This opinion piece is being written on my laptop. A piece of technology. Radio is often being listened to at home, on CBC of course. An early technology - relatively speaking. Countless tools and conveniences used at work, at home or for recreation are all pieces of technology in various stages of development. I am always pleased to be able to use them when they make my life easier, cook my food more quickly or just enhance my fun times.
However, this morning, on satellite streamed radio, I did hear about a piece of technology recently discussed at some research or computer level. A World Wide Web for Robots. So said robots can learn more about tasks they are designed to perform. Rather than opening my mind to possible benefits to human kind, I immediately thought of many episodes of Star Trek, The Next Generation and the Borg ~ a collective of human and bionic parts that ‘thought’ with one mind. When that ‘one mind’ wasn’t connected, the Borg were inactive.
Maybe it was just too early in the morning to be hearing about this scary technological advance. However science fiction over many years, has continually pointed in the direction of human beings ultimately having so much technology that we push ourselves out of the world’s picture. And I have had this disturbing thought rattling around in my mind for quite some time.
The most disturbing? An example of various nursing tasks being done by robots!
Paranoia - or science fiction? What does the future hold? Will we all be drones or Trekkies? I think I'll just go to bed now and sleep on it.
“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.”
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