For those that have worries about the future fear no more for Michio Kaku in 'Physics of the Future' says that it's going to be unrecognisably amazing. How amazing? Well by the end of this century we will 'control computers directly with our minds', we'll have emotional robots, designer children, programmable matter and increased risk of climate change. Pretty cool, yeah?
There will be those of us (me included) that will find reading this book, written almost ten years ago, with a straight face a little difficult. Kaku is the asbestos optimist, nothing seems to throw him off with how great technology will make our lives. And I'll grant him that it does seem to create a more humane world.
But what about cultural, historical and political forces that might get in the way? Will it just increase inequality? Will there be a Roussean backlash with people wishing to return to a simpler 'state of nature'? What if Yuval Noah Harari is right and our governments hack our bio-systems? What if Capitalism eats the world? All this will have a destabilising effect, yet it feels more and more these days that nothing is truly stable so if we can have electronic wallpaper to keep moral up than so more the better.
I am reminded of the game 'Deus Ex' where you played a character in between two camps of people. Those who have no technological implants and those who are fully cyborg. Is it possible that we could see a split between two different attitudes of mind? Mentioned in the book are the Islamic extremist who really don't want modern technology, but the people who do embrace technology in it's fullest will be the people who will be like gods to those who have nothing to do with it.
Kaku isn't just blue-sky thinking as his book is based on over three hundred conversations with leading scientists so it could become a very accurate prophesy if we survive as a species long enough to find out.
It also reminds me of a quote from a climate scientist who said that they thought the problems of climate change was green house gas, rising sea level and erosion of topsoil when really they found that the real problems were greed, apathy, selfishness and lack of compassion. And this really gets to the nub of the problem for me. I can communicate with the whole world from the vicinity of my living room and watch 80s Egyptian films whenever I like but it doesn't solve the fundamental emotional problems I have.
Or put it another way; there's no technological fix for the soul. Of course behaviour is entirely dictated to by economics and environment and by changing these things different behaviours are produced. It could be said that having TV programmes that document the cultures of other countries has given us a global consciousness the like we have never experienced.
For me I have a workable knowledge of Japanese society from watching programmes about it. It's partly the reason why I eat noodles every day because I want to emulate aspects of that culture that I like. And so in this way there is an argument that technology is making us more tolerant, peaceable and even kind.
Then there is the argument that it allows total nutters and highly dangerous people to connect and form increasingly powerful groups that could destabilise all the scientific knowledge needed to create this beautifully painted picture of the future.
But hark! Kaku has thought about this and says: 'There is so much noise on the Internet, with would be prophets daily haranguing their audience and megalomaniacs trying to push bizarre ideas, that eventually people will cherish a new commodity: wisdom.' It's going to take a while for that to happen I fear but if that is true then hopefully I could make a killing in the future.
And there is a place for me in the future. When my bartender said to me that AI are now capable to writing structured screenplays, though with largely nonsensical dialogue, I thought my days were done as a writer. But fear not! Kaku again comes to the rescue: 'Novelists, scriptwriters, and playwrights will have jobs, since they have to convey realistic scenes, human conflicts, and human triumphs and defeats'. Now that's a vision of the future I can look forward to.
