The Transhuman Condition of “FOMO” — The Fear of Missing Out
Will our future endeavors provide us a cure or will we continue to expire?
What is man but a wandering ape, long sought after the answers to all of life’s many questions? For the last few centuries, humankind has had to endure in the challenges of a limited lifespan, consisting of disease, war, and poverty. And yet, as each year passes by, one cannot help but notice the light at the end of our collective tunnel known as humanity. What is this light?
For techno-philosopher Jason Silva, it is a light of technological evolution. Our innate proclivity to achieve everything at once, only to fall into a state of anxiety, is the result of what Arthur Conan Doyle affirmed as “our unending search, our abiding desire for immortality.” According to Silva, this state of anxiety contends with what is known as “FOMO” — the fear of missing out!
As noted by Dan Ariely, who is a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, this “worry that tugs at the corners of our minds…
