|
Select the Browser's Back Button to return to the Forum Page |
|
Does the future need us? by Anne Hosey In a world where technological development is moving forward at the speed of an e-mail transmission, many people are wondering if the future needs the human race. Authors like Bill Joy and Neal Stephenson envision that in the future computers will play a huge role, and will eventually take over entirely for human beings. According to Joy and Stephenson, men who have been taking part in the technological race since its very beginning, the future does not need human beings. In his article entitled "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" Joy states, "it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cutsp of the further perfection of extreme evil" (Joy 242). Joy feels that the human race will eventually be replaced by robots, or destroyed by genetically engineered species. Stephenson, in his novel Snow Crash, creates a virtual world called Metaverse, in which everything is a "moving illustration drawn by [a] computer" (Stephenson 33). Although Stephenson does not specifically say that the human race is doomed, the world he creates is a frightening one. Hackers in the novel are vulnerable to computer viruses, and terrifying people treated with nuclear radiation or a language virus roam the Metaverse and the real world. So does the future need us? In many ways, it does. In the movie The Matrix, the world needs human beings . . . for battery power. In Snow Crash, human beings are brainwashed in order to spread a language virus. According to both works, the future needs human beings as tools. In the futures envisioned by Stephenson and Joy, human beings are no longer in control of technology; technology is in control of them. The vision of the future created by people like Joy and Stephenson is a grim one. It is not, however, an absolute certainty. There is a way in which we can make ourselves necessary to the future. The future will need us if we force it to. In order to make the human race necessary in the future, we must take control of technology now. If we begin to control technology now, instead of waiting until technology controls us, than the future will need us. One of Joy's main arguments in "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" is one that he borrowed from the very dangerous, and very intelligent, Theodore Kaczynski (better known as the Unabomber). Kaczynski believe that as machines become more developed, they will begin to make decisions for human beings. Human beings will eventually become obsolete; machines will do all the work and make all the decisions. The way to prevent this from happening is, of course, to take control of the development of technology. The problem with taking control of technology's development is that people have a "bias toward instant familiarity and unquestioning acceptance" (Joy 240). Human beings are so entranced with technology that they are letting it control more and more parts of their lives. People rely on computers to communicate with their friends and family, check their spelling on papers, and even use them to do tasks in the office that were formerly reserved for people. In an article in Wired Magazine, Pattie Maes, who is an associate professor at MIT's Media Laboratory, describes an intelligent piece of software called a "remembrance agent" that can "track files, e-mails, or other data", and can "pull up . . . data relating to the task on hand" (McGee 2). This is one of the things that Joy fears; computers will begin by taking over menial tasks; and eventually will take over more important things. Another problem with the advancements in technology is Internet addiction. Personally, I find myself spending more and more time on the computer every day. I check my e-mail at least 10 times a day, and I have Professors that check it almost every minute. According to the textbook Psychology: Themes and Variation, by Wayne Weiten, many Americans have an unhealthy addiction to the Internet. He claims that these people spend "an inordinate amount of time on their computer, and [are unable] to control online use" (Weiten 123). Five or six people on my floor alone rarely come out of their dorm rooms; they spend all of their time playing on the computer. This is just another sign that we are becoming dangerously dependent on technology. The question that we must ask ourselves is: is it worth using computers to complete tasks that could be done easily by human beings? I do not think so. We may be risking our future if we do. If we allow computers to take over our jobs, then what is the next step? Will there be a future like the one that Theodore Kaczynski envisions? Let us hope not. So what is the solution? Although it is easy for me to sit here at my computer and tell you that the best thing for all of us would be to get up right now, run a few miles, and then commence writing letters to our friends and family that are far away instead of e-mailing them, it is much easier said than done. Computers have become such an integral part of all of our lives, and have made things so easy for us, that it is hard to let go. I can honestly say that I do not know the answer to the question "Does the Future Need Us". I hope that we, as a human race, begin to take steps toward regulating the development of technology. The least we can do is attempt to understand what effects the rapid development of technology could have on the human race. By understanding these effects, it would be easier for people to detach themselves from their computers. I believe that it is worth the extra effort, the extra two minutes, that it takes to pull up files or look up a word in the dictionary, if it means that we can avoid becoming overly dependent on computers. Let's take that extra two minutes, and make the future need us.
|
|
Wired 8.04:
Why the future doesn't need us.
Wired 8.04: A Tale of Two Botanies
Wired 8.07: Rants & Raves
Executive Bios: Bill Joy
Valley to Bill Joy: 'Zzzzzzz'
Debating Humanity's Demise
Why the future needs Bill Joy
cluebot.com | Why Bill Joy is Elitist, Myopic, and Wrong
Special Focus on Bill Joy's Hi-Tech Warning - The Center for the
Study of Technology
Bill Joy Hopes Reason Prevails
In Search of Cyber Humanity
Oh Joy, Another Futurist Rant
Pop!Tech: Praises and Protests
The Rise of Dot-Communism
Sep/Oct 00: Not by Reason Alone
ZDNet: Printer Friendly - Rage Against The Machine
HotWired: Unabomber's Manifesto: Index
Hans Moravec home page
Peek at new book: ROBOT by Hans Moravec
Background 2: Accidents, Malice, Progress, and Other Topics
The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil The Kurzweil Companies http://www.kurzweiltech.com/companies_static.html
Social Life of Information Home Page
Foresight Institute
Can Robots Rule the World? Not Yet
BBC News | FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT | Robots rule OK?
ABCNEWS.com : WNT: What if Machines Get Too Smart?
Privacy's Yin and Yang
Promise and peril of technology:
The future is already written
Bill Joy, Killjoy? by Robert Wright The Future Needs Us: A Rejoinder to Bill Joy - Terry van der Werff - Global Future Global Future Reportô March 14th, 2000 Dr. Terry van der Werff, CMC Speaker Consultant http://www.globalfuture.com/wired-joy.htm |
|
© Copyright 2000 Christine Boese and the students listed above. |