12 - Technology
Sophia the Robot - Matthew Shave|Hanson Robotics
Technology is both a love and a fear of mine.
I love my smartphone. I love seeing advancements in fields like science and medicine that improve our overall quality of life.
But deep fake videos scare me. The plague of disinformation on the internet scares me. Robots scare me.
It always gives me pause when I think about how human beings - previously the smartest entities on the planet - created lifeless machines that have dwarfed our intelligence.
They can do physical tasks without getting tired, they don’t age, and their ability to process information, make decisions, and weigh every possible outcome of any given situation far outperforms us - their creators.
It’s like if a deity’s creations ended up becoming stronger than the actual deity itself.
But Black Mirror-esque fears and existential dread aside - technological advances are a sight to behold.
Because technology grows exponentially, we make leaps and bounds every few years, and things that would’ve been deemed unrealistic or impossible to see in our lifetimes become commonplace.
And even though I’m skeptical at best about robots (sorry Sophia), I’m excited to see what technology has in store for us mere mortals. Are we done evolving? Or will technology play a vital role in our next developmental step? Robotic/bionic body parts already exist - will that become the norm? Will we slowly but surely become cyborgs? Who’s to say? Again, what would’ve been laughed at 10 years ago is now a reality.
I distinctly remember laughing my brother off in 2006 while discussing the future of the iPod. Back then, they had just added pictures and video to their arsenal. A device that held all forms of media (video, audio, pictures) in the palm of your hand? That was it. No more could be done.
“I don’t know; they could make it a phone,” he said.
Right. An iPod that makes phone calls? What is this, Mars? 2055? 2055 on Mars?
Yet here we are, wearing watches that are 1/4 the size of those iPods, and have far more capabilities than they ever did. You can text, play music, count your steps and calories, and make phone calls from your wrist - and most people don’t even bat an eye. We’ve become numb to a lot of technology’s breakthroughs in that regard. So much is happening so fast, it’s hard to stay impressed for long.
And while I’m fully aware of all the potential downfalls and outright evils of technology (I mentioned a few that keep me up at night), I still view technology as vital to humanity’s survival going forward.
If we want to even remotely combat climate change, we’re going to depend on more fuel efficient cars, smart grids, filtration systems that can purify previously dirty, undrinkable water (or even water from feces???), advanced machines that run on clean energy as opposed to fossil fuels, and computers that allow more people to work remotely and thus, minimize their carbon footprint.
And that’s just climate change. That doesn’t begin to touch medical advancements, educational advancements, and other improvements to inherently good and necessary industries.
They say the first person to live forever is already alive - meaning there’s people walking this Earth as we speak that will live to see a time where technology would’ve solved humanity’s mortality dilemma.
Whether or not you agree with it ethically is a discussion for another time. But at the very least, you have to marvel at how an idea so previously ridiculous is now a very real possibility.
Besides, we’re gonna need all the help we can get in the inevitable Robot Wars of 2035.