Once again I found myself watching a television program on what scientists and engineers are working on in terms of future developments. Some of it seemed good until they got to the part where one guy admitted we will come to a time when the robots will be so vastly intelligent, it will be a given they will try to “replace” us. In fact this fellow was so certain of this, he was working on ways to make himself into a cyborg, more or less a human combination with a robot.

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Android Robot that already exists, and talks, photo from Wikimedia.

Personally I do not look forward to a world where robots do darn near everything, and certainly not a world where they are threatening to take over. Some scientists apparently accept this as an inevitable fact and figure if somebody is going to do it, it may as well be them.

In this world there will be elites who have robots preform many tasks, including putting their children to bed. There will be robots monitoring our every move, and reporting such in a way cameras cannot. Why are we so scared of aliens, when we are manufacturing our own aggressors and giving them the tools to dominate?

Similarly we are working on ways for humans to live longer. While this might be great in theory, we are already at a position globally where our population levels are exceeding our ability to cope. I am not even referring to providing food, I refer to our lack of ability to control our own waste and pollution.

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This is Dhaka, but could be any city. They are all getting larger and more crowded, photo from Wikimedia.

Asthma, Childhood cancers, and so on, are all on the rise. Some blame our lack of finding a cure, I blame our willingness to create air pollution, and insistence on the use of chemicals. The United Nations warned us some time ago that our growing population levels are the biggest risk to our continued survival, aside from nuclear threat. We have done very little to address this, and many people are not even aware that this is an issue as most media sources sweep it under the rug, and politicians mostly don’t want to deal with it. So why are we trying to live longer, when increased lifespan is the main reason the globe is over populated? Over fishing, deforestion, are names given because we don’t want to accuse ourselves of eating too much fish, building too many homes, or having too many people.

Cars are being built lighter and faster. Reality is being replaced by a virtual world. Farmers are being told what seeds to buy and from whom, and are being manipulated to buy “terminator seeds” so are controlled in ways we cannot even grasp. When a farmer cannot even produce his own seeds, and has to buy from a company, how long will it be until the “company” has total control on food and prices?

Can we be sure that genetically modified seeds are better for us than the real thing?
Technology is already allowing us to be in touch with every one at every time. We can walk around in a bubble talking to people we cannot see, while ignoring those we can. We hold our cell phones to our ear and are blind to everything else. Is staying in touch with people making use lose touch with reality? Are we surrounding ourselves with electronic devices so much that we are dehumanizing each other? Many people feel the more we are away from nature, the higher our stress levels get, the fewer face to face conversations we have, the less sympathy we have for one and other. Children who have having problems with attention, or stress, are often helped by going to a park. Yet we live in self made cubicles when we insist on communication through machines.

We can clone our pets, and soon, each other. Do we need more people? Do we need more cats and dogs, when already every nation is euthanizing millions or allowing them to roam the streets in hunger?

We don’t want to go back to the dark ages, but simply because we can do something, does not mean we should. Are scientists and engineers going too far simply because they fear that if they don’t do it first, somebody else will? Is our easy acceptance of things that make life easier for us, only opening the doors for the inevitable robot take over? Just because we can.