"There are many gifts that are unique in man; but at the centre of them all, the root from which all knowledge grows, lies the ability to draw conclusions from what we see to what we do not see, to move our minds through space and time, and to recognize ourselves in the past on the steps of the present.” - Jacob Bronowski

In determining a topic that fits within the context of the “Merging Issue”, I decided it is worth exploring the works of Jacob Bronowski, known for his 13 part BBC series “The Ascent of Man” which aired in the 70's. I saw the series during my 2^nd school grade in Canada when my Social Studies teacher put on the reel tape for class. I was fascinated by the images presented in the timeline of man from the earliest periods in the Great Rift area of Africa onwards to the Pyramids of the Pharaohs and Alhambra in Spain.

The Ascent of Man was a source of inspiration for Carl Sagan's TV series “The Cosmos”. It is one of his works that showed the integration of man as being uniquely different from other living creatures in that man is capable of knowledge. “Man has richer life of experience than the other animals, because his mind alone works consistently with images, and thereby endows him with (literally) a life of imagination… Man has experiences which do not happen.”

In various sources on the internet, he is described as a Renaissance man, very much like the same type of man he describes in one of his works, Magic, Science and Civilization.

In an essay by Joan M. Johnson, “The Thought of Jacob Bronowski in his Essays and in the Ascent of Man” the author provides an expansive analysis of the man's thought and philosophies in his writings. She explains how in his book, The Identity of Man, Bronowski merges the “seemingly disparate threads of the creative mind which he had studied separately fro many years - science and the arts (specifically poetry.) Through a recognition of the fundamental similarity of these two endeavors of the creative mind, Bronowski draws a set of values necessary to continued ascent of man”.

In the development of the book Ascent of Man, he explored a wide range of disciplines from literature to history, then to philosophy to science. This range of exploration shows the different aspects that shaped man and civilization, and Bronowski integrated these parts into one to show the inherent capacity of man to evolve. This theme is consistent in all his works. In the preface of the book, The Identity of Man, he stated his discovery of “two radical conclusions. One was the act of discovery in science engages the imagination… as truly as does the act of the creation in the arts. The other was, that though the findings of science are, of course ethically neutral, the activity of science is not; it demands that those who practice it form and hold to strict sense of human values.”

This statement is particularly relevant to our current time of rapid technological evolution and how it has affected and changed our lives: how we interact and communicate, and how this will continue to change as this is our nature. I was initially drawn to write my article about Reality Mining after a brief introduction in an issue of Technology Review about the top ten emerging technologies of 2008. Its relevance to the Merging Issue is the project is about the study of human behavior. The Reality Mining research project main objectives are: “developing technology and algorithms for sensing, modeling and changing human behavior. The sensing component is accomplished with mobile phone applications that capture data on users' location, proximity, communication and device usage behavior.”

Technology Review: When you talk about reality mining, what do you mean?

Sandy Pentland: … Reality mining is all about paying attention to patterns in life and using that information to help you do things like set privacy policies, share things with people, notify people when you're near them, and just to help you live your life.

Among one of the projects outcome is a service called “Serendipity”. Without digressing deeply about its methods, I will describe it simply as a “serendipitous” and “timely” dating service. It creates possible introductions between people based on the user's proximity and other criteria stored in a profiles database. For example, if two mobile phone users are within range of meeting each other, the application sends an alert to the phones with each “user's picture and a list of talking points.” (source: http://reality.media.mit.edu/serendipity.php)

One might ask how truly serendipitous is this meeting? But it is another step above internet dating.

Among Jacob Bronowski's ideals is that man's quest for scientific knowledge needs to be balanced with a strict adherence to human values. In his work Science and Human Values he explored the dual aspect of human identity, stressing the interaction of science and social values. In the book he starts with his visit to Nagasaki after the second atom bomb was dropped during WWII. Upon observation of the destruction he was stirred deeply to find the answer to “who is to blame for what science creates.” ( Source: http://wetzoollamb.net/jfpp/joan/essays/bronowski.html) Ms. Johnson translates his thoughts from the book: “Twentieth century man must understand and integrate himself with the scientific spirit of his culture. The humanist and the scientist must be drawn together, so that each understands the other and his works.” In the words of Jacob Bronowski, “The world today is made, it is powered by science; and for any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes towards slavery.”

It is an extreme challenge for me to improve on any translations by Ms. Johnson on the thoughts of the humanitarian genius; nor to express more eloquently in other words what Jacob Bronowski has stated in his writings; so I'm reduced to quoting them. My personal view of what I've re-discovered today since my elementary days at in Edmonton is that working in the fields of science and technology is enticing for its monetary rewards and illustrious acknowledgements. But history has definitely shown how technology can be misused grossly for the descent of man, especially in wars.

by Analyn Revilla