Unleashing our little helpers
'The Blue Marble' from Apollo 17; Wikimedia Commons
Mother Earth's three little helpers:
Biotec, Icotec and Nanotec
Biotec and Biocarus - selection, immortality and the unexpected
Biotec, especially gentec and the decrypting of the genom, opens the mind up for developing the human species along the lines foreseen by Aldous Huxley and Thomas More. Creating a fetus with the appropriate genetic set up is fast becoming a feasible option, as is the case for treating deficiencies with modifications of the genetic set up. Research on immortality is going full speed, starting with the identification of the genes that cause aging. Immortality, in ancient mythology a state reserved for the gods, is within reach for human genetic engineering. When aging is kept in check, retirement and pensions will gradually cease to be an issue. However, it will be a monumental issue in a transitional period where people are allowed to retire on pensions that will weigh heavily on public budgets until it becomes clear to everybody that this is no longer a sustainable option. Population growth will move quickly up the ladder of political urgencies. The fear of death will also increase exponentially, since the idea of the inevitability of death will change radically. Death will, when immortality is possible, be something you can avoid if you behave with sufficient care. Strategies for avoiding death will be in great focus, and the risk of different types of accidents will be under constant watch – as well as incurable illnesses. The obsession with avoiding death will cripple all joy of life, and people will develop cocooning in literal ways in order to keep the risk of death at bay.
Aside from the obsession with death, beauty and intelligence will be the other two sides of life that will be pursued with increasing ferocity. It is hard to imagine that the search for beauty could be more frenetic than it is today, but it will be – since your appearance will take on even more importance than before (given that you now will have to live with it for the eternity, and not just a short period of time). If genetic science can shape your intelligence and beauty, your parents will go for it. Those with the best financial means will seize the opportunity, and they will consolidate their grip on society by giving their offspring the best possible starting point for success in life. The most powerful social classes will thereby have increased odds of strengthening their power over the generations. Bourdieu's emphasis on symbolic violence will become ever more relevant.
Demographic considerations will raise the issue of the right of having children for those who have achieved immortality. Relations between those who can afford to obtain immortality and those who do not have access to that technology, will become polarized.
If biotec gives science the option of “playing God”, the question then becomes: who will be given the power to make decisions on behalf of this god? Will it be each doctor on his own? Will it be ethical committees? Named by whom? Obviously, legislation in one country is not going to prevent other countries from giving their doctors free reign. Some sort of anarchy may be expected.
Icotec - eternally instantaneous: instant availability, mobility, audiovisuality and disponibility
Icotec provides instant availability. Availability is in the form of information (words, sound, images), access to communication with other people (regardless of their location), services, navigation (either in cyberspace or in physical space), simulation, and the rest.
This instant availability has raised the potential for efficiency in the workplace enormously. It has also reduced the employee’s private space (timewise and spatially), partly through the employer’s expectation that he should be able to reach the employee by mobile communication devices at any point in time and partly through the employer’s possibility to monitor the whereabouts and conduct of the employee throughout the workday.
Many persons have a strong urge to be seen by others. They use cyberspace to advertise what they are doing every day, often in real time reports on what they are presently doing. Cyberspace offers many arenas where such self-advertisements can be facilitated. Some people go very far in terms of offering both texts and images of what they are doing privately, often in ways which most people would consider uncomfortably intimate. The younger they are, the less they understand of the consequences of this exposure. The need for attention and fame seems for some to be completely without limit, at the expense of their own self respect and the respect that others might have for them later – when their actions become exposed more widely. Should they later seek positions in society where the confidence of others is a precondition for getting this position, they will discover that actions they pursued in cyberspace when they were young may actually bar them from reaching these positions. Cyberspace stores everything, is accessible to everybody and without time limits.
Instant availability gives more geographic freedom, because availability is less linked to physical proximity. Many people acquire spatial freedom because their work is not dependent on where they do it, but only on the kind of electronic communication equipment they have access to.
Nanotec - the living machine
Nanotechnology, shortened to "Nanotec", is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally it deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size. Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from innovative extensions of conventional device physics, to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, to developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale, even to speculation on whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale.
