Our Technology Future - Rise of the Human Machines

Continuing the technology discussion I’ve had going for the past couple weeks, today I will briefly touch on a popular sci-fi topic that has gained tremendous traction in popular, mainstream, science. Get ready for the fusion of man and machine.

For as long as there have been machinations of mechanical beings, there has been fiction involving the point at which humans cease being biological and become biological/mechanical hybrids. The impetus for such endeavors varies. Originally sci-fi placed it as simply a means of gaining superhuman strength or attaining a measure of immortality. This evolved into a medical application in which people fused with technology as a means of addressing injuries or sickness. Then, with the realization of the internet, the concept reached the point of humans merging with technology so that they can directly interface with that global network and with one another.

The medical angle has been the most salient expression of the issue. Arguably once could say that anyone who has a prosthetic limb, or pacemaker, is already something of a cyborg.  That machine is responsible of a major function of their body and works in conjunction with the organic systems. Of course when it comes to prosthetic limbs there is a lot more work to do before they are capable of replicating ALL of the functions of a lost limb, particularly touch

The next step has been embedding computer chips into the heads of paralysis victims. The technology has been used to grant a limited number of individuals, as part of testing and research, the ability to control a computer with just their brains. This obviously stops short of the sci-fi fantasy of gaining super intelligence by way of a computer chip in your brain, but it does go a long way in helping people with highly debilitating conditions – paraplegics who cannot walk, or talk, or move their arms – to at least communicate and potentially interact with the world once more.

So that raises the inevitable question; why don’t we all just do this – shed our mortal coil and live a life in a mechanical shell? Or, as some suggest, we become fully mechanical beings, our minds downloaded into a storage device in the head of a full robot?

There are advantages. For one, you would essentially be immortal. Even should your shinny metal body rust or what have you, a new one can be manufactured. And, since your consciousness would already be digitized, you could have a backup somewhere that could be booted to a new body whenever you need.

Additionally, that could save the environment quite a bit. A mechanical body wouldn’t tire, wouldn’t need food or water. That means no need to raise cattle or manage massive swaths of farmland, which would help with global warming issue. Even global warming would become less of a concern for humans directly since we would not be so at the mercy of Mother Nature.

So here are the problems. First there are copious moral questions. Religious individuals, naturalists, other similarly minded people, question if it is proper for humanity to head down such a road. From a scientific standpoint you would essentially be stifling human evolution – this being part of the debate over whether evolution can take place with a non-organic organism, a non-biological system. This is part-in-parcel to the concern of abuse of various technologies to manipulate the genes of an embryo or fetus; when you start affecting diversity you start throwing off an important balance. There is then the technical matter of whether the contents of one’s brain that comprises memory, personality, can even be directly conferred from one’s body to a machine.

And of course you get into the issue of equity. Robotics is exceptionally expensive. If we begin to move down a path where people start converting themselves into robotic beings, what laws need to be put in place? So we have a duty to help the poor achieve the same ends if they want it? If there are people who don’t want to, do you pull up stakes and pack up shop on things like health care and farming? How do you handle the already building problem of degradation of the viable employment market due to more and more jobs being done by machines? Do you suddenly say that you HAVE to be a cyborg to have any hope of getting a good job?

There are a lot of questions connected to even approaching a future of cybernetic humans. I for one do not think it is smart for us as a species to head down that road. I am not convinced it is as rosy a picture as many seem to believe. Many aspects strike me as naiveté and more often than not escapism; people who either misunderstand the nature of various problems they think will be solved, or ignore the complications and problems that would still lie ahead. Much of what the general public seems most interested in using the potential technology for is mostly frivolous, such as being able to Skype or hit up their Google+ hangout or some other social media activity.

I think the evolutionary process is the most salient issue for me, yet the one that is most difficult to discuss by the very fact that evolution is something that takes a very, very, very long time to take place. What does evolution even mean for humanity is something that we are only recently getting a real understanding of. The truth is, we don’t really know. We are the pinnacle of evolution that we are capable of observing at this point in time and even that statement is debatable.

Technology is a tool. I think we are best serve in remembering that and keeping it that way. I don’t think there is sufficient cause to believe that us merging with our technology more than is necessary will lead to a more positive future. Develop ways for helping the sick, injured, and incapacitated. Help them regain what they’ve lost. If that means making a cybernetic arm that fully functions, or replacing their body from a neck down because they were paralyzed, I can fully understand. Better yet I would hope we could develop medical treatments that would reverse those conditions. I don’t fear a rise of the machines; I’m just not sold on its benefits. We've got lots of time before these questions are even imminent so lets see if I can be convince before then.