The Myth of Technology vs. the Hierarchy of Needs
with insights from Baudrillard, McLuhan and Jaron Lanier
Photo courtesy newsroom.unl.edu
Years ago some pundit described the myth propelling the current Zeitgeist: Because of technology, we live bigger, better, brighter than before. Despite its benefits (dental work is a lot better than 200 years ago) technology now is used to enslave us rather than free us. Our phones, email, web searches and social media activity are surveilled 24/7. When we’re out and about, cameras record our movements. Our personal information is harvested and sold to the highest bidder–that is, when it’s not used by governments to quell dissenters. Health care has become standardized, rather than catering to each individual’s needs.
The tech myth was sold to us as the answer to all our problems, yet it seems to have created more problems than it solves.
One of the biggest unforeseen side effects of Big Tech is that more and more companies are cutting personnel and substituting A.I. Whether A.I. does a better job at any given task may be a matter of debate, but anyone who's ever been caught in the telephone loop of an automated system, unable to speak with a human representative, knows the frustration of trying to get a robot to fix anything.
We should also understand the larger role of the A.I. revolution. It’s nestled within the Transhumanist movement which is designed to strip the humanity from humans in a great, glorious merging of Carbon and Silicon.
A.I. purveyors not only eliminate jobs but also harvest our research, and our language and arts skills. We weren’t expecting it, but the first jobs to be lost to A.I. have been in creative realms like copywriting, cover design, and voiceover work.
All of A.I.’s data and programming was invented and gathered by humans, and is merely being assembled on demand. That's why the bottom of every Chat GPT window has this disclaimer: Chat GPT can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.
To err is human! And to forgive may be divine, but damned if we’re gonna cut that A.I. any slack…
Ultimately the problem is not A.I. itself, but the use of this tool. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So instead of removing the job market for creatives by turning those jobs over to A.I., author Jaron Lanier, inventor of Virtual Reality, proposes that they be financially compensated for their contributions to the A.I.'s training.
He rejects The Singularity–the Transhumanist goal marking the point at which technology becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, and computers achieve higher functioning than humans. (Some feel we've already reached that point.) Lanier says this is ridiculous, since A.I. itself is only a result of human abilities. "It's like saying a car can go faster than a human runner. Of course it can, and yet we don't say that the car has become a better runner."
At the end of the day, what Big Tech steals from us is the capacity to distinguish authenticity from simulation. Instead of reading human facial expressions and body language, we look at screens. On the news, we can’t tell the difference between real footage and CGI. And instead of searching our souls for clues to happiness and balance in life, we buy gadgets.
In 1943 the psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory called the Hierarchy of Needs. He refined this theory over subsequent decades and it remains an oft-quoted reference not only in psychology but also in popular culture. When we look at the pyramid we see that all governmental and globalist agendas are focused on the bottom two levels. Moreover, continually manufactured crisis narratives seem designed to keep us at those bottom two levels, permanently.
Meanwhile, Big Tech products simulate the upper levels of Belongingness and Love, Self-Esteem, and Self-Actualization without actually providing these qualities to any meaningful degree.
The Hierarchy of Needs diagram (there are various versions of it that share a common basis) is an extremely useful tool in the midst of the prevailing tech myth. It's a reality check. In my view it's the simplest tool available (and it's free!) for assessing the status and direction of one’s life.
According to Maslow, generally speaking the needs on the lower levels must be satisfied before we can ascend to the goals of the higher levels. Although, the sequence of needs can change according to circumstances, or according to individual differences. Maslow gives the example of someone who requires self-esteem more than they need to love or feel loved.
In the case of artists, we are often so obsessed with our work that other needs like food, sleep, love and financial security fall by the wayside, especially when we're in the middle of a project!
Maslow also cautioned against a rigid interpretation of need-based behavior, since "any behavior tends to be determined by several or all of the basic needs simultaneously rather than by only one of them." So even though the diagram is presented in levels, we can compare it, for example, to the chakra system. The chakras (energy centers) were categorized in the Vedas, ancient spiritual texts from 1500-500 B.C.E. They operate as a connected system, not as individual points. The separations are only made in order to see/feel and correct imbalances.
Does any given tech product serve one or more of the real needs of humans? That could be the question we ask while contemplating a purchase of the latest iPhone. To the extent that we equate material objects with self-esteem, then I suppose such a purchase qualifies. But this is exactly what Jean Baudrillard and Marshall McLuhan warned us of in the 1960s. Baudrillard argued that people will be attracted to the imitations of things rather than the actual things. He said that the increasing complexity of the world would lead people to the more easily understood replications of reality, instead of reality itself. McLuhan proposed that the medium itself is the message, not its content–first due to its appropriation of another medium (as in a television script), second due to its manipulation of reality, with the lengthening and compression of time in a movie or novel, for instance.
Elon Musk's Neuralink is great for people who've lost the use of limbs. It is a medical device. Yet Musk's goal, as he himself admits, is for anyone to be able to use Neuralink to connect wirelessly to their devices.
