How Has Technology Changed Society? A Look Through the Unbundling Lens
Did you know that it took electricity over 30 years to reach 25% of the US population, while the internet achieved the same feat in just seven? This acceleration isn't just about speed; it's a symptom of a much deeper transformation. The fundamental question of our time is not merely what new tools we have, but how those tools are rewiring the very fabric of our society and the value of a human being within it.
To truly grasp how technology has changed society, we must look beyond the surface-level disruptions. In his book, The Great Unbundling, author J.Y. Sterling argues that technology, particularly AI, is systematically deconstructing the integrated capabilities—analytical intelligence, emotional intelligence, physical skill, and consciousness—that have defined humanity for millennia. This "unbundling" is the single most powerful force shaping our modern world.
This article explores the relationship between society and technology through this powerful lens.
- For the AI-Curious Professional, it provides a strategic framework to understand the deep currents reshaping industries and careers.
- For the Philosophical Inquirer, it confronts the profound questions about human purpose in an age of intelligent machines.
- For the Aspiring Ethicist, it offers a structured analysis of the most pressing technological issues in society today.
From Bundled Apes to Digital Avatars: A History of Integrated Humans
As J.Y. Sterling outlines in The Great Unbundling, the evolutionary triumph of Homo sapiens was its unique and powerful capability "bundle." For thousands of years, society was built upon the foundation of the integrated individual:
- The artisan who conceptualized a design (analytical intelligence), felt passion for their craft (emotional intelligence), and physically built the product (dexterity).
- The leader who formulated a strategy (analysis), inspired their followers (emotion), and stood with them in person (physical presence).
- The scholar who researched ideas (analysis), debated them with conviction (emotion), and wrote them down by hand (physicality).
Our economies, legal systems, and social hierarchies were all designed around this bundled human. Value was created and recognized in the seamless integration of these functions within one person. The Industrial Revolution began a slow separation, unbundling labor from the home, but it was nothing compared to the seismic shift we are witnessing today.
The Engine of Change: How Technology Unbundles Modern Society
The digital age, supercharged by AI and financed by capitalism, acts as a relentless engine of unbundling. It isolates each human capability, optimizes it in silicon, and scales it globally, creating profound technological issues in society that we are only beginning to comprehend.
Unbundling the Economy: Labor and Value
For decades, the fear of automation focused on manual labor. The current wave of AI, however, targets the cognitive and creative domains once considered uniquely human. This is the unbundling of intelligence from the human mind.
A 2023 report from Goldman Sachs estimated that generative AI could impact the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs globally. AI can now write code, draft legal documents, create marketing copy, and generate photorealistic images. This doesn't just eliminate jobs; it fundamentally devalues the traditional career path built on a specific bundle of knowledge. The value proposition of a "knowledge worker" is threatened when the knowledge itself is unbundled and available on demand from an API.
This economic shift is creating a massive demand for new, highly-specific skill sets, leading to a boom in emerging technology jobs that require collaboration with, rather than competition against, AI.
Unbundling Connection: The Social Fabric
Social media platforms and communication technologies have unbundled the feeling of connection from the often difficult, nuanced work of genuine community. They deliver validation in the form of likes, shares, and comments, separating the reward of social approval from the prerequisite of mutual vulnerability and shared experience.
- Bundled Connection: A long conversation with a friend, sharing triumphs and struggles.
- Unbundled Connection: Scrolling through a curated feed of success stories, receiving a dopamine hit from a notification.
This unbundling contributes to what many see as a core negative impact of technology: rising rates of loneliness and anxiety. We have more "friends" than ever, but the depth of our average social connection has become shallower.
Unbundling Intelligence: Knowledge vs. Knowing
Perhaps the most philosophically challenging unbundling is that of intelligence from consciousness. An AI can pass the bar exam but has no concept of "justice." It can analyze medical scans with superhuman accuracy but has no understanding of "health" or "suffering."
