Four Ages of Sand by Douglas Adams (1998)
Today, May 25th, is celebrated every year as Towel Day as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans. So I am going to share highlights of one of many speeches. This is taken from his 30-minute speech called The Age of Sand. which still relevant to this day. I am hoping it will highlight how prophetic he was while being insightful and yet entertaining.
The Age of Sand concept came about in a speech Douglas Adams gave at the Digital Biota 2, in Cambridge.”Is there an artificial god” was a discussion about God and the impact the concept had on humanity (this speech is featured in The Salmon of Doubt circa 1998). However, the message is more about humanity overall and how we try to adapt and survive with all the changes.
The Ages of Sand is Adam’s description of the technological changes humanity went through and how those changes broadened our understanding. As well as the challenges it creates across the ages.
The first age is that of astronomy when we looked at the stars and realized our belief that the Earth is the center of the universe was false.
The second age is of the microscopic when we looked down at the tiny formations that make life and the universe and found something quite startling.
The third age is that of computers– the silicon chip which gave us process. The computer can perform mathematics very fast and this allows us to create models, simulations. This gave us another form of perspective as to where can see how life works with these models and simulations.
The fourth age of sand is the one we are entering, is that of the Internet. This runs on fiber-optics and is the fourth form of communication many-to-many (the other three beings, one-to-one (telephone for example), one-to-many (broadcasting, journalism, etc), and many-to-one (democracy is a model of this). This means each of us can post and share our own voices and opinions and perspectives. Using the internet to earn income, attention, market, and influence. All the while selectively creating and being grouped by others into our own bubble to exist in without having the need to get exposed to other concepts and opportunities or somewhat nudged into areas where we produce revenue to others.
Over the years, I have read this multiple times and each time I try to dig deeper into what he has presented and how we can use it to better understand where we (humanity) came from, where we are currently, and where we are going. In the essence of time, I will try to keep this short. While these four stages of sand explain/group the impact of technology on society, they are not independent of each other. Meaning that they are all intertwined. We still have part of the world and society that are firmly in the first age of astronomy and other parts are in microscopic and then some are in the age of computers and others are fully immersed in the internet age.
The challenge is that all four coexist most are not aware of the interaction and impact it has on the others. This creates an imbalance, gaps, and discrepancies in knowledge and understanding where each cannot relate and respect the existence of the others. In most cases causing negative effects all around.
Note: I have the full transcript of this speech and I also have the audio track so reach to me if you are interested.