Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan: “We Must Be Alert to the New Digital World”

The Fi-gital Future Summit 2021, organized in cooperation with the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education and Üsküdar Üniversitesi, concluded with a conference given by Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan. Meeting with young people preparing for YKS, Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan, a Faculty Member of the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Üsküdar Üniversitesi, emphasized that while adapting to the new digital world, humans must also protect themselves.

Stating that technology uses humans and the new digital world loves people who are connected 24/7, Canan said, “You are valuable as long as you provide data. Just as we were valuable yesterday as long as we consumed, now we will be valuable as long as we provide data. Therefore, we need to be somewhat alert to this world. We may be living in an era where we are most susceptible to manipulation. But if we act with courage, this technology can also be our greatest ally.”

Will it be possible to remain human in the digital future?

The program, moderated by Ertuğrul Tut, Preference Promotion Specialist at Üsküdar Üniversitesi, was held online due to the pandemic. Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan, Faculty Member of the Psychology Department at Üsküdar Üniversitesi, drew attention to the points people should be careful about in the digital world with his speech titled “Remaining Human in the Digital Future.”

Technology directs us

Stating that all our digital movements are tracked thanks to developing technologies, Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan said, “Technology beckons us as end-users. It sends us notifications. It directs us. It tells us what to think and what not to think. In an era where we can obtain data from all sides, it forces and condemns us to believe what it says. Why? Did malevolent aliens do this? No. Unfortunately, technology today was fundamentally designed solely for making money. It is an automatic consequence of the capitalist system. To make money, what will you do? You will find a way to convert the customer into money. For this, human weaknesses have been very well studied since the early 1900s. A large part of what was produced in the realm of psychology led to the development of these techniques first, and then technologies.”

The first condition for remaining human is 'being able to stop'

Stating that it is a wonderful thing for a person to change their mind and update themselves, Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan warned against being cautious about the new digital world and said:

“But we are facing a new digital world that very skillfully uses this ability to change ideas through mental vulnerabilities. I am a little concerned about this new digital world as well, regarding the future of humanity and the issue of remaining human. The new world will contain a lot of technological innovation that seems to be done entirely for the benefit of humans, completely digitized. But being a courageous human being, being able to remain human, will be essential here. And the first condition for this is 'being able to stop.' That is, if in this era we can stop for 5 minutes or an hour without paying attention to any notification, if we can be alone with our own minds and find things to occupy ourselves with, then we become the biggest spoke in the wheel of this system.

You are valuable as long as you provide data…

That system does not like this at all. The 24/7 connected human is the most beautiful human. It doesn't matter who they are. You are valuable as long as you provide data. Just as we were valuable yesterday as long as we consumed, now we will be valuable as long as we provide data. Therefore, we need to be somewhat alert to this world. We may be living in an era where we are most susceptible to manipulation. But if we act with courage, this technology can also be our greatest ally.”

Those small relationships that make us human

Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan stated that we also understood the importance and value of socializing during this period, saying, “One day during the pandemic, while walking on Bağdat Caddesi, when I saw the empty cafes, I suddenly realized, as if struck by lightning, the purpose of casual chats. What truly makes us human are those conversations, those small relationships… That form of communication is what truly keeps us synchronized as a superorganism. When this is lost, we scatter like headless chickens.”

Real social life is our most important lifeline

“The easiest way to facilitate digital manipulation is to be alone for a long time in the digital world,” said Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan, adding, “Regardless of who your friends or Instagram followers are there, you are alone, and this is the greatest danger. Therefore, a real social life is still our most important lifeline, in my opinion, for a very distant future. Let's hope we can embrace it again, arm in arm, in beautiful days.”

Artificial intelligence must transform into a structure that presents summarized data

Stating that it is impossible for an ordinary person to follow the literature in the field of neuroscience, Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan said, “There were organizations that summarized scientific information for researchers; humans were removed from the process, and now these have transformed into software. I have the following expectation from artificial intelligence: if we can use AI intelligently, it must transform into a structure that dynamically monitors produced scientific information, generates patterns to provide meaningful answers to our questions by combining it with our accumulated previous knowledge, and presents us with summarized data.”

New Ibn Sinas can emerge with artificial intelligence

Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan stated that for years he has been trying to explain what he learned in the fields of brain, behavior, and psychology in a way everyone can understand, in their own language: “Scholars who want to be knowledgeable in many fields will be artificial intelligence algorithms. Of course, these will be people who have studied well beforehand, read, done their lessons and homework, and mastered the jargon of those fields. Then, together with artificial intelligences that summarize within this enormous data ocean and become more skilled at this as they summarize, they can create an example of productive human-machine collaboration. What happens then? New Newtons, new Ibn Sinas, new Farabis can emerge and develop. I don't see this as far-fetched at all because it is very possible, but it seems difficult without the help of artificial intelligence.”

World countries must invest in neurotechnology

Canan stated that countries with foresight in the world should first learn about neurotechnology and invest in the field of neurotechnology, saying, “The applications that will combine the nervous system—that is, the human brain—with technology, a glimpse of which Elon Musk gave today, will shape the future world. Whoever produces these applications and hardware will also be the new emperors of data.”

I owe my success to my mother’s motto

Prof. Dr. Sinan Canan said, ‘Many of my friends gave me exam strategies and tutored me, but I owe both winning university and not stressing over university exam-like issues to my mother’s motto,’ and concluded his words by offering advice to candidates who will take the exam:

“After that, it became the most important motto of my life. The motto is: You shouldn’t make too much of things. Seriously, in the era we are living in, you shouldn’t make too much of these kinds of exams. I always give an example that I find useful: If you try to climb stairs with binoculars on your eyes, you will fall. Take the binoculars off your eyes, and the stair steps become something you can climb. We are made to look at these exams with binoculars. We are overly tense, but there’s no need for it. These are steps; treat them accordingly. Then you will see how beautiful everything is. Also, don’t forget that there’s a condition for climbing the steps: your eyes must be on which floor, which goal you are going to. It doesn’t matter where one who looks at the step is climbing to. Therefore, fix your eyes on the goal a little further ahead, and the steps will already be your path. I have never been a person who gave up, but I have never allowed anything to become big enough to divert me from my goal. I recommend this to everyone.”