IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2015 - 69

science and technology, there was
also a very high price to be paid in a
technological society for the loss of
historical perspective and the loss
of accumulated information about
rules of warfare and conflict resolution [1], [23].
With the advent of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons,
potentially delivered from long distances or even from space, we are
facing the possibility of annihilating
complete nations, permanently
damaging certain ecologies, or
making large areas of the world
unlivable. Such a risk has never
existed before in a man-made form,
and those who claim that civilization has reduced human violence
do not appreciate the concept of
risk [20]. Civilization has reduced
ongoing low-level violence that was
endemic in earlier societies, but it
has raised the risk of catastrophic
violence that rarely occurs. Such
catastrophic events are notoriously difficult to predict, and they
are notoriously difficult to analyze
by collecting statistics about the
past events because of their rarity,
especially when the risk is rising
over time. This is typical of information intensive societies, where large
amounts of low-quality information
raise the quality of life in the short
run and very quickly. Yet the loss of
high-quality long-term information
raises the risk of catastrophic losses in the long term because of the
increasing manipulation of the environment, and the consequent loss
of information acquired over millennia about sustainable lifestyles.
As extensive as the information
content is in modern wars, where
every detail of the opposing military
movements is known to both parties, one would expect conflicts to
end very quickly by quickly identifying possible solutions and compromises. Yet the conflicts rage on
endlessly, even when there are obvidecember 2015

ous solutions. With wide accessibility of explosives, and the ability to
mobilize large populations all over
the world, wars never end. Instead
they turn into civilian insurgencies,
attacks on civilian targets, volunteer fighters arriving from distant
lands, sabotage of infrastructure,
and even cyber warfare. There are
obvious solutions to wars in Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan,
and most people agree what the
final solutions would basically look
like. Yet the wars rage on endlessly with great information intensity
both in intelligence and in propaganda, because the high-quality
information about the rules of war
and how to end them, conventions
of victory and defeat, and traditions of reconciliation have been
lost as the environment of war
has changed, with new weapons,
delivery systems, and new communication and transportation
technologies. When history has no
educational value, it can be a tragedy for all involved [13].
Warfare is not the only victim
of information loss. Business suffers similar consequences. The
industrial revolution of the 19th
century was a technological marvel, and was based on the scientific
developments of the previous hundred years. It elevated Europeans
into global power and hegemony.
Yet the industrial revolution also
wreaked havoc on the social organization of European societies, and
later on the whole world. Mental
illness became an epidemic in the
U.K. soon after the industrial revolution started. Schizophrenia rates
rose by an order of magnitude, so
much so that it was called "the English malady." The curse of mental
illness, in the form of schizophrenia, depression, and suicide spread
to the rest of the world along with
the industrial revolution. The most
likely explanation is the fact that
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

industrialization destroyed craft
based communities and extended
families, since family members had
to acquire specialized skills, and
travel long distances to large centralized factories where they were
needed. Suddenly, work was separated from family and community, and people were expected to
have fractured and disconnected
personalities relating to work and
family separately. It is not surprising then that fractured personality
disorders such as schizophrenia,
and social isolation disorders such
as loneliness and depression skyrocketed. The new technologies led
to a loss of age-old valuable information about community building
and mental health support through
integration of work and family structures [12].

Competition
Information is not neutral. It does
not merely inform, it guides our
decisions and actions. As such,
there are incentives to control others' information, and to distort
and corrupt it, to change others'
behavior to serve your interests. In
extreme cases, complete control of
information means complete control of behavior. Cults and militaries
often isolate their members from
the general public and control their
information. In a very short time,
sufficient influence can be exerted
to get members to sacrifice themselves for the common cause.
Stockholm Syndrome is another example where a kidnap victim,
isolated from the outside world,
quickly identifies with her abductors, loves and respects them, and
may even defy and resist her wouldbe rescuers to stay with them. An
American teenager named Elizabeth Smart was abducted in 2011
from her bedroom at knife point
by a couple. After a period of isolation, she identified with her captors

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2015