Lessons from John Henry in the Information Age

The Legend of John Henry, if you are not familiar, is a US tall tale/myth wherein an African-American railroad worker challenges his steam-powered replacement to a race, and wins. Ultimately, he dies in the attempt, but he does so "with a hammer in his hand," a symbol most usually of victory at any cost, personal strength and achievement, and the supremacy of man over machine (or at least the defiance of the machine).

Alternative modern readings see Henry as a symbol of futility or even anti-progress, dying to make a point when the machine will be repaired, and the job will be lost anyway.

But I think the classic story of man's phyrric victory over machine is more relevant today than maybe ever before, and is worth revisiting beyond the contexts of "rage against the machine" and "can't stop progress."

Today, most progressives seem to value intellect and logic over all else. STEM reigns supreme, and the 'left-brain' tendencies are lauded. We love a nerdy character writing complex equations on a blackboard or spitting out equations. (Discussion of the anti-intellectual sentiment outside of progressive circles is beyond the scope of what I want to talk about today.)

(Before we get too much further into this, I want to make it very clear that I am pro-science, I am pro-data, I am pro-STEM, and I am not making an argument here about any of the ineffable or intangible things that may or may not make us human.)

This admiration of STEM and logic, despite our best progressive inclinations, mirror our admiration of the Strong Protestant Man with the Good Work Ethic.

Putting John Henry himself aside for the moment, it makes sense that we pride ourselves so highly on logic, intellect, and processing power. We are the reasonable animal, after all. Isn't that what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom? If not that, then what? (There are many bodies of literature that attempt to answer this question; I will not attempt to do so here.)

But we are headed for a reckoning. In many ways, the machines we've built are already much better at the things we value than we ourselves are. Speed of recall, fidelity of reproduction, and sheer processing power are already so far beyond what humans can do that there's no real comparison.

So perhaps in some ways we must return to valuing our animal selves more. Not in the sense of valuing our animalistic tendencies, but in the sense of valuing our animalistic capabilities.