There are so many technologies being developed to enhance, repair, and extend human life … I can’t imagine all the possibilities for human evolution. What will humans be like in just a few hundred years? Will we even continue to be a single species, or will we branch off according to the technologies we use and functions we perform? Some technologies will out-perform others … warfare will be forever changed … Suddenly I feel obsolete. What will happen to the rest of life on this planet in the process? Already we are mucking about with the genetic codes of crops and it is causing genetic contamination with other plants. Couple that with the fact that because of global transportation we have all kinds of species invading and drastically changing ecosystems. I think we are on the cusp of the next great mass extinction on this planet, because of all the technologies we are creating and using, without understanding or being able to compensate for the unintended and unimagined consequences. We may be creating a world in which humans such as ourselves cannot exist. Maybe we will need these enhancements just to survive. I know I’m going all kinds of science-fictiony, but I can’t help thinking it.
April 23rd, 2005 at 3:48 pm
There are so many technologies being developed to enhance, repair, and extend human life … I can’t imagine all the possibilities for human evolution. What will humans be like in just a few hundred years? Will we even continue to be a single species, or will we branch off according to the technologies we use and functions we perform? Some technologies will out-perform others … warfare will be forever changed … Suddenly I feel obsolete. What will happen to the rest of life on this planet in the process? Already we are mucking about with the genetic codes of crops and it is causing genetic contamination with other plants. Couple that with the fact that because of global transportation we have all kinds of species invading and drastically changing ecosystems. I think we are on the cusp of the next great mass extinction on this planet, because of all the technologies we are creating and using, without understanding or being able to compensate for the unintended and unimagined consequences. We may be creating a world in which humans such as ourselves cannot exist. Maybe we will need these enhancements just to survive. I know I’m going all kinds of science-fictiony, but I can’t help thinking it.