I have a dream for technology
I have to lay my cards on the table and tell you that I believe we may be on the doorstep of a new major era and golden age in the human civilization and our evolution. The opening of the internet to the public by Al Gore in 1991 may be remembered by generations over the next centuries, as the “opening of the great floodgate”, making information free and scalable. Based on the rapid rate of progress since the unlocking of the internet, the future may be very bright indeed. This recent progress and innovation has happened largely due to computer science. So it’s exciting that we get to participate in building the infinitely scalable blocks of future society.
Computer programming skills may soon start to get viewed as essential as the alphabet. The training of artificial intelligence, and creation of ever more sophisticated systems will pave the way for humanity’s golden age, which is yet to come with technologies like human interfaces for speechless communication, and as a result, the possible unlocking of the infinite human intellect to it’s unrestricted potential. I hope you can understand my excitement around how bright our future will soon become with the help of computer science.
Artificial intelligence combined with quantum computing, VR, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and energy breakthroughs could make us transcend all current limits, fast-tracking our evolution exponentially.
I want to talk about my visions of the bigger picture that can be unlocked by technology in the next 50–100 years. These ideas may seem impossible or crazy, but the point I want to drive home here is: we first need to imagine impossible concepts, and then work towards them. This is how the most important discoveries of the human civilization were made. Einstein had to imagine approaching the speed of light in order to come up with the Theory of Relativity. Let me give you some concrete examples of what technology could help us achieve during the next 50–100 years:
- Unlimited, free energy. We already know that Solar is viable and completely possible. But the current political, financial and societal systems have stood in the way. The innovation required to become a clean, sustainable species may come partly from the big data and AI angles, where a super AI helps us calculate the ideal political system required to enable “Unlimited Free Energy” forever. The technology could involve solar, fuel cells, fusion reactors, biologically grown systems or material breakthroughs. The adoption strategy, however, could be produced by an AI to make it viable.
- Human Interfaces. We are completely IO-bound right now. We talk slowly, and perceive things slowly. As soon as we can tie a data interface directly into our brains, we could increase the speed of communication and therefore collaboration ten-fold or a hundred-fold. This invention could lead to the next renaissance and golden age. Imagine: I could download and understand a pre-authorized section of your brain in a few minutes, in order to carry on your contribution to the world. Having everyone in the world be able to do this will nullify death’s effects on the accumulation of human knowledge as a species.
- Automated Meritocracy. This would be done with automated, ultra-efficient meritocratic decision making. Similar to the “dot collector” system that Ray Dalio patented, the economic effects of every choice by every person could get calculated automatically by a “super matrix”, and the best possible objective decision automatically made by Artificial Intelligence. Yes, people would be scared at first to give “skynet” that kind of power, but people were scared of cars too when cars were first invented. The point is: I believe technology will be a savior for us, and not a destroyer. As soon as automated meritocracy is implemented — making it economically viable for people to benefit each other, society will leap forward in a way that could not be possible or even imaginable before.
- Permanent removal of countries, governments, and corporations. These entities will be viewed as barbaric a few hundred years from now. We will say: “remember there were these awkward things called ‘countries’ and ‘corporations’ before the machine solved our inefficiencies”? Does it really make sense having 190 different currencies, markets, political systems, and problem sets which are repeated over and over but in different ways? No, this flies in the face of the Single Responsibility Principle, and we need to unite as a species. We evolved bartering and helping each other. I envision going back to this system, but powered by an ultra-powerful broker AI which takes care of everything that can go wrong. No need for countries, governments or corporations.
- Automated miniature healthcare bots. There will be nanobots (mini doctors) living in your bloodstream. You will be able to see completely accurately what your body condition is like and whether any serious diseases are threatening you. The problem of trusting careless doctors controlling your health will get solved with technology, which will do all due diligence necessary to report correct findings to you, and also take remedial action automatically based on your pre-configured preferences. This includes automated genetic engineering on your own body on-the-fly.
- A change in global culture to radically reward knowledge and innovation. Ideas take time to spread. Just like the idea that all humans should have equal basic rights took time to get fully embraced, the idea that being the smartest possible human being is crucial will eventually become completely undisputed. This mental shift will “unlock” society to grow individually and collectively, for the sake of benefitting all members of society. It takes time to change people’s minds, but a catalyst event by a key influencer will occur to enable this. (Think: “I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr)
- Calculating the Incalculable. No, we can’t calculate the meaning of life, or the level of someone’s happiness just yet. But we will be able to soon. Just because a problem is infinitely complex, doesn’t mean that an infinitely smart AI algorithm can’t solve it. The AI will be able to help us prevent wars starting with finding peaceful solutions to current political problems.
- Reduction in disease, long lifespans, and the growth of spare organs. Many illnesses have been largely avoided by using vaccinations, and many more will in the future. Ability to change genetic code to correct genetic mutations or dysfunctions will prolong life. Our most valued scientific leaders could live to be 300 years old, with the help of artificially-grown spare organs. This could allow them to push us to the future, without losing their vast, unique, transformational perspectives too early by death due to old age and disease.
- Creativity and the good natured human spirit pushed to the forefront. Manual, repeatable jobs will be gone forever. Truck drivers, taxi drivers, bookkeepers, package deliveries, machinery operators, and any other repeatable form of work are permanently going away. We will all have many jobs all the time — always learning how to do new things. This will be the norm. We will let the computers do the boring, repetitive tasks, and we will think big — ten times bigger than the scale of how big we are thinking currently. Keep in mind, human interfaces may allow us to download books into our brain too, which means that an average human would be 10 times smarter, so they could tackle seemingly impossible problems, especially when collaborating together.
- Offices becoming a thing of the past. Short answer: VR. Yes, it’s not ready now, but it will be soon*. This will mean that you can live anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. This will have large implications on infrastructure and real estate prices. I don’t know about you, but it always seemed to me to be a fundamentally broken concept to get into a train twice a day to go downtown…
So yes, I am looking forward to the technological future. This internet thing may have been the “new fire”. Let’s work on some of these audacious goals together.