RENEW AMERICA | Jan 18, 2007
Chips under the skin, laser scanners, bionics, gene mixing, designer babies, global communications, cloning, genetic interventions, nano robotics, etc.,
— we are already living a global, pre-Borg lifestyle.
Many questions remain unanswered as to mankind’s future and man’s fascination with developing cyber-borgie technological tools. How far will we go? Globally it is obvious that the wave of the future is inter-connectiveness, economically and tribally.
Why do we keep on attempting to improve and benefit our lives by following this technological path? Despite these progressive advances supposedly producing simplicity, ease, comfort and many conveniences (in some ways), our lives are more complicated. The words “stress” and “burn out” are recent human-applied descriptions.
Just as visionary writers of a century ago imagined men exploring under the seas and reaching the moon and Mars, we have only to look at today’s science fiction for a glimpse at what our future might be a century from now. Far fetched? That’s what was said of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells in their era.
I recently finished reading Stephen King’s “Cell.” A fantasy, sci-fi type tale, it highlights our mistaken assumptions about technology. King premised that, in one exact moment in time, millions of people on their cellphones have their brains wiped clean or swiped, leaving rudimentary minds, crazy, violent, appearing to follow some commanding voice in their heads. The cause is never determined. But, in an instance, the world changes forever.
Will we remain human or are we facing a future that overtakes our humanness, creating monstrous beings? Half organic and half machine.
Some of you might remember Star Trek’s Captain Picard, captured and turned into a Borg connected and directed by one collective mass mind. It may be imaginative to see all humans connected to a one-mind, mass-directed organic-machine, Borg, controlling our minds and bodies. But aren’t we just a few steps away from such development with the ongoing research into Artificial Intelligence and the introduction of biological components into machines and vice versa?
Chips under the skin, laser scanners, bionics, gene mixing, designer babies, global communications, cloning, genetic interventions, nano robotics, etc.,
— we are already living a global, pre-Borg lifestyle.