Shortly before moving out of New York City, I found myself browsing McNally Jackson over a lunch break. Two floors of literary works at 1 Rockefeller Plaza, where my office was located at the time, was a tempting siren call that I frequented. I’m a ‘buy books for the future’ kind of person – I believe that books find their way to me for a reason, and I have a host of books, fiction and non-fiction alike – peppering my ‘to be read’ shelf. Topics range from non-human intelligence (specifically: octopi and fungi) to postpartum mental health memoirs, a wealth of leadership and management books from my time at Columbia Business School, and many others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the past several days, as I spend an exorbitant amount of time couch-locked with a napping newborn, a bright yellow title has been calling to me. Brian Lowery’s ‘Selfless’, which I picked up at the McNally Jackson store shortly before being laid off from Mozilla Corporation, was making itself known. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWhen we consider immersive technologies, we are not augmenting the world around us independently of ourselves \u2014 we\u2019re going to change, and adapt, and respond, and be affected, too. We exist in a system that we are fully integrated into, not separate from, and thus we need to deeply consider that in how we design, build, and share experiences. Those decisions and choices cannot be made quickly and irreversibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we are Building is not Simple, 2017<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
For many months throughout my first pregnancy, as I navigated the rise of generative AI technologies, I became fascinated with the idea that the convergence of immersive technology with generative AI would allow us a deeper exploration into the symbiotic nature of individuals and their environments. On my whiteboard in my basement apartment in Astoria, the phrase ‘Be \/ Be With’<\/em> was written in blue ink, a short-hand, personal reminder that the relationship between our own being and the world around us is inseparable and in constant balance. Selfless: The Social Creation of “You”<\/span>, is a deep dive into the way culture and society defines our own self-perception; a research-backed tome exploring and enhancing the words that remained burned into my mind long after the ink was wiped from the surface of the glass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the introduction of the book, Dr. Lowery beautifully challenges the uncomfortable beliefs that we hold about our self-sovereignty and identity with a statement about what the self is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Our self is a construction of relationships and interactions, constrained and yet in search of the feeling of freedom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lowery, Brian – Selfless: The Social Creation of “You”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Yet, Dr. Lowery argues, it is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify or break down the entirety of what makes us individuals as a result of the combination of social factors at play. “You can name some of these cultural and personal influences,” Lowery writes, “but others you don’t understand or even have access to”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The theory of a social self is a powerful one. It amplifies the concerns of parasocial technologies and algorithms replacing true choice. It threatens our self-awareness of the way the media and content we consume may shape our actions and beliefs more profoundly than we realize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nIn the year since initially building the foundations of the Data Introspection Project<\/a> and building out a practice of personal archival and data tooling, I have been considering what artifacts and purpose might emerge from the idea of taking a data-driven approach to the awareness of one’s identity. In just a few pages, Selfless inspired an appealing and highly intriguing question: can AI help us quantify culture’s influence on our perception of self? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I work my way through Selfless, I now have an objective in mind. How can I use the work and research of novel social psychologists, married with a rich personal database, to help me distill down, analyze, and reapply or transform cultural and societal impact on my present self? In this extended journey of matrescence, how might I use the empire’s tools against them<\/a> to create a more completely realized, intentional, and fully self-aware version of what I consider to be ‘me’? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m excited to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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