The Future of Technology Essay Example
The Future of Technology And Its Impact on the Human Species
Throughout the past decade, there have been several films made in Hollywood that depict the future as a dark dystopian environment where humans are either completely overrun by or submerged in their own technology: James Cameron’s Terminator; Alex Proyas’ I,Robot; Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence; Andy Wakowski’s The Matrix; etc. Conventionally, these films are perceived today as impossible realities of science fiction. However, both media theorist Douglass Rushkofff and futurist Ray Kurzweil present a picture of the future that is not characteristically far from the dystopian depictions presented within these films.
Throughout his 2010 book Program or be Programmed: Ten Commandments for a Digital New Age Rushkoff argues that in order for humanity to have control of future digital technology and maintain the forward development of humankind, we need to become active participants in the ways that this technology is created: “In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed” (Rushkoff 8). Essentially, we need to understand the functions behind technology to prevent technology from governing us as mindless, robotic users.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil takes this idea of future technology even further in his book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, predicting humanity will not only grow to understand and advance the formations of technology, but we will eventually merge physically with the technology that we create. In the recent documentary film directed by Barry Ptolemy, The Transcendent Man, Kurzweil argues that in the not too distant future the technology we create will be unperceivably fast and we will be forced to keep up with it by inserting technological devices into our bodies: Technology feeds on itself, and it gets faster and faster. In
Throughout the past decade, there have been several films made in Hollywood that depict the future as a dark dystopian environment where humans are either completely overrun by or submerged in their own technology: James Cameron’s Terminator; Alex Proyas’ I,Robot; Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence; Andy Wakowski’s The Matrix; etc. Conventionally, these films are perceived today as impossible realities of science fiction. However, both media theorist Douglass Rushkofff and futurist Ray Kurzweil present a picture of the future that is not characteristically far from the dystopian depictions presented within these films.
Throughout his 2010 book Program or be Programmed: Ten Commandments for a Digital New Age Rushkoff argues that in order for humanity to have control of future digital technology and maintain the forward development of humankind, we need to become active participants in the ways that this technology is created: “In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed” (Rushkoff 8). Essentially, we need to understand the functions behind technology to prevent technology from governing us as mindless, robotic users.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil takes this idea of future technology even further in his book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, predicting humanity will not only grow to understand and advance the formations of technology, but we will eventually merge physically with the technology that we create. In the recent documentary film directed by Barry Ptolemy, The Transcendent Man, Kurzweil argues that in the not too distant future the technology we create will be unperceivably fast and we will be forced to keep up with it by inserting technological devices into our bodies: Technology feeds on itself, and it gets faster and faster. In