Interview with Andreas Herteux

Mr Herteux, in your new book you describe a new human being, the Homo stimulus, who will dominate the future. Who is this person? A monster? A zombie? An evolutionary development?
No, he’s not a monster or a zombie. On the contrary, he could become the norm. But what is he? A Homo stimulus is a person who is conditioned in such a way, who is used to a permanent confrontation with highly frequented, short and – as a rule – artificial stimuli and who can or wants to evade them hardly or only par-tially. On the contrary, certain stimuli are often de-manded or a corresponding stimulus dialogue is initia-ted.
This sounds complicated at first.
But it’s not. Imagine your everyday life. They travel to work on the subway and see dozens of people around them using their smartphones. The impression that these people consider permanent confrontation with stimuli to be normal, are looking for, perhaps need, could therefore arise even if you have never heard the term “Homo sti-mulus”.
Modern media allow the recipient of a stimulus to be addressed in a more targeted, trenchant, quicker, more comprehensive and direct manner. At the same time, this development has also changed the classic media, becau-se texts are often shorter, simpler or cuts in visual media are faster and more intensive. We therefore live in a mo-dern Stimulus Society.
Parallel to this, however, the human being also develops, who simply gets used to this form of stimulus response and adapts to it. It is therefore always mutually influen-cing interactions that have shaped these changes.
Whether this is only a conditioning process, i.e. a learn-ing process, or whether the brain functions have also changed massively in such an environment, we can leave open at the moment, although numerous studies assume that the brain, and presumably also the nervous system, adapts accordingly and re-programs itself in a certain sense. As is well known, the areas cannot be clearly separated anyway. However, in the field of neuro-sciences, there is no doubt that there is still a lot of rese-arch to be done in this respect.
What is the central difference between the attractions of the past and those of today?
The central difference is that all the stimuli in earlier times, and it should not matter whether they were gene-rated by television, radio, decorated shop windows, ca-talogues or whatever, usually did not manage to penetra-te into the innermost private sphere of the person perma-nently and establish themselves there as an essential part of their own life. The relationship between the person and the stimulus was simply different. You can turn off the TV. However, modern media often mix up person, personality and appeal, since it is usually an embedding, a personal cut. Just think, for example, of the importance of social media or just their likes for self-esteem. This difference is the key to understanding a new era, that of Collective Individualism, which is shaped by, among other things, the modern Stimulus Society, but also by Behavioral Capitalism. Added to this, of course, is the sheer quantity and intensity of the stimuli, which has been enhanced by new technical possibilities.

Is the Homo stimulus easier to manipulate?
It is undisputed that a large part of the new stimuli, which are today created in large numbers by machine or artificially by algorithms, serve to produce a certain be-havior. However, Homo stimulus is used to dealing with a large number of them simultaneously. He does not perceive most of the stimuli at all, but has developed certain filtering techniques, which in turn depend on the person and his or her character. The attempt to influence them therefore often comes to nothing.
However, the fact that the stimulus transmitters in the modern Stimulus Society have more possibilities to pe-netrate to the innermost, suggests that influencing beha-vior has not become more difficult. Not for nothing did human behavior become the production factor of a com-pletely new form of economic activity: Behavioral Capita-lism, which could not have been established without technological development and other interactions. To-day, however, it is the dominant form of capitalism, alt-hough all too often it is not perceived as such.

Is the Homo stimulus now the man of the future?
It looks as if the Homo stimulus will become the domi-nant form of man.

And if people were to resist?
This implies that the Homo stimulus basically has some-thing bad about it. In fact, however, it is only a matter of further development and adaptation. Certainly there are many ways to limit the influence of the stimuli at the moment.
However, with each passing year, we will have to do without more and more conveniences and, in some cases, vital applications, just think of the coming break-throughs in AI research or medicine.
But of course that would somehow work out, because after all, even in the middle of the 20th century, in certain constellations, perhaps as a farmer in the countryside, one could still largely escape industrialization.
But one should not forget that children and grandchild-ren grow up in the Age of Collective Individualism, i.e. in the midst of Behavioral Capitalism and the modern Sti-mulus Society, and will not know anything else.
The exciting question, however, will be a different one: What role will causality play in the future?

What do you mean?
Already today, many of the highly frequented stimuli are only partially coherent. For example, when dozens of messages are viewed or short videos are played that are forgotten only seconds later or are suppressed by new stimuli. Often only the analyzing algorithm knows the context, not the user.
Would it not be possible that causality is an overesti-mated component and that in a near future a part of hu-manity will simply, parts of the day, jump from stimulus to stimulus? And is completely satisfied? Of course, we can hardly imagine this today, and yet we must not keep our eyes closed for future developments.
One of the big questions of the future will therefore be that of causality. First a philosophical one and then a very real one.

Thank you very much.

Links:
https://www.andreasherteux.com/
https://www.understandandchange.com/english/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=homo+stimulus&qid=1583843568&sr=8-1