What does the future hold for us? Should we be feeling optimistic, or rather daunted?
A quick peek at the latest news from Davos and the World Economic Forum’s spotlight on The Fourth Industrial Revolution is an eye opener!
“Emerging technologies such as 3D printing and genetic engineering offer a lot of promise, but can also be double-edged swords. They can help make our lives easier, safer and healthier, but there is also potential to build weapons or dangerously modify organisms.
This post is in response to the weekly WPC: Optimistic
Nature on the Edge 
Most of these are doable. 3d printed liver, already done by a Bangalore based group of researchers – no transplants yet. But the last one, almost impossible. Not within that time-frame. If you know anyone in the field, you will know that AI is really complicated and no matter how much we advance, getting feasible AI is rather difficult. I am grappling with the same question at the moment and as a consultant I had to tell the investors that it is going to be a long arduous road ahead. Even with their deep pockets, I feel that it is going to take decades to come up with anything really good. Maybe gimmicks, but not real AI. The others are easy. For example, the robotic pharmacist, that is nothing – easily doable right now, don’t have to wait till 2025. (And oh, city of more than 50,000 and no traffic lights, obviously the person who compiled that list did not visit our city a couple of decades ago, hahaha… Ok, it is more like an overgrown village that became a town by default and is now a “Smart city” by all means and with traffic lights all over the bloody place and not one of them making sense to anyone. Stupid!! The more we progress, the stupider we become). In any case, the traffic thing is more of a network/mathematics problem rather than computer technology itself. The goal posts will keep changing, what we see as superb technology today may turn out to be passe/mediocre/useless in another decade. But let us hope that something substantial does come out in terms of energy production and consumption, food technology and so on.
Dear T, your insightful comments are a boost to my rather inadequate knowledge. The scenarios arather conjure up Sci-fi and futuristic images and yet there we already have tangible outcomes. I worry over A1 and aspects of good ethics being overridden, corrupted.
Topline and bottomline are all that matter these days in a corporate-ized world. Ethics, morals, good, bad – none of these count. We happen to be the foolish minority who worry about everything else haha..
So true Liz!
Lovely photograph—the fireworks of the seed species. 🙂 Nice choice for the challenge.
If you like, you’re welcome to come visit my challenge at:
https://fstopfantasy.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/weekly-photo-challenge-optimistic/
Nice photograph! 🙂
Interesting figures…some are already here, yes. I guess many inventions and promising things are double-edged…Let us point them the right way then…
Yes, guessing there will be ethics juries out monitoring and gauging the controversial.
Gorgeous image. I suppose we have to take the advances beneficial to us along with the ones that seem, frankly, frightening. Maybe logical, unemotional AI would help bring about a more peaceful world.
I’ve got to get my head around AI it’s radical – the positive ethical, peaceful outcomes would really boost this failing world of ours. Sceptic that i am- and there’s so much poverty and unemployment, how to take that sector along when jobs, education and access to food is a real threat. Nevertheless i’ve signed up to various newsletters on latest designs trends etc, trying to keep an open outlook.