Reliance on Technology

After camping, I realize how much we rely on technology. We are almost helpless without it. Its a scary thought to think that we are getting more and more dependent on technology for a few reasons. Technology glitches, technology is dependent on electricity (at this time) and technology has the potential to be stronger than us.

Technology glitches. I was on facebook today and it was not working nearly as well as I wanted it to be. It kept freezing and shutting down and it was not allowing me to do anything I wanted to. Why is this such a problem? In the future we may depend on technology to keep us alive. The world may be so inhabitable to humans that we'll need technology to feed us and give us fresh air. We may have thousands of nanobots within our skin and organs keeping us healthy. The technology we have now is deadly already. A car goes off the road, an airplane falls from the sky and other technologies kill people every day. This is completely different and most likely less deadly than technology being within us. This may mean that a glitch means death...an electric surge means heart attack or lung failure. We could have new disease that are emailed to nanobots in our system or emailed to our computer that can send a signal to our nanobots. Its a scary thought to be completely depended on something that was made by human hands.

Technology is dependent on electricity. In order for us to depend on technology, we need to develop a new way of energy use. We can't use technology that needs batteries or electricity. We can't rely on something that will die before us definitely if that is inside us. Those of lower socioeconomic class may not have the money to upkeep the nanobots in their system and without an independence of electricity, the nanobots will need continuous upkeep.

Technology has the potential to become stronger than us. There are robots that adapt. There are robots that learn from interactions. There are robots that can hear, see and feel. These are all just steps away from overcoming humans. A robot that has the senses of humans could be created to have faster reflexes and a stronger core. This robot alone would be able to take out entire troops of people. What if a world like the Terminator really started to develop? Would we be able to stop the progression? Robots may develop the skills to reproduce themselves. At that point, it would be nearly impossible to stop them. Especially if we have developed robots with an independence of electricity. Our own development may be our destruction.

Camping was an eye opener. I feel as though I would be able to live without technology, but the majority of the people I was with were completely helpless without it. Is this the direction we want to see our species go?