Modern computers have existed for less than 100 years. In that time, they’ve gone from monoliths that took up entire rooms to the pocket-sized devices we all walk around with today. Smartphones are said to have 100,000 times more processing power than the computer used by NASA in the Apollo 11 mission.
The advancement in computing technology just blows my mind. I think a lot of this progress can be attributed to the computers themselves—human makes computer, computer helps human make computer smarter. If that’s the case, the speed of technological advancement will only increase. If we went from no computers to supercomputers in 100 years, what kind of tech will we have 50 or 100 years from now? And what will that mean for society?
Whether you think social media has been a positive or negative force in our world, you can’t deny that it has had massive influence. Our ability to access it instantly and from anywhere only compounds that. Personal technology has become so pervasive in the west that you could even be at a disadvantage if you choose to not use it.
But I can only speculate about which technologies will come next (and if you’ve read my column before, you know I love to speculate). Let’s just focus on one possibility: let’s say humanity develops the ability to link computers to the human mind. I think it’s safe to assume that using a technology like that would give an individual an advantage over someone not using it. So, like smartphones, a lot of people would start using it; maybe most of us would.
But say even half the population decides to go cyborg: the implications are startling. What happens to privacy? If you can link with other people, what happens to personal identity? Could an authoritarian state use it to police thoughts or otherwise control its population?
With new technology comes new ethical quandaries. And if the smartphone revolution has proved anything, it’s that we don’t have a great system in place to deal with these changes and adjust our policies. And we’ve just touched on one example. What about artificial intelligence? Genetic modification? I know it sounds straight out of science fiction, but the line between sci-fi and science is a thin one and it’s only getting thinner. Let’s be ready.