Are you a technoptimist or a depressimist?
From Niall Ferguson: This is the question I have been
pondering after a weekend hanging with some of the superstars of Silicon
Valley. I had never previously
appreciated the immense gap that now exists between technological optimism, on
the one hand, and economic pessimism, on the other. Silicon Valley sees a
bright and beautiful future ahead. Wall Street and Washington see only storm clouds.
The geeks think we’re on the verge of The Singularity. The wonks retort that
we’re in the middle of a Depression.
Let’s start with the technoptimists. Last Saturday I
listened with fascination as a panel of tech titans debated the question: “Will
science and technology produce more dramatic changes in solving the world’s
major problems over the next 25 years than have been produced over the last 25
years?”
They all thought so. We heard a description of what Google’s
Project Glass, the Internet-enabled spectacles, can already do. (For example,
the spectacles can be used to check if another speaker is lying.) Next up: a
search engine inside the brain itself. We heard that within the next 25 years,
it will be possible to take 1,000-mile journeys by being fired through tubes.
We also heard that biotechnology will deliver genetic “photocopies” of human
organs that need replacing. And we were promised genetically engineered bugs,
capable of excreting clean fuel. The only note of pessimism came from an eminent
neuroscientist, who conceded that a major breakthrough in the prevention brain
degeneration was unlikely in the next quarter century….
Fascinated? You’ve
gotta turn to http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/29/niall-ferguson-don-t-believe-the-techno-utopian-hype.html
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