This separates raw problem-solving capability from the wisdom, ethics, and contextual understanding that we call "knowing." This disembodied intelligence can be deployed anywhere, anytime, a key factor driving technological globalization. The risk is a world optimized for efficiency by systems that lack the moral compass and holistic perspective we once took for granted as being bundled with high intelligence.
The Consequences: Navigating an Unbundled World
Living in a society where core human functions are being unbundled and outsourced to technology creates systemic challenges that demand new ways of thinking.
Economic Disparity and the Necessity of UBI
As technology unbundles cognitive labor, the economic returns flow increasingly to the owners of the technology (capital) rather than to the providers of labor. This widens the wealth gap and makes traditional employment a precarious foundation for a stable society.
Within the "Great Unbundling" framework, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not a mere policy preference but a potential civilizational necessity. If the human "bundle" is no longer the primary unit of economic value, society must devise a new mechanism to distribute resources and provide stability, allowing people to survive the transition.
The Erosion of Shared Reality
When algorithms curate our reality, they unbundle information from a shared, verifiable context. Filter bubbles, echo chambers, and the rise of AI-generated deepfakes erode the common ground of facts required for a democracy to function. If two people can look at the same event and be fed entirely different, algorithmically-optimized narratives, how can society reach a consensus on anything?
Environmental Pressures
The digital world is not ethereal. It is built on a massive physical infrastructure of servers, cables, and rare-earth minerals. The unbundling of our lives into digital streams has a profound physical cost. By 2030, data centers alone could consume up to 8% of the world's electricity. Acknowledging the full societal and environmental impact of technology is critical for building a sustainable future.
The Human Response: The Great Re-bundling
The unbundling process is not a deterministic fate. As Sterling argues in the final part of his book, it creates the conditions for a powerful human counter-current: The Great Re-bundling. This is the conscious and deliberate effort to create new forms of value by integrating our capabilities in ways machines cannot replicate.
Redefining Work and Purpose
The future of human work lies not in competing with AI on isolated tasks, but in mastering the art of integration. This means re-bundling skills in novel ways:
- The Empathetic Coder: A programmer who also studies psychology and ethics to build human-centric systems.
- The Community-Building Artisan: A craftsperson who uses technology to reach a global market but builds their brand around local, in-person workshops and community events.
- The Clinical Ethicist: A medical professional who pairs their diagnostic knowledge with a deep understanding of AI limitations and patient values to guide treatment.
This isn't just about finding work in tech; it's about creating uniquely human value. Many are finding this calling in the growing field of tech for good jobs, which explicitly aim to re-bundle technology with positive social outcomes.
Cultivating Your Personal Re-bundling
Navigating this new terrain requires conscious effort. Here are actionable steps to begin your own "Great Re-bundling":
- Develop Integrated Skills: Don't just learn a technical skill. Pair it with a deeply human one: communication, philosophy, ethics, art, or community organizing. This "T-shaped" combination is more resilient than deep knowledge in one area alone.
- Curate Your Information Diet: Actively fight the algorithmic unbundling of information. Use RSS readers, subscribe to diverse newsletters, and make a point to read primary sources and opposing viewpoints.
- Prioritize Embodied Connection: Schedule and protect time for face-to-face, nuanced human interaction that cannot be replicated through a screen.
- Practice Critical Consumption: Question the technology you use. Ask: What function is this tool unbundling? Is it serving my goals or the goals of its creator?
Conclusion: Society and Technology at a Crossroads
How has technology changed society? It has initiated The Great Unbundling, systematically breaking apart the integrated model of the human being that has underpinned our economies and cultures for our entire history. We are living through the consequences of this tectonic shift, from economic precarity to social fragmentation.
This is not a story of doom, but one of choice. The most significant technological issues in society stem from passively allowing this process to unfold, driven purely by market logic. The path forward lies in an active, intentional Great Re-bundling—a movement to redefine human value, purpose, and community in a world we share with increasingly intelligent machines. The future is not about man versus machine, but about a resilient, re-bundled humanity finding its new place in the world.
To explore the complete "Great Unbundling" framework and prepare for the future of work, value, and human purpose, purchase your copy of J.Y. Sterling's The Great Unbundling. Get the book
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