Jul 12

Chatting today at the office about the future and technology somebody quipped the future is in the cloud. They were poking fun of current tech marketing that seems to promote the cloud as all powerful and everything. But perhaps their joke will come true.

 

Predictions for the future....

I'm not really going out on a limb here...many futurists have already prognosticated the merging of humans and computers. It's down right inevitable. At some point, my child and kids of her generation will ultimately face the choice of augmenting themselves with technology. And it will go way beyond today's pacemakers and embedded surgical pumps.

 

More brain please...

No, it'll probably be more along the lines of Johnny Mnemonic (sans Keanu Reeves I hope). Yep, some time in the next 20 or so years brain implants will probably become common. They may be specialized to improve computational speed or as in the Johnny Mnemonic movie to augment storage (memory). But it's coming.  And once people are comfortable implanting things into their brains - or more likely it's necessary to compete - the sky's the limits. If we've mastered the brain implant, we're probably long past the artificial organs and limbs stages. So yes, we'll all be bionic men and women with computer powered brains. 

 

Bring on the Androids...

But what if you want even more. What if you want super strength or super speed, or the ability to withstand standing on Mars without the need of a spacesuit. Well I guess you'll be an android. Yup, Star Trek's data will happen this century most likely. It may not be the completely sentient android that Data is but eventually, once we've jacked our brains and swapped out our body parts, someone will take the next leap and simply download their "brain" into an Android and blammo - life as we know it has changed. It'll bring a whole new meaning to smart machines - we'll become the machines.

 

Living in the cloud (forever)

Becoming an android will give you eternal life - you can always replace the body and upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. But what if you really want to become immortal. Well, you could simply live in the cloud - like in the Matrix. Yup, lots of people today spend more time online gaming in EQ2 and other MMORPGs. So when the opportunity comes to leave this world behind and immerse yourself completely - I'm sure they'll be more than a few willing to transfer themselves into the cloud. Then they can be any where and become any thing. And since our brains are really highly compact and efficient electronic machines - once science understands how to mimic the conscientious it won't be hard to replicate it - or transfer it.

In fact, this will probably become fairly routine too in 100 to 200 years. You'll live in an android body and move your "existence" around the cloud. You'll upload to the cloud then download into a new android body 1000 light years away or further. It'll be the new way to vacation and travel. Forget the space ships just beam your brain to the distant location and you're there in mind, you can simply add the body at your destination.

Sure, not everyone will embrace the changes and it will be tumultuous during the transition. But like it or not...we'll all be zeros and ones eventually. Maybe not my generation, but likely my kid's or my grandkid's. Scary and exciting times lie ahead - but technology is exponential - so as the Borg say, "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."