There are those uttered phrases that stay with us for longer than they ought to. They rise to the surface of our thoughts while we are cooking and echo inaudibly during long walks in solitude. One of those persistent utterances came to me a few weeks ago from Sunil Abraham, the director of India’s Centre for Internet & Society, a relaxed man with a quick smile.
“We care much more about the attribution of intangible objects,” he argued, “than tangible objects like buildings, food, and cars.” Sunil was giving a presentation about property and attribution. How do we know what belongs to whom? And when must we give attribution for that which is not ours?
It is true that I would probably be annoyed if I saw another writer claim this post as his or her own – but why? What harm is done to me if these ideas are spread elsewhere under the authorship of another name? Now, let’s suppose that rather than crafting paragraphs I focused all my attention and ability on producing the finest grapefruits imaginable? Would I be annoyed if those grapefruits were traded, discussed, and consumed without the constant repetition of my name?
“Grapefruit Splash” by Steven Fernandez. CC 2.0. Note that I am legally required to mention Fernandez’s name, but we have no idea who is responsible for the grapefruit itself.
This dichotomy of attribution – tangible versus intangible – has echoed in my head because it did not make sense to me. Until, that is, I realized a key distinction. Intangible objects are immortal; tangible objects are destined to decay – either back to dust or beyond any recognition of their original form.
For those of us who are unsure of the existence of an eternal soul I can think of only three conceptions of immortality. First, there are the intangible creations that we leave behind — essentially anything that can be digitized into 1’s and 0’s like text, images, audio, video, software. The second (and oldest) form of immortality is simply to have children, to pass on our genetic information with the hope that our children will do the same. Finally, the third (and most abstract) notion of immortality is to think about how our own lives have influenced those of countless others; our humble role in the ecosphere of humanity.
Ever since the arrival of homo-sapiens as a distinct species, the evolution of the human genome has been overshadowed by the evolution of human culture. What it means to be human today is far less defined by our naked bodies than by what we have created.
Attribution of the intangible is nothing less than the attempt of a species of primates to transcend their basic animalness by attaching their individual identities to that which they create; to weld an immortal link between our biology and our culture.