Ghost of the Future

Do you recognize the pun? I refer to one of the best cyberpunk (or near future science fiction, for the uninitiated out there) franchise, Ghost in the Shell universe. It is composed of several products - anime and manga, whith two alternative storylines. Go ahead and read some reviews here or here or here, and besides saying this is one of the best films/novels ever created, with breathtaking plotline and sfx, I'd like to stress one thing.

While various networks have become deeply rooted,
and thoughts have been sent out as light
and electrons in a singular direction,
this era has yet to digitize/computerize to the degree nescesary
for individuals to become a single complex entity.


Near future. 2020. It is not so long. And I honestly think it may look a lot like what GitS and other cyberpunk artists like William Gibson describe in their works. Granted, details will be diffrent, and political events are rather unlikely, but the rapid technologu chagnes and its impact on society will be HUGE.



You see, when people think of future, they think of their own plans and little troubles. Sometimes they think of things like next political election, on new faster car or computer game or stuff...but they rarely look at the big picture. Maybe because it is so...I am not sure what the right word is here...so changed, so full of potential, so diffrent, that their brains autmatically classify the logical thinking about future as sf, rubbish and back to their daily routine?

So what will be diffrent in the near future? How can the techology change so much that the world will be almost unrecognizable?

Well. Many things. Nanotechnology can bring forward the collapse of capitalism economy and create a utopia of some kind. AIs can replace humans at many tasks. People themselves can evelove into a beings of higher intelligence capacity, and become almost immortal.

No, I am not drunk. I am simply referring to something we dont think about every day. The Technological Singularity Theory. The speed of human progress is ACCELERATING. It is a exponential function.



Every year, we advance more then in the year before. If this process will continue, the change in the next decade can be as big as the one in the past half century. The change in the next half century can be as big as in the last millenia.



Think of the people living 1000 years ago. Could they imagine the world we live today? How would they like it? We are likely to be faced with the same dillemma while alive.

And statistically speaking, we can reach the Point of Singularity any second.

Have a nice time thinking about it. :>