stardustcboy's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FUTURE OF HUMANKIND PART I: MAN/MACHINE INTERFACE THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE PART 1: ~MAN/MACHINE INTERFACE~ to look upon the nature of humankind one must also begin to ponder its future. whether we are creatures of divinity, darkness, sloth or habit we look towards tomorrow and ask ourselves, "what does the universe have in store? what is our cosmic destiny as individuals AND as a species?" we are trapped here, on this moldy piece of rock in a very uncaring and harsh void. our forays into that supreme vacuum are short lived and few and far between. the means we employ to place ourselves in communion with that vaste expanse of emptiness are rudimentary at best, and catastrophic at worst...many a life has been taken out there...in that black infinity... what are we to do? if we are both divine and profane, then what does the future hold for us? where will we be in the next 100 years? 200? 500? 1000? some might say we won't live that long. our propensity for hatred, ignorance and destruction will have overshadowed our propensity for greatness...that a mere century from now all that will stand in testimony to our lives...will be the crumbling spires of our cities...towering monoliths to the age of man. but would this really be the case? mankind is indeed powerful, but is it powerful enough to annhilate all life on earth and leave it barren and devoid for any succesive generations of life to thrive and continue? the earth has seen much worse in its lifetime. it outlived the devastation of countless aeons, saw the fall of the dinosaurs, the rise of egypt and rome as well as their demise. yet, here it stands lush, verdant...an emerald-sapphire jewel in the velvet absence of space. it is vain of us to think we could do such a thing. if we are to destroy ourselves the earth will still go on and thousands, if not millions, of years from now all will be renewed and an entire era will begin without us. or will it? though we have the power to destroy ourselves, it would be surprising not to find a few stragglers in the aftermath. those fortunate (or unfortunate) few who through the graces of the cosmos itself, managed to avoid whatever great catastrophe humankind had engineered. if there is one thing we can assume about humans, it is that we survive...and that we are PROLIFIC! if there are but 10,000 of us remaining, in 30 years there will be a million, in a hundred years there will be a billion maybe even more. we are indeed a tenacious race, but not only that...we are INGENIOUS! we adapt to our surroundings by fashioning tools. these tools allow us to survive even the most harshest of earths environs. furthermore, we IMPROVE upon our designs and our power grows even more. nature gave the beasts claws, horns, fangs, fur, armor and various other advantages with which to survive. we on the other hand, were but naked, yet we had but a single gift...creativity. it is our creativity that led us to fashion the stick into the club. it is our creativity that inspired us to use the pelt of an animal as protection against the elements. it is creativity that allowed us to wield fire in a multitude of ways. with our creativity we build claws and fangs and fur, and we've only improved them over the centuries. we've made our lives more convenient and easy. we've conquered diseases. we've improved our ability to heal...and conversely, harm. our technology grows and evolves much like a lifeform. it takes different shapes, there are several different permutations but only one seems to dominate and evolve further (VHS/BETA...Laserdisc/DVD). there is no wonder we worry that it will "take over" or "gain awareness and turn against its creator". we assign to it our own human errors...our own human desire...our own human potential for destruction and hatred. ever so steadily our technology grows in power, capability, and functionality almost to a point beyond our own scope of wisdom with which to weild it. alongside its geometric evolution is its geometric micronization. from two ton, room-sized calculating machines, to palm-sized mini-supercomputers and ever shrinking cellular phones. when will a cell phone be too small to carry? when they can shrink all of its functions into a chip no more than a few micrometers in length and width. moreover, what happens to the desktop computer when it is no more the size of a particle of sand atop the desk? with research into nanotechnology and microtechnology it will only be a matter of time before this occurs. furthermore, as we delve deeper into the mysteries of DNA and the base building blocks of life, we will begin to realize that living things are nothing BUT highly advanced robots. that DNA is a extremely complex microprocessor and moreover, a highly advanced NANOMACHINE. not only that, we will realize that biological systems are the most efficient when it comes to energy/consumption ratios. as it stands, the we could engineer the most efficient motor ever, but the rate at which it consumes fuel to the rate at which it generates power would be a mere 35%. yet a living cel stands at a nice 70%. we will begin to integrate technology into ourselves. computers will become specially engineered nervous tissue that is implanted in the cerebral cortex. gene therapies will allow us to increase our "processing speed" (the speed at which our synapses relay signals) by rebuilding our nervous tissue with specially engineered enzymes and proteins. change does not come easy. so that is not to say that there won't be much devastation, neither is it to say that technology doesn't have its darker side (as does its creator). overall, we will unify with our creations (for better or worse) and enact our own evolution. the essence of all life is to survive. life survives through improvement. things that don't work so well die off eventually, and things that are beneficial propagate to successive generations. a result of such a system is yourself. but where do we go from here? surely, there is no "cap limit" as to the amount of improvement. hypothetically, a system could be improved indefinitely (as perfection is an ideal and not part of the grand design). what will we become? one hundred years from now there will be no more need for sexual reproduction. this will be due in large part to the extended span of the human life. also, with the above-mentioned technologies in play, human life would have to be carefully cultured and grown in a laboratory type environment (less margin of error). finally, without reproductive hormones there will most likely be little to no war or violence (it is fact that testosterone is a "violent/aggressive" hormone and we all have it - men and women); and thus no real "sexual drive" (testosterone is also responsible for this). humans will be naturally telepathic. this will be the result of microtechnological cerebral implants (the tiny cellular phone mentioned before) that are grown into the nervous tissue at birth. humans will also be vastly more intelligent as most history/knowledge/skills