At the end of last year, I was asked to write a few thoughts on the most important, most disruptive technological milestones for each year of the last decade that will continue to have an impact in the future of the decade to come. Here follows the original version of that article, before it was edited … Continue reading Trend retrospective, a decade in the rearview mirror
Here's another question to throw into the heated (understatement of the year) debates around 1) the legality of abortion and 2) the validity of IQ scores. Ethical question: Should we encourage women to abort their low-IQ embryos? Because now we can test for that in utero. How we answer that question, as individuals, as cultures, … Continue reading Generation Alpha, IQ, and the Bifurcation of Everything
The following is the original transcript from my TedX talk of the same name. Typos and all. All Illustrations by the lovely Raleen Bagg. Enjoy: Who wants to live forever? From the quest for the Holy Grail to the search for the Fountain of Eternal Youth; human history and mythology is littered with our obsession … Continue reading Do you (really) want to live forever?
"What could possibly go wrong?" The more I read and learn about science and technology, the more often I think that we don't give enough attention to that question: What. Could. Go. Wrong. Most technology is dangerous in the wrong hands, and as technology becomes more powerful, the what could go wrong is only escalating. … Continue reading Cat’s Cradle
“You can’t really put a lid on it, even if you wanted to” ~ Dr Jennifer Doudna, CRISPR researcher As always, the dichotomy between freedom and equality threatens to split humanity. This time though, I'm not talking about economic freedom vs economic equality; that good old battle between free market "monopoly capitalists" and their arch … Continue reading Procreative Freedom vs Genetic Inequality
Generation Alpha: The generational cohort born from 2011 to 2015. Generation Alpha are the children of the Millennial generation. Weened on cellphones, raised by robots, they are mommy's little cyborgs. I'm a Millennial. I have a Generation Alpha daughter. As such, I am partly responsible (that is to blame) for both the way Generation Alpha … Continue reading Raising Generation Alpha
Following on from Sapiens, Homo Deus is as illuminating as its predecessor. This volume looks at transhumanism, that is the evolution of homo sapiens (that's us) into an entirely new species: Homo Deus, the first terrestrial species to emerge to have created itself, though a combination of biological, genetic engineering and technological enhancements, rather than to … Continue reading Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow
