CNN weighs in on the Future
CNN weighs in on the future and the possibilities that it may hold in a series of articles. The current installment of the series is on the so-called Hell-scenario where technology goes out of control. They outline how things can go terribly wrong and the possibility of new technologies getting into the hands of wrong people who can inflict massive harm to the whole world given that most of these technologies are more readily available and relatively easily accessible like genetic engineering. The prospect of a frightening post-human future is also raised.
One of the interesting things that they note is that it usually takes culture and society some time to catch up with technological innovations. This could be because people growing up with new technologies view the world in a different manner and drive the engines of change in a society. Here is an excerpt.
“Culture and values evolve slower than technical innovation,” says Garreau. “If you look at the 1950s, it was a time of huge advances in technology — nuclear weapons, birth control, TV — yet it was the 1960s that was the decade of upheaval, there’s a lag. Similarly the 1990s was a decade of innovation, with the Internet, cell phones, the PC all taking off. But it’s now, in the first decade of the 21st century that we’re seeing the upheaval with the rise of fundamentalism as a reaction to the new insecurities technology has brought.”
