I am told by people who know Donald Trump that in real life
he is quite different from what he appears to be in his quest for Republican
nomination. In public he is quite bombastic, arrogant and over confidant. He
says things that a segment of society would like to say but does not because it
would be considered impolite or politically incorrect. In person, he is not
quite like that I am told. So, he has assumed the persona, an “Avatar” to use a
video game metaphor, just to please an untapped segment of population in order to
win the Republican party nomination.
Similarly, Bobby Jindal, a brilliant Rhodes scholar, acts
like a religious zealot who is anti-science and against any social progress.
There is no doubt that it is his Avatar that is speaking in public, not real him.
He just needs to get votes from the segments he has hitched his wagon to.
Through a careful study of how large these segments are, and who they would vote for, he has become that type of person in the eyes of the public.
The ability and need to become an Avatar in public is not
restricted just to our politicians. All of us who are active in the social
media create our on-line alter egos that are not quite like who we really are. All the
smiley photographs, bits of wisdom we share, and posts we like are all to some
extent supporting the brand we have created for ourselves. Most people we are
friends with on-line do not see us in person and assume that our Avatars are who
we really are. Just like they do for Donald or Bobby.
What I wonder is where this will take us next. Are we going
to reach a stage where every
utterance and action, on-line or in media, will be choreographed? Will we be so infatuated with our Avatars
that we will lose our authenticity all together? Will our society become like a giant
video game, with each one of us optimizing our characters for the function we
are supposed to perform or brand we are trying to create?
In the future, genetics, artificial intelligence and robotics will
advance to such an extent that we will all have the option to become what we
want using these technologies. It will be hard to distinguish what is authentic
“us” and what is not.
Is what we are
experiencing the beginning of that transformation?
