Some time in the future, the Information Age may be viewed as just another part of the Industrial Revolution. But to us living today, it looks different. We can afford to be a bit arbitrary, so lets say the Information Age began in the year 2001.
What are some things that are different about our lives today from that we lived, say, fifty years ago. Once again, we can be arbitrary and compare 1958 America to 2008 America.
Note, that the number of changes between 1958 America and 2008 America are almost as numerous and lifestyle shaking as all the changes between the Agricultural Age and the early Industrial Age. We've come a long way, baby.
Here are some big differences:
o Cell phones
Top of the list has to be cell phone usage. How ubiquitous this has become! This ability to talk anywhere, any time to anyone is a huge change in how humans socialize. What is interesting to watch is the balance between talking and texting. When do people talk, when do people text, what determines the choice of method?
o Internet
The Internet is the twin to cell phone usage. Now printed media has lost one of its big commodity uses, and there are the social networking surprises.
o Computers and calculators
Writing took away a lot of the value of old people’s memories; pocket calculators take away a lot of the value of learning arithmetic. Likewise, computers and data communication are dramatically changing what it is useful for people to learn. They are also drastically changing human entertainment.
o Globalization
The world is not a mostly a big and distant place any more. We benefit from trusting strangers even more than before. And, we are developing a global language, English.
o Health care
What can be done with health care has increased dramatically. In 1951 penicillin was the only "miracle drug" widely available. How far we have come.
o Each child born becomes an adult
This one has Mother Nature raising her eyebrows. No other species attempts this, no other species even tries to come close. This concept is not common among species because so much of life is about experimenting, about researching how to do things better. You can’t have significant and steady success without lots of failures. And, life on Earth is life in a world filled with calamities. But, civilized humans have done a whole lot about reducing calamities, so this thinking makes sense in modern conditions.
What is listed above is a rather arbitrary choice of six, you get the idea. If the Industrial Age was characterized by change with each generation, the Information Age is characterized by change with each decade.
All this change makes adaptive thinking more and more important. But the instinctive thinking we have available to us hasn't gone away. Instinctive thinking is still comfortable and quick thinking, so it is constantly looking for its chance to be relevant.
Lets talk about some cases where instinctive thinking becomes relevant in modern times... or, at least it thinks it does.