A couple of ideas

Joao Pedro Magalhaes (jpnitya@esoterica.pt)
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 00:40:27 +0000

Hi!

I'd like to know your opinion about a couple of ideas I had. If you have already mentioned them before, I'm sorry.

I've been thinking that in a not so far away future humanity will be ruled by a small number of men, computers or hybrids of both. The argument is that economical power is becoming more concentrated as time goes by, when the technology to control humans -- either by brain implants, highly developed subliminal messages or military force -- arrives, someone is bound to use it. We had Hitler, Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander and many more; why shouldn't Bill Gates use this to control humankind. Most politicians are power fanatics that will individually control humankind if they're given the technology.

The other idea is far simpler. Don't you enjoy classifying technological capacity of a civilization by the precision and ability of atomic manipulation? We began by having a chemical industry, we are working with cells' organelles to increase our molecular manipulation skills, we will have nanotechnology and as nanotechnology develops, the more powerful computers we'll have and the more molecular modeling we'll be able to do thus leading to an evolution in nanotechnology the cycle will begin once again.

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts.

-- 

"Life's too short to cry, long enough to try." -- Kai Hansen