We usually have a tendency to see the dangers far before they come and we are usually able to solve issues. However, we never seem to be able to get rid of utopian visions and dystopian warnings.
George Dvorsky recently listed 10 Predictions About the Future That Should Scare the Hell Out of You on Gizmodo. Here are the exceptionally regrettable developments we can expect in the coming decades, listed in no particular order:
1. Virtually anyone will be able to create their own pandemic
2. People who transfer their minds to computers are actually killing themselves
3. Authoritarianism will make a comeback
4. Privacy will become a thing of the past
5. Robots will find it easy to manipulate us
6. The effects of climate change will be irreversible
7. The antibiotic era will end
8. Getting robots to kill humans will be disturbingly routine
9. We’ll lose all the satellites
10. We’ll never make contact with aliens
Though developments number 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 might be coming real close to reality or are already happening, the real question is: what can we do to avoid such developments?
Read Gerd Leonhard’s Technology Vs. Humanity to learn how humanity will prevail in the face of rapid and all-encompassing technological change.
Technology vs. Humanity is neither a celebration of the rapidly onrushing technology revolution nor a lament on the fall of civilization.
Gerd’s goal with this book is to amplify and accelerate the debate about how to guide, harness and control the development of science and technology so that they fulfil their primary purpose, which is to serve humanity, and to further human flourishing.