As we know, the primary Big Tech marketing angles are the "cool factor” and the “convenience factor.” A synergistic Baudrillard/McLuhan combo meal is being served up, with chips on the side. Mighty tasty...at the cost of one's health and privacy.
Humans already have extraordinary unused potential that can be developed with time, effort and focus. Artists, yoga masters, dancers, magicians and inventors know this truth. Additionally, why do people expect that implants will work as advertised when their own experience tells them that tech devices, increasingly, cannot be relied upon? Have they never owned a computer? Have they never used a so-called "smart" device? Have they never been in line at the supermarket when they can't pay because "the system is down?" Have they never experienced a power outage? Has their GPS never led them down the garden path?
The uppermost levels of the Hierarchy of Needs depend upon developing one or more skills, using those skills in the context of one's social environment, and parlaying the acquired abilities of concentration and perseverance throughout one’s life, in order to become truly wise. As Maslow noted, few people attain the pinnacle of self-actualization. Indeed, we may not even know what the pinnacle is; perhaps no one has reached it yet! But the way to the peak is not via bionic implants–they only have a one year warranty.
Maslow's theory has been criticized due to the original analysis being based on a small segment–mainly, educated white males. So it could be argued that there are differences in needs for females, or people of another ethnicity or social class.
For instance, a 2017 Pew Research Center study concluded that four out of ten Americans considered technology to be responsible for the improvement in the standard of living in the previous 50 years. However, this was only true for whites and Hispanics. "Blacks were about as likely to name technology (26%) as they were civil and equal rights (21%)."
Some make the claim that technology is "evolution." Is it really? "Technologists’ desire to make a parallel to evolution is flawed at its very foundation... Evolution doesn’t have meetings about the market, the environment, the customer base. Evolution doesn’t patent things or do focus groups. Evolution doesn’t spend millions of dollars lobbying Congress to ensure that its plans go unfettered." Source
Thus, there seems to be a great deal of disenchantment with the Tech Myth. It hasn't delivered on its promise, or so believes the 'silent majority' (a phrase originally associated with Richard Nixon's speech in which he called for support for his policy on Vietnam). Ironically, the main place we see the opinions of today’s silent majority is in the comment sections of online articles!
It's not that we're anti-tech; it's just that we want tech to serve us, not the other way around. That's why I'm a big fan of Jaron Lanier; not only is he a brilliant tech master, he's also a humanist, and this is the sort of person we need to be regulating the deployment of Big Tech and its little demon, A.I.
In a Bloomberg-sponsored interview from November 2023 Lanier talks about his idea to implement a payment system for the humans who are training the A.I. without even realizing it or being compensated for it: "I don't want to create more people who are just dependent on State payout to survive. [A reference to Universal Basic Income-ed.] I want to create more-if you like-creative classes of people who are really good at providing fresh data that makes the models work better so everybody benefits." (This section starts at the 11 minute mark but the whole half hour is worth watching.)
The way to the peak is not via bionic implants–they only have a one year warranty.
Ultimately an artist's personal quest must include the entire hierarchy of needs in order to live a long, happy, creative life. While it is certainly challenging to be an artist in a society that continually devalues art, we have to find ways to do it. When my jazz musician colleagues complain about the dearth of work, my reply is that creativity is supposed to be our coin of the realm. So we have to get creative. Get creative with venues, with our costumes and presentation, our collaborations, our teaching, our arrangements, our ticketing system, our merch, and especially our music. And let’s not neglect the hierarchy of needs! The ones who can do all this are the ones who will be successful.
Good luck…meet you at the pinnacle!
I write this from my hospital room in Leon, Mexico. I had a procedure yesterday that saved my life. It couldn’t have happened 50 years ago. I had some major blockage, 85% to be exact, in one of my arteries that go directly to my brain. In a non-invasive procedure, a doctor, who performs miracles, was able to put a stent and two balloons into the artery, and get rid of the buildup of plaque and cholesterol. I’m grateful to be alive.
Thankfully, I was able to afford this procedure. But what about all the people who can’t. I see this as the major issue with modern technology. Those who can afford to utilize technology and its benefits, and those who can’t. At this moment on planet earth, there are more people living below the poverty line than ever before. For those of us on the other side of the tracks, I believe it is our mission to help as many of them as possible. Technology shouldn’t be just for the rich, but for everyone. I have no idea how to make this happen. But I intend on devoting whatever remaining time I have on this planet, to helping as many people as possible.
My wife complained that I'm low tech and I asked her, "How will more tech make my life better?" There was silence. I managed to reduce the tech to a laptop computer, printer and dumb phone. I suppose I could count the refrigerator, air conditioning and electricity in general, but they don't require anything of me other than opening a door, or turning on a switch. Drumming still requires a hands-on approach. (a little musical humor there) I've also found that the more I take care of the first 2 levels of Maslow, the more the next two levels take care of themselves. There was a time when I unknowingly reversed the process and it didn't work out well. Fame and fortune aren't good foundations.