I would give him food.

And therein lies the challenge. We are entering a new digital age that carries a tremendous opportunity to fix the inequities and suffering prevalent in modern life. Scarcity should now be obsolete, but the mindset of scarcity we inherited means that much work is left to do ensuring that everyone is provided basic human rights like food and housing. And as we transition into virtual reality, it will be quite easy to forget about the ugliness of our reality. If we don’t do the necessary work to address inequality now, it’s quite possible that the efficiencies of virtuality will be used to amplify suffering rather than fixing it. There’s a fine line between granting everyone a permanent vacation and making everyone unemployed. If the power of technology is channeled to only those at the top of society, inequality will become worse than ever.

When humans switched to symbols of value, we didn’t realize we were empowering a select few to rule over everyone else. If we were to do it again, we would still switch to symbols, but we would be much more careful about monitoring those who managed the receipts. Similarly, I am not asking you to resist the transition into virtual reality. But I am asking that we remember which is the moon, and which is the finger. I am asking that we use our new digital tools to shine a light on poverty and suffering. I am asking that we use our technology to reclaim reality, not escape it.

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Footnotes

1. Ironically, Magritte’s painting is not actually considered “abstract art” because because the pipe is an actual thing, whereas “abstract” in the art world implies non-representational work. Because it’s art and supposed to make you feel stupid.

2. Symbolic value systems are not inherently bad. The issue is that they are prone to corruption. However more modern, decentralized approaches to money like Bitcoin offer an interesting solution moving forward, because crypto-based currency systems can have built-in systems for limiting supply and decentralizing control, thus transferring the power of money back into the hands of the people and forging a more trusted relationship between symbol and value.