“The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend BIology”
-A book by transhumanist Ray Kurzweil regarding what he believes to be the coming of a new age where humans will no longer be so limited by the biological nature in which we have originally been born into. Kurzweil uses patterns of technological and scientific innovation to predict what he calls “The Singularity” and subsequently discusses the effects of such powerful and profound new technologies. The idea of collectivism is not explicitly defined within the book but the growing evidence of it is theorized by Kurzweil based on his definition of “The Singularity”. Transhumanism is a highly debated topic and this book provides us with a new and certainly unique technological perspective on the direction in which we are headed as a human race.
“Fostering Creativity, Individualism, and the Imaginative Spirit: Are Collaborative Thinking and Cooperative Learning Overemphasized in Education Today?”
A paper written by Paula J. Hillmann, Ph.D. regarding how schools in the United States may or may not be successfully fostering the ability for a student to “individuate” themselves and be more creative as a result of such individuation. One's ability to foster the idea that they are their own unique person is highly correlated with creativity, imaginative thinking, freedom of personal choice and opportunity, and also the ability to intrinsically motivate oneself. Hillmann provides us with an interesting information on what American schools need to do in order to make sure these things are focused upon and being developed within our students. There is an assumed individualistic trend here but it is still very necessary to understand the relationship between creativity and individualism and what that might mean for us as individuals and as a society if we were to head in an overall individualistic direction.
“Collectivism, Effects On Relationships”
-A paper written by Nicholas Sorensen and Daphna Oyserman and published by SAGE publications studies the effects of collectivism on relationships, self-concept, values, and cognition (just as the title might imply). The paper argues that in a collectivist culture, the relationships between individuals are much more emphasized and valued as opposed to the individuals themselves. Individuals in these relationships have a high regard for fulfilling obligations they have towards the group and also rely on the harmony of these relationships. According to this paper, having a collectivist society would make us less at ease to interact on a stranger to stranger level, while individualistic societies would not only be able to do those types of interactions, but they would be praised. Knowing the possible effects of having collectivist tendencies is crucial to understanding the trends that we see with the increased use of social media and the internet.
“The Global Village”
-A book written by Marshall McLuhan and Bruce R. Powers deals with the theory that if mass usage of communication systems increase within our society the what they refer to as “The Global Village” will be created. This phrase refers to the end result of the continuation of mass extensions of the human body and mind. According to McLuhan, every technology can be defined as how it extends out mind, body, or central nervous system in some way or another. As there are more and more extensions of ourselves being connected to other people the same way they are being connected to ourselves, our society will revert back to a tribal like state. This state is the epitome of a collectivist system. McLuhan touches on this topic in his other books (The Medium is the Massage; Understanding Media) but he substantially expounds upon it in this book.