The merge of humans with technology

We are creating a world where humans are being outcompeted by their own creations. Technology already outcompetes humans in memory and calculating power. It is our creative way of thinking that’s puts us above technology. At least for now. But in society we see that we suppress our creative way of thinking because of tour focus on efficiency, procedures and standardisation.

A technological utopia?

We have created a world where almost everything is connected. And in the near future everything will be connected. Our technological driven society challenges rules of which we thought that they could not be broken. We move ourselves in the virtual world, we print products, become immortal, mine astroids and blind people regain eyesight with the help of technology. Even paralyzed people can walk again with the help of exoskeletons. It is just a selection of future but also current technological breakthroughs.

The dark side of technology

But of course there is also a dark side to technology. E-waste, printing of weapons, digital crime and even new forms of (digital) deceases. Again just a selection of some negative side effects of technology. These are all normal developments. Every trend has a counter trend or movement. So technology has positive and negative effects. But the biggest challenge of technology is not in the development but in the application of it.

I believe we should look more at the ethical questions which lie ahead of us when we look at technology and technological progress. Just think about the exponential rise of robotics and software which are becoming a threat for human labor. We are creating more jobs for software and machines then for humans.

The counter trend of our digital lifestyle is anti digital. This counter movement will not stop technological progress but will feed our awareness about the dependence of society of technology. This will finally result in the social need for more humanized technologies and even technology for people and not only companies. It is about the shift from people serving technologies towards technologies serving people. It is the rise of a world with fast technologies and slow living.

A technological Pearl Harbor?

There is still a long way to go to reach a world of fast technologies and slow living. A world where technology serves peoples and preserves our planet. The upcoming years we have to go through a period of electronic excess. Some scientist predicted a digital Pearl Harbor. Some very negative technological driven events which affect people. The events will make us aware of our vulnerability because of technology. We will become more aware of the dark side of technology and this will result in a more aware usage of technology by the people. Our blind thrust that technology will solve all of our problems will fade. We will start to look more at our current systems which have developed from the industrial age and we will finally start to modernize our systems and way of thinking along with all the new technological possibilities.