All quotes reflected upon below were taken from the online article
Characteristics of a future society based on futurist predictions
"A recurring theme and technological prediction of futurists is one in which human intelligence supersedes that of the previous generation through artificial enhancement."
The concept that the needs of current society will one day be fixed through artificial enhancement. Personally this is not the way humanity should go! I believe humans will always create more needs or wants no matter what we have.. because purely we are human. Or there is even the concept that the next generations will realize this and stop wanting unneeded things within their life.. and instead enjoy the gift of life.
"Mr Pelletier outlines a near future (2030s) where a combination of nanotechnology and insight into the inner workings of the human brain facilitate an exponential growth of intelligence."
A plausible future advancement.. but really is it needed? Are we not intelligent enough in comparison to all that exists on Earth. Perhaps there are certain communities and societies who need to catch up.. but at the same time economic statuses help the individual grow their intelligence.. so this contradicts because how will they afford nanotechnology? This technology may only cause a larger gap between the 'intelligent' and the 'norm'.
"By utilising these tiny automatons (nano-technology) to the largest extent possible, it is thought that both disease and aging could be eradicated by the middle of this century. This is
An outstanding concept.. but personally No. History has only proved that with the development of medicine, there has been a development in history. And if we do stop aging and disease.. we are only creating a higher population growth! Personally, technology is now at the point where the further development of it will only cause more global issues.
"In essence, nano devices could act as a controllable extension of the
Another great concept but still relates to the issue of population growth. Humans should not play god.. unfortunately it is natural for people to die.. mother nature's way of keeping things in balance.
"This could be one of the first targets for augmentation; increasing the speed of information transfer via programmed algorithms that fuse our natural biological mechanisms of searching with the power of logical, machine-coded functions. Imagine being able to combine the biological capacity to effortlessly scan and recognise facial features with the speed of computerised programming."
Is this a good or a bad thing if our brain is as fast as a computer.. a futuristic computer which is even smarter.. will the mind become more intelligent or will it simply turn humans into functioning robots?
"Undoubtedly there will be certain populations whom refuse for whatever reason, most likely due to a perceived conflict with their belief system. It is important to preserve and respect such individuality, even if it means that these populations will be left behind in terms of intellectual enlightenment."
I strongly agree with this quote.
"I would respond that an increase in intelligence would likewise cause a global rise in morality. While this relationship is entirely speculative, it is plausible to suggest that a person’s level of moral goodness is at least related (if not directly) to their intelligence."
Indeed, intelligence allows humans to develop positive morals towards each other. Allows people to see the bigger picture. But personally this morality already exists.. whilst some people have bad morals due to their life experiences. Perhaps the concept of replacing bad memories for better memories will allow for a more positive future.
"Perhaps we are already in the midst of our future society. Our planet’s declining environment may hasten the development of such augmentation to improve our chances of survival. Whatever the future holds, it is certainly an exciting time in which to live. Hopefully humanity can overcome the challenges of the future in a positive way and without too much disruption to our technological progress."
Honestly, the way humanity is going as a result of technology.. I do not see why technological advancements are required, except for those which allow human life to preserve the planet we live on. But unfortunately money and the market runs the world, and it will be a market decision to continue develop in all fields of technology.. as a result of profit.
Overall moral of the article: Predicting answers for the future only allows for more questions. Only time will tell what the future holds!
Quotes from comments below the article:
"It is evident that for every step forward, there is a concomitant step back some place else, usually unanticipated. [For example] television gives us a “window on the world”, and a means for distorting the facts and manipulating the opinions of millions of people all at once."
I agree with this quote completely.
"Each of us might like being smarter (e.g., an IQ of 150 instead of 120), but the problem is that a world where everyone is 30 IQ points smarter is just as primitive and competitive as the “dumber” world we had before."
Another amazing quote.. increasing intelligence of all humans will simply raise the bar.. or establish an even larger gap between classes and separating connectivity of human beings even more.
"How it ends: the augmented humans decide normal humanity is not worth saving, and go off on their FTL ships to seed the galaxy."
Something humanity would do.. go and destroy another planet.. the modern ideology of replacing something which is broken ie. Earth.
"Before that we lived in small bands and tribes, were in substantial balance with what the environment could provide (for hunters and gatherers), and had essentially zero environmental footprint. There were probably only a few million humans on the whole planet, but the author argued that they were almost certainly happy, because the small tribal social situation was what we had evolved to desire."
I agree that life would have been simpler at some points of time. Life where we raised a family and lived our days providing for one another. Life without the issue of destroying the Earth.. but unfortunately humans need to learn. We crave to develop our individual skills.. so stopping technological advancements is impossible.
Overall, it is clear that future humanity will continue to develop.. and it may be possible that technological advancements in relevant fields to survival, such as sustainable thinking, will be ignored by the market until a major disaster occurs and millions of people die. Nonetheless it is nature's way of cleaning up and starting fresh! Unfortunately I for one do not have faith left in humanity because of this exact reasoning.. every person within the world MUST be aware of the technological advancements we actually require through sustainable thinking!!
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