will be installed before the child is even born, by the age of five the new human will have the whole of human history and scientific endeavor stored within its biotechnologically augmented brain. we will also be faster. our physique as well as our reflexes, will have been improved and enhanced to a point where we can consciously decipher every millisecond of sensory data that streams into our brain at any given moment (whereas now we perhaps retain about 1/3 to 2/3 of a second at best). as mentioned above, we will be very long lived. specially designed and engineered organs will more efficiently filter bacteria and toxins from our bloodstream. moreover, our immune systems will have been enhanced, invading viruses will be catalogued and "remembered" by our re-engineered white blood cells and each new virus or strain of bacteria is stored in memory as well. thus we will be immune to pretty much all of earth's diseases, and any new ones would be cured shortly after contraction by our own bodies. the rate at which we shed and grow new cells will have been decreased slightly to allow for longer-lived cells, and above that our cells will divide/replicate much more efficiently due to "smart" proteins that aid in RNA replication. overall, our lifespans would be about 200 years on average. we may even reach a point at which we can spontaneously shape our bodies at will. several "dummy" organs would be installed in various parts of the body, each would be wired directly to the brain. the user would then determine how those dummy organs would shape themselves at any given moment in time. dummy organs in the chest and throat could be willed and shaped into gills or air filters. a dummy organ weaved throughout the epidermus may be willed to become more heat/cold resistant or even impact or cut resistant. our day to day lives will be permeated by this type of technology. all around us would be living devices that we would interface through our telepathic link. all this and that is not taking into account what quantum physics will unveil in the next century or so. perhaps after we achieve this union our minds will breach the boundaries of time/space and travel amongst the stars is really as simple as... "a jump to the left, and then a step to the right..." (or is it the other way around? i guess it depends on where you're standing). ;-p it may seem far fetched, but it is easy to see how technology could be integrated. with various devices getting smaller, all it takes is for someone to suggest the idea and next thing you know you've got 24/7 television commercials about how much "easier" it is to just have a NID (neural interface device). i can see it now... cute pop-iconish girl touching her temple "wow! my life is soooo much easier with the new sonymicrotel NID. i can do automatic money transfers from my brain, notify my apartment that i'm home, and best of all 3 way call all my friends back home. heehee! it's awesome!" V.O. "sonymicrotel technology, technology for a new world...a new you!" that's all they'd need to do. sell the convenience and the hipness. imagine being able access your checking account from your brain. imagine if when you came home the NID sent a signal to your in-home computer and it immediately turned on the TV/radio/air conditioner/heater/lights/etc. imagine being able to call your friends from your head (you wouldn't have to deal with people squawking on cell phones anymore). furthermore, imagine just sitting in your car and "interfacing" with it through your NID, a HUD (heads-up-display) would be displayed on your retina...fuel levels, speed, rpm, radiostation (which would play inside your head). you would merely interface with computers, boosting your NIDs processing power and literally connecting yourself to the world-wide-web. airline pilots would have similar displays on their NID when they entered the cockpit, taxi-drivers, bus-drivers, boats, military personnel. eventaully the whole of society would have NIDs installed. like i said before, technology has its downside (as the user who wields it - just as a gun is merely a gun on its own, but a death sentance in the hands of an angry/desperate person). there may be a period where "brainjacking" is rampant...or even worse, people would cut NIDs out of hapless victims and sell them on the black-market. and, as my friend jake once joked, whenever your NID blew a fuse you would lose control of your bodily functions; or even worse, go into a catatonic or comatose state. who knows what other evils this type of technology may bring, but it is important to realize that it is the user of any given technology that us accountable for its misuse and not the other way around. eventually, other forms of technology would be created to protect from such threats..."neural firewalls", "anti-brain theft devices" (a "lo-jack" for your head - LoL), and various other such unsundary things. eventually, the power of such technology would trickle down to the end user and the need for such things would deminish over time (especially once everyone in the world is fitted with it). the technology would improve, getting smaller, or moreover, becoming semi-organic in nature (the NID would no longer be a chip per say, but rather a graft of specially designed and modified nervous tissue directly grown onto the brain); thus removing any chance of hacking or theft. the NID would merely be the great-grandparent of the technologies of the distant future (100+ years) and certainly humankind would have learned a certain amount of wisdom and restraint...or not... ;-P yet in the end, we will continue on and as long as we do, we will continue to create things to improve our lives and the lives of humans around the world (for that is in essence what we strive to do overall despite our stumblings and mistakes). but because the things we create (much like ourselves) have both a use for ill and a use for good, some day we will begin to learn restraint and understanding. i'd imagine that ourselves a hundred or so years from now will be utterly alien to ourselves now...just as we would be alien to someone living in the 18th century and earlier; but life goes on, and it is a matter of instinct for us to try and perfect ourselves (it's inherent in every culture worldwide). it seems the natural course that we would eventually bridge a union between ourselves and the secrets we unlock in the cosmos around us; and in turn better ourselves as a species, opening new avenues of growth and human potential. finding new paths of experience and insight in the world around us, ourselves and eventually the universe as a whole. when that day comes, we will rise, unfettered and unafraid, to embrace the yawning gulf of vaste open space above us in search of beings such as ourselves, beings who have survived the tests of terrestrial living and move amongst the heavens in search of us... next: THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE PART 2: ~QUANTUM BEINGS~ ~B-) 8:57 p.m. - 2003-02-03 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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