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Sir, why are you talking about this topic?

Francisco Miraval

 

A few months ago, I was invited to talk to a group of community leaders at a suburb north of Denver. I decided to talk about the fast and constant technological changes and about the transformations those changes are causing and will cause in the life of humanity.

 

Perhaps due to my own limitations presenting the topic, perhaps because I mistakenly assumed the topic was almost obvious, or perhaps because not everybody is interested in the challenges created by techno-science, at the end of the presentation of the participants asked me, “Sir, why are you talking about this topic?

 

I am sure -I told myself as part of the dialogue with myself- that nobody would ask that question had I decided to talk about a controversial topic or about a “celebrity.” Yet, before I said anything defensive (or offensive), I understood that in fact I never explained the reasons why it is important to talk about how much humanity could change in a short time due to deep techno-scientific changes.

 

In fact, some futurists and trans-humanists, including Ray Kurzweil (who works for Google since late 2012), say that before mid-century and thank to what they call the “technological singularity we humans will transform from biological entities into digital and holographic entities, thus becoming immortal.

 

Let’s be clear: scientists and engineers are saying we (the whole humanity) can achieve immortality in the next 30 years.

 

I have no idea if Kurzweil’s prediction will ever come true. I know, however, that if a brilliant mind working for a large corporation with a gigantic budget says that’s possible, it is a good idea to pay attention, even if the prediction is wrong.

 

At the same time, as Dr. Ted Chu says in his book Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential, “(T)he concept of radical human transformation remains unfamiliar to the public in general, and its naturalness and inevitability has not yet entered the public imagination.”

 

In fact, according to Chu, the general public and many intellectuals “remain ignorant or in denial of the most significant potential changes ahead.” However, according to Chu, it doesn’t matter if the public or the intellectuals are aware of what is happening with technology, because, regardless of what people know, new technologies have “the ability to alter not just nature but human nature.”

 

Just a few years ago, some of those technologies were found only in science fiction books and were thought to be unreachable in the near future. Yet, now they are real, including quantum computers, connections between brains and computers, tractor rays, intelligent and emotional robots and (very soon) intelligent cars.

 

Why then I talk about the topics that, according to Chu, the general public prefers to ignore? First, because the blurring of the line between science fiction and reality is certainly intriguing. Second, because, if Kurzweil is correct, then the technological singularity could happen in our life time or certainly during the lifetime of our children.

 

So, my friend, why aren’t you talking about this topic?

 

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