Circular dreams

The future is approaching faster than ever, and it is accelerating. Fundamental changes in our culture and society happen four or five times in our lives. Even thirty-year youngs are feeling the strains; they are in danger of being left behind by the quickening pace of technology. Those of us who remember asking "why do I need a mobile phone" are now asking "why do I need Facebook on my smartphone".

Individuals are not the only ones being tested by the pace of technology. Companies, laws, policies, relationships, are all struggling to keep up, competing to stay afloat on the bubbling forefront of the new and the next. There will be conflicts, winners, and losers. We have seen the record industry clinging onto the ancient idea of CDs, and failing miserably. We have also seen companies like Amazon or Apple embrace new technology and drive it to enormous success. Countries and cultures can fall to similar fates. Our laws and our social expectations are even worse at keeping apace.

Most of us ride the current of developing technology without a sense of where it is going. We can only see backwards to the past, and look around at our present situation. Like passengers on a drifting ship, we like to imagine there is someone up there steering it through troubled waters. The truth is, there are very few people who can see those looming icebergs, and even fewer who have both the vision and the command to avoid them.

The risks and dangers that we face are immense. We have recently weathered one such technologically driven threat - global nuclear war, a war that could have ended humanity's very existence. That was our first trial, and we barely passed. Though we are pushing back the age-old problems of war, famine, and disease, new threats await us, enabled by the very technologies that can solve those problems. I do not want to a member of the first species ever to become extinct by its own hands. We must be ready.

Yet, the development of technology will not stop. If we try to hang on to outdated ideals, we will be left behind like the record industry, and become dangerously obsolete. If, instead, we take control and guide the development with knowledge and foresight, the benefits will be limitless.

The knowledge and vision should not be kept purely academic, nor be debated only by senators and judges and CEOs. We, as voters, as consumers, and as citizens, need to know. We can contribute our voices and our efforts to help shape the future we will live in. The first steps have already been taken: popular consumer products like Roomba and science fiction stories like Wall-E and Dollhouse help us become comfortable with new technology and challenge us to think about its implications.

But, the future should not be seen as pure speculation or science fiction. Our future is not just a fantasy; it is our own story, and we are both the authors and the characters. We, the people, in order to take hold of our shared destiny, must recognize our part in the circle between technology and humanity.