Adaptation

The rapid adaptation to the Internet and the Smartphone has been demonstrated an advanced capacity for human adaptation.  Consider the small time periods involved for the development of the Internet. During the Clinton presidency, VP Al Gore headed a government task force to refine the concept, structure of the Information Super Highway. This was in about 1996. Here, in 2014, the internet has become a staple of business and social communication. It has been woven into the fabric of everyday life on a global basis. Similarly, the Smartphone, essentially introduced to mass markets in about 1997 although IBM’s Simon came in about 1992. Either way the adaptation has been incredible, there were 400,000 in 2010 and 900,000 in 2013, now more than 1 billion Smartphones in the world. Globally there are more than 5 billion mobile phones, of which 1.080 billion are Smartphones. This means that from 1997 when Kyocera went to a mass-market device to now. Some 17 years, we have added a billion Smartphones, 4 billion other mobile phones that can communicate and perform work through the internet.

Technology is not Adaptation—oh really?

Since the advent of man made fire, technology has been things that change and improve life, enhance chance of survival and in some form add to security and prosperity, human abundance. Since the Internet substantially affects most jobs and businesses in the US, Europe, and Asia, and soon will be the case in Africa; a case can be made that it has bee integrated into human survival. Would humans survive without them? Well yes, but that would be true of everything except food, air, and water. Necessities come from economic activity, which by working on the Net and accessing it by mobile device, qualify these adaptations as survival mechanisms.  Food and water production have become dependent upon the Internet. Increasingly, reliance has become so thorough that without them, life would be severely degraded and there would indeed be casualties.

Advanced Adaptation Will Be Needed For Survival

Climate changes, political and military aggressions, shortages of energy, all have begun to have global connectivity. Adaptation on massive scales and in short periods will be necessary. A world-wide system for dispute resolution is need3ed to avoid human decimation by war, disease, and famine. The world is on the verge of catastrophic levels of conflict now in Koreas, Israel, and now Ukraine.

Energy production has reached a stage of direct poisoning of air and water not seen since the industrial era- fracking will continue to take lives, research has shown nuclear power contaminates air and water with its wastes, as well as accidents - Fukishima radiation has crossed the Pacific from Japan to California. Rising sea levels and weather changes have begun to reshape human habitats and food supplies.