Technologies such as cloning, Artificial Intelligence, Nanotechnology and robotics will present ongoing challenges as to how to integrate them into our lives. These technologies will soon be realized no matter what may be done to prevent them. For the simple reasons that there is a need, and money to be made from them. Some, like human cloning will be realized illegally because people will pay serious money for spare parts their bodies wont reject.
The military and corporations will fuel AI, Robotics and nanotechnology research because military minds will be convinced someone else is pursuing them, and won’t want to fall behind and will need to know how to combat it once faced with it. Once we are face to face with these abilities and the public demands accountability, further R&D will just be conducted in secret. Making sure these new technologies aren’t used against humanity will play a big role in Governments on all sides in the next century and beyond.
Once we have the ability to build a robotic soldier it will happen? We will soon have highly intelligent fighting machines that will require very little if any human assistance to complete military objectives. The statement that we will never be able to replace the human soldier is simply not true.
In a capitalistic society how are you going to get companies to keep hiring humans when there are machines that can do five times the work? We all know this is coming but figure it’s too far away to get concerned about yet. Truth is a century from now there will be very few jobs left that can’t be done better by machines. There will be very few if any manufacturing or secretarial jobs. The jobs we may still need not everyone is cut out to be. Salesman, Lawyers, Doctors, psychiatrists, Engineers, Creative professionals and Scientists are the only ones I can think of. A much more socialistic society maybe be a necessity to support everyone.
Science fiction is full of stories of humanities creations turning on us. Many of these scenarios are certainly possible if we do not take the necessary precautions. Predicting what AI will eventually become may be impossible. There would have to be limits on AI controlled machines to protect us from the unknowns. True AI would have to remain in a laboratory until whenever.
The good news is all these new toys have the potential to empower humanity to do incredible things, and be of enormous benefit to the human condition. Nanotechnology could end disease and repair and maintain the body in ways never before possible. They could locate and block nerve signals causing pain or boost others ending paralysis. Or even take over certain body functions entirely. They could be used in conflicts to temporally blind and immobilize the combatants so they could be detained without loss of life on ether side. They could be used to convert waste to whatever. Nanotechnology could give us Alchemy. I’m sure we could think of a few uses for that.
A form of Artificial Intelligence could give hope to stupid people everywhere. Imagine an implant that could give you instant access to the sum of human knowledge. And take over processing sensory input and body functions, freeing the brain for what higher reasoning it may have.
Robots, well they’ll do the dirty work. They’ll be able to explore inner and outer space more efficiently. I think Robots even have the potential to make death from war unpalatable. The military will eventually have to use them in combat because they’ll be so much better at than Humans. After decades of machines fighting our battles people will begin to think of death from war as archaic and unnecessary. Mutually assured destruction and new detection technologies will hopefully be what keeps terrorist and nations in check.
However we end up making use of these new abilities one thing for sure. The stakes are too high to screw up.