[Hot Air] It’s not just science fiction anymore. Like it or not, we’ve already started blending machinery with human beings. Cyborgs are actually becoming a thing, and once you’ve learned how to do a little of something, humanity’s track record indicates that you’ll be doing it a lot. Over at Fox News, one professor from Jerusalem is predicting that the day is coming far sooner than you might think, along with a huge load of ethical and moral questions that accompany the technology.In a not-so-distant future, humans will merge with machines.
Although that seems like something cooked up by a science fiction writer, according to a prominent historian it’s a reality that’s not very far away ‐ especially given how much Big Tech has disrupted everything from commerce (Amazon) to relationships (Facebook) and media (Google and Facebook).
"It’s increasingly hard to tell where I end and where the computer begins," Yuval Harari, a professor of history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told the audience at the Fast Company European Innovation Festival this week. "In the future, it is likely that the smartphone will not be separated from you at all. It may be embedded in your body or brain, constantly scanning your biometric data and your emotions."
We’re already being told we spend too much time looking at our phones when they’re just in our pockets. (To the point where we may or may not be growing bone spikes on our heads as a result.) So how do you feel about the idea of the phone being embedded in your body? Or even inside your brain and just flashing your text messages directly into your cerebral cortex?