Nomadism and Technology

Nomadism has become one of the most popular concepts of our time. But why has it become so popular? Why is nomadism important, and what does it have to do with technology? I will attempt to answer these questions. 

In a 2017 article published in the journal Nature, titled “New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens”, written by Jean-Jacques Hublin and his colleagues, it was reported that bone fragments belonging to modern humans, dated to 300,000-350,000 years ago, were found in Morocco. According to previous knowledge, this period was around 195,000 years ago, and it was accepted that the ancestor of modern humans spread to the world from East Africa. This discovery changes the current view.

As far as we know, humans have been living a sedentary life for about 10,000-12,000 years. In other words, according to the new situation, they actually lived a nomadic life for 290,000-340,000 years. Therefore, when we look from this perspective, our sedentary culture remains a very short period of time in our entire history. This situation actually explains why humans have a constant desire to travel and spread across the world. Nomadism (mobility) is in our genes. That is why there are people all over the world, and they are constantly on the move: From home to work and back home, from city to city, from country to country. In the historical process, horse-drawn carriages, ships, trains, automobiles, and airplanes emerge as the most important technological developments integrated into life. Tourism is a very important activity for people and countries. Its economy is massive.

Technological developments, until the electronic revolution, have always occurred in a direction that encourages this physical mobility. Because this mobility is in human genes. However, after the electronic revolution, computer and communication networks have developed in a way that allows people to communicate with people far away from where they sit, and to visit and see distant places from where they sit via computer networks. For example, the film Total Recall made such a future prediction in 1990, the year it was filmed. Now, teleconferencing and instant messaging systems are becoming widespread for holding meetings in work environments. These virtual environments are replacing physical environments. While wars and invasions used to emerge as a result of human physical mobility, they now take place in virtual environments in strategy games. Gaming, entertainment, and commerce have also shifted to this virtual environment. 

One of the most important reasons for the widespread adoption of mobile technologies is the nomadism inherent in human nature. If one pays attention, technologies that have emerged especially since the early 2000s are aimed at human mobility. Some support humans while they are on the move (for example; portable computers, car computers, GPS devices, etc.), while others try to satisfy them by creating a virtual mobility while they are sedentary. For example; teleconferencing systems, instant messaging applications, virtual markets, e-commerce, virtual tour and guide applications prepared for artistic, historical, and tourist sites, and applications used to see very distant places and locations such as Google Maps and Streetview serve this purpose. All of this actually started with the telegraph, telephone, cinema, radio, and TV, but the electronic environment, with the help of fiber optic cables, brings their speed closer to the speed of light. 

Thus, those who realize mobile technologies both satisfy the need for physical mobility in human nature virtually (while people are stationary with wired connections or while they are on the move with wireless connections), and they maintain their power by keeping them in constant interaction and under control, whether they are stationary or mobile. For these reasons, although there are cities like Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Rome that have existed and been lived in for thousands of years, the history of those who are settled there does not go back as far as those cities. In other words, cities are stationary, but their inhabitants are on the move. Technological developments are always related to human mobility.

While some people embrace technologies that satisfy this need for physical mobility in their structure virtually with great satisfaction (these are also called technological determinists), others find these technologies restrictive (these are also called technology opponents). 

Today, people are categorized into three groups in terms of their relationship with technology: 

1. Digital dinosaur (older generation), 

2. Digital immigrant (middle-aged generation), 

3. Digital native (young generation).

Human needs can also create some contradictory situations. A human need is to want to migrate and spread to other parts of the world to live in better conditions, to provide for their family, to find a job, to be rich and powerful, or to feed themselves. Another human need is to want their relationship with those they left behind to continue, for their communication not to be broken, to continue as it was when they were face-to-face, so that their interaction with them continues. In order to communicate immediately, learn, and be informed, the path of transforming mass media in a way that will increase interaction and meet the individual's needs instantly has been followed. For example, the telephone was not developed in this sense at the beginning, but over time it became portable and usable without space limitations. By integrating with tools such as cameras and video cameras, it has enabled the sharing of instant emotions, thoughts, and news.

Then such a picture emerges: I am going far away. I want to be informed about those I left behind. Mass media is not enough for me. Why is it not enough? Because it does not give me special individual news (news that only concerns me). It does not fully meet my needs. What is my primary need as an individual? To get news from my immediate surroundings instantly, right away, now. Because I am curious. Curiosity is the most fundamental feature that makes a human, human.