There has been much debate on the future implications of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new materials and devices with wide-ranging applications, such as in medicine, electronics, and energy production. On the other hand, nanotechnology raises many of the same issues any introduction of new technology does, including concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials, and their potential effects on global economics, as well as speculation about various doomsday scenarios. These concerns have led to a debate among advocacy groups and governments on whether special regulation of nanotechnology is warranted. (Wikipedia)
Biotec, especially gentec and the decrypting of the genom, opens the mind up for developing the human species along the lines foreseen by Aldous Huxley and Thomas More. Creating a fetus with the appropriate genetic set up is fast becoming a feasible option, as is the case for treating deficiencies with modifications of the genetic set up. Research on immortality is going full speed, starting with the identification of the genes that cause aging. Immortality, in ancient mythology a state reserved for the gods, is within reach for human genetic engineering. When aging is kept in check, retirement and pensions will gradually cease to be an issue. However, it will be a monumental issue in a transitional period where people are allowed to retire on pensions that will weigh heavily on public budgets until it becomes clear to everybody that this is no longer a sustainable option. Population growth will move quickly up the ladder of political urgencies. The fear of death will also increase exponentially, since the idea of the inevitability of death will change radically. Death will, when immortality is possible, be something you can avoid if you behave with sufficient care. Strategies for avoiding death will be in great focus, and the risk of different types of accidents will be under constant watch – as well as incurable illnesses. The obsession with avoiding death will cripple all joy of life, and people will develop cocooning in literal ways in order to keep the risk of death at bay.
Aside from the obsession with death, beauty and intelligence will be the other two sides of life that will be pursued with increasing ferocity. It is hard to imagine that the search for beauty could be more frenetic than it is today, but it will be – since your appearance will take on even more importance than before (given that you now will have to live with it for the eternity, and not just a short period of time). If genetic science can shape your intelligence and beauty, your parents will go for it. Those with the best financial means will seize the opportunity, and they will consolidate their grip on society by giving their offspring the best possible starting point for success in life. The most powerful social classes will thereby have increased odds of strengthening their power over the generations. Bourdieu's emphasis on symbolic violence will become ever more relevant.
Demographic considerations will raise the issue of the right of having children for those who have achieved immortality. Relations between those who can afford to obtain immortality and those who do not have access to that technology, will become polarized.
If biotec gives science the option of “playing God”, the question then becomes: who will be given the power to make decisions on behalf of this god? Will it be each doctor on his own? Will it be ethical committees? Named by whom? Obviously, legislation in one country is not going to prevent other countries from giving their doctors free reign. Some sort of anarchy may be expected.
Icotec - eternally instantaneous: instant availability, mobility, audiovisuality and disponibility
Icotec provides instant availability. Availability is in the form of information (words, sound, images), access to communication with other people (regardless of their location), services, navigation (either in cyberspace or in physical space), simulation, and the rest.
This instant availability has raised the potential for efficiency in the workplace enormously. It has also reduced the employee’s private space (timewise and spatially), partly through the employer’s expectation that he should be able to reach the employee by mobile communication devices at any point in time and partly through the employer’s possibility to monitor the whereabouts and conduct of the employee throughout the workday.
Many persons have a strong urge to be seen by others. They use cyberspace to advertise what they are doing every day, often in real time reports on what they are presently doing. Cyberspace offers many arenas where such self-advertisements can be facilitated. Some people go very far in terms of offering both texts and images of what they are doing privately, often in ways which most people would consider uncomfortably intimate. The younger they are, the less they understand of the consequences of this exposure. The need for attention and fame seems for some to be completely without limit, at the expense of their own self respect and the respect that others might have for them later – when their actions become exposed more widely. Should they later seek positions in society where the confidence of others is a precondition for getting this position, they will discover that actions they pursued in cyberspace when they were young may actually bar them from reaching these positions. Cyberspace stores everything, is accessible to everybody and without time limits.
Instant availability gives more geographic freedom, because availability is less linked to physical proximity. Many people acquire spatial freedom because their work is not dependent on where they do it, but only on the kind of electronic communication equipment they have access to.
Nanotec - the living machine
Nanotechnology, shortened to "Nanotec", is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally it deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size. Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from innovative extensions of conventional device physics, to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, to developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale, even to speculation on whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale.
There has been much debate on the future implications of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new materials and devices with wide-ranging applications, such as in medicine, electronics, and energy production. On the other hand, nanotechnology raises many of the same issues any introduction of new technology does, including concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials, and their potential effects on global economics, as well as speculation about various doomsday scenarios. These concerns have led to a debate among advocacy groups and governments on whether special regulation of nanotechnology is warranted. (Wikipedia)