Future Of Humans And Technology Evolution
The Article, “The End Is Only the Beginning”, argues about the evolution of humans and technology, and the long term effects. Possibly changing the human species into something better or something worst. This article was published on January 19th of 2023, published by Adam Kirsch on www.TheAmericanScholar.org. The author cites from The Revolt Against Humanity: Imagining a Future Without Us, published by Columbia Global Reports. The main point of this article is to show a possibly new advance to technology that could lead to a better life. When people think of technology in the future, the words ‘cyborgs’ or AI probably pop up in mind, possibly the fear of robots taking over the world. There should be no worries as the introduction to a new way of life technology could lead to many things like longer life span, enhancement of physical and mental capabilities, and the cure to deadly or life altering diseases.
Since the beginning of human history, humans had short lifespans and there were not much that anyone could do. As time went on, the implement of new technology and improvements has helped humans live a lot longer than they would have been able to before. Kirsch goes on to explain the possibility of becoming immortal with new technology. Kirsch then talks about an author, Ray Kurzweil, and how he hopes to improve his life span long enough to see age reversing technology, making death a thing in the past. In How Will Technology Effect Human Evolution, Brisinger explains, “Human beings are constantly evolving, and with technology becoming such an important part of our environment, it has become very interesting to consider what humans could look like in the year 3000 due to the physical impact of technology”(Brisinger). he then goes on to explain the evolution process of humans with technology from the change in posture to improvement in overall health. With technology, humans tend to ‘slouch’ and it destroys the posture. Although technology can cause issues to posture, technology has been able to help users become more aware of their health. Certain pieces of technology like blood-oxygen machines, blood pressure machines and fitness trackers, often worn at a convenience like a watch.
With time passing, each day is a new day. With new technology blooming for use of helping human life for a better and easier life. What if technology can enhance the physical and mental capabilities of humans? There are many technologies that are helping human enhance in different ways. In the article, Kirsch talks about the improvement of humans with physical and mental enhancements, “There is a limit to how much we can feel, how deeply we can think, how fast we can move” (Kirsch). Supporting the idea that there is only a limit on what humans can and can not do. There could be a way to raise the bar on limits for humans. In Human Enhancement, The Scientific and Ethical Dimensions of Striving for Perfection, shares the ideal of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is where scientists are able to manipulate the genetic material for better genes. Scientist also produce the idea that it is possible to “In theory, someone’s “smart genes” could be manipulated to work better, an idea that almost certainly has become more feasible with the recent development of CRISPR” (Masci). Although it may take a while until scientists are able to manipulate genes, it is a possibility. The sky is the limit when it comes to genetic engineering.
One of the best things technology has helped improve would be medicine and treatments for diseases that have impacted the world, for instance the Bubonic Plague, it killed millions of people across Europe. Now, it is very rare to see someone infected with the deadly disease. Kirsch states, “Indeed, history suggests that as long as GNR technologies are understood as means of curing diseases or overcoming disabilities, people will embrace them”(Kirsch). This explains how more people would open up to new technology, imagine a world where disease was only a thing in the past. To support this, O’Keeffe writes in, Can Future Technology Help Cure Every Disease?, “Today, there are many incurable diseases, like most advanced-stage cancers, Alzheimer’s, and neurological diseases such as Motor Neuron Disease and multiple sclerosis”(O’Keeffe). There are many incurable diseases at the moment, imagine if they no longer existed. People would be able to live longer and healthier lives, without the fear of being sick with terminal illnesses like cancer. People often reject the idea of new medicine, fearing that there are ‘nanobots’ in the vaccination or that the government is tampering with it. For now, vaccinations only contain weakened versions of the pathogens for the immune system to fight and gain a bit of immunity.
From the article, The End is Only the Beginning, the author basically goes over how technology is improving the health side of humanity, mainly targeting a longer and better life span. Although it may take a while, maybe the idea of a longer life span, better living abilities, and being able to live in a disease free world, would be encouragement for more research for the improvement of technology in the medical side. How is technology going to improve from here? How long could these possible ideas take? How much does research cost? How can the process be sped up? The future advancement of technology is only the beginning.
works cited
“15 Emerging Technologies That Will Change the Future.” YouTube, 20 Feb. 2023, https://youtu.be/T0GCpeJjCOw.
Brisinger, Anton. “How Will Technology Effect Human Evolution?” Startups Magazine, https://startupsmagazine.co.uk/article-how-will-technology-effect-human-evolution.
“The Future of Cancer Treatment Is Here: Introducing Proton Therapy.” YouTube, YouTube, 28 Oct. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qKlp8-kdo.
Kirsch, Adam. “OPINION: The End Is Only the Beginning.” The American Scholar, 19 Jan. 2023, https://theamericanscholar.org/the-end-is-only-the-beginning/.
Masci, David. “Human Enhancement.” Pew Research Center Science & Society, Pew Research Center, 13 Apr. 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2016/07/26/human-enhancement-the-scientific-and-ethical-dimensions-of-striving-for-perfection/.
O’Keeffe, Jennifer. “Can Future Technology Help Cure Every Disease?” RSS, https://www.tomorrow.bio/post/future-technology-help-cure-every-disease-2022-11-22.