Human Progress

Human Progress
Written by: Francisco Resto

We human beings have an incredible choice. We can either, collectively, stop the integration of man and machine, or we can join our robotic inventions as one. The choice is ours.

Albert Einstein once said “Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal”, I tend to agree with Mr. Einstein. There is nothing more disturbing than human evolution in the hands of a corporate CEO. This is where greed, corruption, illegal experimentation join the fray that is our technological society. This is why checks and balances must exist in this kind of field.

What if Apple, the second largest technology company (And soon to be the first) ordered the kidnapping of hundreds of citizens around the world, against their will, tied them to cots, chairs, bio-beds, and commenced genetic, technological, cybernetic, biological testing in the name of science and human progress? What if illegal human experimentation lead to a future product it sells to the public without any disclaimer of what it took to get this product out? What if the future of our species is not to evolve in a natural state where humans adapt to their surroundings, but what if technology adapts to us, enhances everything about us? Our hearing, our sight, our touch, our strength, or even our ability to feel and think would just be random barcodes and recorded on some server thousands of mile away so that a computer could predict our self and social activity.

I for one am all for human progression side by side with tools and machines. It is told throughout our history;

When we needed to stay warm, we discovered fire.

When we needed to protect ourselves, we developed weapons.

When we were sick and dying, we created medicines.

But what governments and corporations could be doing, sometimes behind closed doors and vaults and underground bunkers, would be going too far in the name of science and human discovery.

The storm is coming. The fork in the road will soon arrive. Maybe not in 5, 10 or 20 years, but it is coming. The one thing I am sure of though, and I am confident in, is that we the people are too many for any government, corporation to control. We collectively will end up making the decision as to where and how humanity will eventually end up. The choice is and always will be, OURS.

(I wrote this after playing the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution. A game that will make you think and make you take a stand @ Human Progress through technology)