Rethinking of Morphed Cyborgian Existence
In the last chapter of Pressed for Time, the author mentioned the future advocated and promoted by scientists and entrepreneurs where human beings would exist in the form of a cyborg. This hybrid of human beings and intelligent machines poses a promising future for our human race. However, “some kinds of machines help make different kinds of histories and different kinds of people than others”. I began thinking on the question of whether I really want to such a cyborg in the future in order to keep up with the pace of society.
We first need to consider the effect of “technocracy” in our society right now. Technologies and capitals are flowing to a future that some are eagerly waiting for. While the consequence is overlooked because of such “technocracy”. Should the development of those technologies be regulated or be judged by moral factors in the society? Will this proposed future endure the test of social codes?
Consider the last episode in Black Mirror season one. Is installing a memory storage machine in human’s brain really helping humans to achieve better and more efficient life? Which one is better? Perfectly memorized life or dull realities that human have to face?
This imagination of added extra memory is actually envisioned by Elon Musk not long ago. In the article, the authors discussed about some moral conflicts of this breath-taking technology. Is there a way that would solve those conflicts as well as convincing people that this technology is advancing in the right direction? In my opinion, there are not enough reasonings in justifying them.
Finally, I would like to share a personal anecdote. My grandma’s house has just gone through a complete renovation with installation of all the state of arts smart home technologies installed in order to make her life easier. What she said when she learnt all those function really surprised me. “It really reminds me of the butler in my house when I was a child.” In her view, our technology is advancing so fast that bring the feeling of a butler back to everyone.
