Neural Connectivity and Social Distancing

 

Years ago, when the first Apple Macintosh 128K computer was released in 1984, I recall spending countless hours writing my dissertation, and being delighted that I could change anything I had typed in a second compared to the typewriter days that were only a couple of years in the past.

And, typing till the early hours of the morning while the snowstorm was raging over that small Midwestern town, we had a definition of our relationship with the Macintosh: “Companionship without Compassion.”

The Internet seemed to remedy to the above solitary relationship by facilitating social connectedness. Now we learned to use technology to stay connected.

Yet, compassion did not seem to be defined in the innumerable combinations of 1&0. Even when connected, we had distance among and across us. The virtual boundaries of our connectedness were "safe" because denuded from compassion, touch, and smell and often sound. We were now part of a network, created through and by technologies that would change us and our world in less than 40 years. And the social connectedness definition would now join a new paradigm, that of “connectivity.” Indeed, now our interaction, virtual and without being enwrapped in compassion, was defined thru becoming one of the at least two points in a network and establishing a connection.

A book I enjoyed to read about this topic is by a professor from Utrecht University José Van Dijck “The Culture of Connectivity. A Critical History of Social Media.” And, while learning about the role of the media in connectedness and connectivity, my mind made connections between the biological world of the brain and the importance of distance in both social media users and the connectivity in neural networks.

Here is how my medico-biological world helped me understand digital connectivity and social connectedness:

A distinct line of analytic neuroscience research deals with the understanding of geometric distance and the effectiveness of human brain networks. It is of course unadvised to make comparisons across disciplines by mixing biologic, metabolic and social topics, but the connectivity in the digital world reminded me of neural network connectivity, and the connectedness across media of the concept of distance. A recent article about geometric distance and brain networks by Alessio Perenelle at al. “Dependence of connectivity on geometric distance in brain networks” Scientific Reports 9; Article no. 13412 (2019) discusses this topic in an accessible style for wide audiences.

Another scholarly analysis of the brain networks is from Brazil by Jean Faber et al’, “Critical elements for connectivity analysis of brain networks” (2019) arxiv.org/ftq/arxiv/papers/1904/1904.07231.pdf which builds upon the earlier work of Bullmore and Sporns. My favorite summary of the latter authors' thesis is:

The dependence of connectivity on the physical distance appears to be a trade-off between the complexity required to carry out cognitive tasks and the metabolic costs of establishing and sustaining s huge number of elements and links

And that trade-off brought me back to the physical distancing imposed upon us by the digital technology. Interestingly, no one today even thinks about how life was before virtual everything. But we are now affected by “social distancing” imposed upon us by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Physical distancing and social distancing. In both instances it is a form of isolation, of loneliness and often depressive moods for some. But in either instance it is for survival either in a world changing because driven by new technology, or a new social configuration where people remain fellow humans but also vectors, carriers, and sometimes inconsiderate citizens.

So, we will connect two points in a network and we may learn where the nods are, but many of us will often take a halt and recall how things were when  “good morning” was followed by a warm hug not an emoji!

 

September 21, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

 

PS/ I took this photo with a Soviet/Ukrainian medium format Kiev camera in Vienna, Austria near the Stefan Dome cathedral. There is a lack of connectivity AND connectedness in this photo even when one person was mimicking Charlie Chaplin!