• Things I Love About the Future
    A. Sims
    You and I are part of a very privileged group of people. For a long time dreams were so much more powerful and extravagant than anything humans had the capacity to create on their own. Flight was unimaginable; reaching the moon more equatable to something in a cockamamie fairy-tale. But lo and behold with great resolve, and more than a little bit of elbow grease and brain power our race pulled it through! We broke the sound barrier, climbed into the heavens, walked on the surface of other celestial bodies. We did so many things which would boggle the mind of one of America's early colonizing settlers.
    I feel as if many of these facts are under-appreciated or simply unnoticed, so I wanted to call some attention to them and meditate on them momentarily. After all, the Buddha said, "In life, be where you are." If you can't enjoy where you are here in the future, then you ought to relax, because it will only accelerate.
    This fact of our existence; that it is occurring at this time and that- according to certain elements in the scientific community- we are the smartest beings to ever be on the planet, does not seem coincidental to me. In fact, I feel it should be plainly obvious. As technology improves, our ability to process, protect, save, and deliver information improves. Within this abundance of information, a greater wealth of ideas augments our imaginations allowing us to make even better improvements on technology. Intellectual capacity's increase is cyclical, and, perhaps- one day, if Raymond Kurzweil's postulation of exponential growth, called "The Singularity," is reached- incalculable.
    It is not uncommon in euclidean mathematics to refer to a quantity which is incalculable as infinite.
    It is an easy to love concept that mankind might call to reign unfathomable knowledge. I like to think that with the advent of such knowledge, and deeply intimate understanding, we might overcome our petty and violent natures. Though, bitterly, I must admit the possibility that such intricate knowledge might only unleash the greatest of savagery which lies deep in the hearts of men.
    If we had the power of Gods, or even just near omniscience, but the same weak human psyches, what would stop us from simply erasing a loved one out of existence merely by arrant thought? Men are created with both the desire and ability to kill for good reason, but when we are untouchable, immortal, and all-knowing what sort of morality could bind us? I think we have a greater possibility of finding the answers to these questions than any generation to date.
    Getting to be a part of the discussion of immortality is an amazing, unbelievable thing- even if it is only within a theoretical context. But this is only just the beginning of sci-fi turned reality. We are on the cusp of mapping the human connectome, understanding the fundamental mechanisms of the brain and learning how to configure electronic programs which let us tap into it. Fully immersive virtual environments might be possible, direct-to-consciousness information downloads, who knows? We get to marvel at the awe of the simple possibility of such incredible things.
    We must give them fair consideration, or they are sure to have unintended consequences. We must take our new powers with a grain of salt and remember that also coming with them is an inherent responsibility to do good. Otherwise we will repeat the same mistakes of bloodshed and unnecessary suffering committed by so many before us. What if the messiah is not one of us, but rather all of us? Maybe we should stop waiting for him, and become the change we want to see him create in our world.
    We certainly have the power to make a better future.