This year, a Chinese dissident and a Russian human rights advocate recent nominees for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize are joined by an unlikely, nonhuman contender: the internet.
From the Fields is a periodic Wired Science op-ed series presenting leading scientists reflections on their work, society and culture. Jamil Zaki is finishing his PhD in psychology and neuroscience at Columbia University. His research focuses on empathy and altruism, and specifically how we (and our brains) come to understand, care for, and respond to other people. He has published several scientific articles on these subjects. He also writes about culture, social behavior and the brain at his blogs on the Huffington Post and Psychology Today.
A campaign to nominate the web, first put forth by the editors of Wired Italy, proclaims that the internet has laid the foundations for a new kind of society, in which massive interpersonal contact fosters consensus and understanding.
Predictably, the internet's nomination was met with a wave of skepticism. After all, isn't it ridiculous to give one of the worlds greatest honors to an inanimate technology? A friend of mine asked, How about we give [the Nobel] to paper, since that's what all peace agreements have been written on?
The nomination seems especially ill-advised when we consider how un-Nobel-like online life tends to be. The primary use of social networking sites is me-forming, or frequent updates about the minutia of peoples lives that one research group duly categorized as pointless babble. And if the internet's most common asset is keeping us posted on what old high school classmates are having for brunch, then its risks may be more important.
Following a tragic case in which a couple allowed their baby to starve while raising a virtual child online, William Saletan warned that the internet lures us away from the real, grassy, human-populated world, toward a Terminator-esque dystopia in which digital life gains the upper hand, presumably leaving us all ignoring each other in favor of compulsive button pressing.
A lot of this bad press is misdirected. What it critically misses is that the internet is simply an enormous amplifier of human social behaviors, and that many of these behaviors are worth amplifying. Take the case of altruism. Countless demonstrations suggest that helping others comes naturally to us. Toddlers aid people in need without prompting, and even 6-month old infants prefer watching prosocial, as opposed to antisocial behavior.
From the Fields is a periodic Wired Science op-ed series presenting leading scientists reflections on their work, society and culture. Jamil Zaki is finishing his PhD in psychology and neuroscience at Columbia University. His research focuses on empathy and altruism, and specifically how we (and our brains) come to understand, care for, and respond to other people. He has published several scientific articles on these subjects. He also writes about culture, social behavior and the brain at his blogs on the Huffington Post and Psychology Today.
A campaign to nominate the web, first put forth by the editors of Wired Italy, proclaims that the internet has laid the foundations for a new kind of society, in which massive interpersonal contact fosters consensus and understanding.
Predictably, the internet's nomination was met with a wave of skepticism. After all, isn't it ridiculous to give one of the worlds greatest honors to an inanimate technology? A friend of mine asked, How about we give [the Nobel] to paper, since that's what all peace agreements have been written on?
The nomination seems especially ill-advised when we consider how un-Nobel-like online life tends to be. The primary use of social networking sites is me-forming, or frequent updates about the minutia of peoples lives that one research group duly categorized as pointless babble. And if the internet's most common asset is keeping us posted on what old high school classmates are having for brunch, then its risks may be more important.
Following a tragic case in which a couple allowed their baby to starve while raising a virtual child online, William Saletan warned that the internet lures us away from the real, grassy, human-populated world, toward a Terminator-esque dystopia in which digital life gains the upper hand, presumably leaving us all ignoring each other in favor of compulsive button pressing.
A lot of this bad press is misdirected. What it critically misses is that the internet is simply an enormous amplifier of human social behaviors, and that many of these behaviors are worth amplifying. Take the case of altruism. Countless demonstrations suggest that helping others comes naturally to us. Toddlers aid people in need without prompting, and even 6-month old infants prefer watching prosocial, as opposed to antisocial behavior.
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