Privacy Questions and the Fifth Dimension

This post is more of a note to myself than anything else; it's a question that I think has merit but that I haven't significantly developed yet. Is the grip that we are losing on personal privacy (often without concern) related to the urbanization process that society has experienced over the past four centuries? This question led me to a hypothesis about a fifth dimension (seriously).

In agrarian (farm-based) economies people have to be spread out. In the feudal era many people gathered close to to castles and forts for protection. As economic specialization developed a distinct "urban" lifestyle emerged--codependent with rural lifestyles, but distinct. The industrial revolution was a catalyst for urbanization, as there was suddenly an abundance of work in cities (the fact that the work was dirty, dangerous, menial, and grueling did not seem to be much of a deterrent; as a side note, I wonder what economic challenges made families willing to send even children to work in the factories.)

[Heres another interesting side note about industrial era. (Full disclosure: I remember my history professor at the College of Idaho said this, but I haven't verified it. Seems legit, thought.) Churches were the genesis of the effort to reform labor conditions and overcrowded workers' apartments, because having so many young, stressed men and women living close to each other had led to serious chastity problems.]

As the recent centuries have progressed humanity tended to gather closer and closer together, and technology has facilitated that dynamic. The inhumane overcrowding that characterized the industrial era urban settings has in most places regained a balance, and we have some space again, even in cities. But we have a new way of getting in each others' faces--digitally projecting portions of our identity into a nearly ubiquitous artificial world. The significance of this development leads me to think of it as human discovery and colonization of a fifth dimension.

To clarify what I mean, I offer a humble definition of dimensions. Dimensions are fundamental qualities of space which dictate how things can exist in that space.

One dimension: dots can exist on a line
Two dimensions: lines have the freedom to be spread along a plane
Three dimensions: objects can exist in a sphere with width, depth, and height.
Four dimensions: as time passes, these objects can move to different locations within the space
Five dimensions: objects can exist in one location in a sphere and simultaneously project qualities of themselves into other regions of the sphere.

Back to the question, I started with, what is the relationship between this progression of living proximity with other people and how comfortable sharing our private lives?




Some people who have influenced these ideas (and therefore can be blamed if you don't like them):
Dr. Sherry Turkle, author of Life on the Screen
Amy Petersen, through "Some Hopeful Words on Media and Agency"
Dr. Gideon Burton, BYU English Dept.
Dr. Mark Smith, the College of Idaho History Dept.
Makers of the Frontline documentary "Growing Up Online"