WHY THE FUTURE DOES

NOT NEED US
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
GE7
GROUP 2
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this discussion, the students should be able to:

Identify William Nelson Joy’s arguments as to why the future
does not need us.
Rationalize the human experience in order to strengthen and
enlighten the human functioning in society.
Identify and examine the future of humanity and the future
technology.
WHY THE FUTURE DOES NOT NEED US

• Imagining a future without humans is nearly synonymous to

the end of the world. Many choose not to speculate about a
future where humans cease to exist while the world remains.
• However, a dystopian society void of human presence is the
subject of many works in literature and film. The possibility of
such society is also a constant topic of debates.
• Technology interests enable people to widen the scope of human
experiences. The future of technology will depend on how people use it, as
there are qualifying experiences that they can also share with other
people, thereby integrating technology into their daily lives.
• Like most human endeavors, technology has advantages and
disadvantages, as well as merits and demerits. Technology is primarily a
matter of choice. We employ it for our own purposes.
• Technology, however, is ultimately what makes us incomparably better off
because it helps alleviate the shortcomings of human experience rather
than completely helping us.
HUMAN AND SOCIETY

• Majority of the time, the human species coexists in basic hunter-gatherer

societies. A “modern” industrial culture has just emerged in the lass 200
years, while agrarian societies did not make significant technological
advances until fewer than 5,000 years ago. The industrial civilization of
today is quickly evolving into a global information society.
• The quality of life in contemporary society is one of the topics under
discussion at this time. Pessimists doubt that life is getting worse,
whereas progress optimists believe that we live better than the previous
generations.
TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY: A POSITIVE
SIDE
• According to an old proverb, “necessity is the mother of invention,”
meaning that since each invention is invaded by the need for
improvements and transformation, necessities often lead to inventions.
• Every day, newer advancements take place. Many of the secular trends
in such fundamental aspects of the human condition as the size of the
world’s population, life expectancy, educational attainment, material
standards of living, and the nature of work, communication, health care,
war, and the effects of human activities on the environment can be
attributed in large part to technological change.
• Technology has a wide range of direct and indirect effects on
various facets of society and our personal life, including
governing entertainment, interpersonal connections, and our
conceptions of morality, mind, matter, and human nature.
• The advancement of technology gave human history a
general direction. As technology develops, it continually
supports the qualities of every circumstance. The era of
automation will be the era of “Do it yourself”.
THE POSITIVE VIEW

1. Material Standard of Living – many advancements in modern society

are based on the notion that things are becoming better. One is the
unmatched rise in the material of living; typical citizen now enjoys a
better standard of living than kings had hundreds of years ago.
2. Untimely Death is Reduced – another trend that stands out is the
significant decrease in unwanted premature deaths, including those
caused by murder, diseases, and accidents. The prevalence of societal ills
like poverty, inequality, ignorance, and oppression has declined.
3. Improvement in Evolutionary View – this perspective on
development is frequently a component of an evolutionary
viewpoint, in which society is viewed as a tool for humans that
is gradually improved. This concept was developed in the 18 th
century during the Enlightenment and is still relevant today.
• This view includes the notion that society may advance
through “”social engineering,” which serves as the
ideological cornerstone of numerous significant modern
institutions, including the welfare state and development aid
organizations.
4. Reduced Suffering – is a classic religious perspective that breaks
the understanding that life is improving by viewing it as a period of
penance before paradise in the afterlife. It considers the potential to
lessen suffering by making the world better, and society development is
viewed to be moving in that direction, despite occasional ups and
downs.
These developments also includes shorter development times and lower
production costs for materials ranging from microchips to cutting-edge
cars, elegant devises to enormous constructions, and easier design and
development processes.
These innovations also stimulate economic growth through the efficient
application of technology decreases the cost of producing materials,
along with the aforementioned changes that benefit the economy and
advance the country.
TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY: A
NEGATIVE SIDE
• Potentials and issues frequently coexist; issues can be turned into opportunities.
The universe’s elements have two sides, a creative side and a destructive side.
• Technology has become an increasingly important part of society. Consequently, we
may lack the desire to consider our actions carefully.
• The gifts of science and technology have been purposely misused over time by the
wealthy and powerful. There are unavoidable negative repercussions associated
with these talents, but they are outweighed by the willful abuse and exploitation of
them, which could have greatly reduced or at the very least mitigated the negative
impacts.
• The misuse of science and technology is a result of human greed, self-interest, lack
of planning, and myopia.
 THE NEGATIVE VIEW

1. Contemporary Social Problems – worrying over current social issues is frequently

the driving force behind the statement “life is getting worse.” Deviant behavior
including crime, drug use, and school rejection, is one of these issues. Another set of
issues, including social conflicts, labor disputes, ethnic issues, and political terrorism
is thought to lower quality of life.
2. Society Drifting away from Human Nature – because society has changed
significantly while human nature has not, this perspective of decline is frequently
included in the notion that society is moving away from human nature. Instead of
being a piece of machinery, humans are being forced into a way of life does not
actually fit them in the eyes of society. According to this perspective, paradise is
gone and unlikely to return.
 WILLIAM NELSON JOY

• In April 2000, William Nelson Joy, an American computer

scientist and chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, wrote an
article for Wired magazine entitled Why the future doesn’t
need us?
• In his article, Joy warned against the rapid rise of new
technologies. He explained that 21st century technologies –
genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) – are becoming
very powerful that they can potentially bring about new
classes of accidents, threats, and abuses.
• He further warned that these dangers are even more
pressing because they do not require large facilities or even
rare raw materials – knowledge alonr will make them
potentially harmful to humans.
• Joy argued that robotics, genetic engineering, and
nanotechnology pose much greater threats than
technological developments that have come before.
• He particularly cited the ability of nanobots to self-reflicate,
which could quickly get out of control.
• In the article, he cautioned humans against overdependence on
machines. He also stated that if machines are given the capacity to
decide on their own, it will be impossible to predict how they might
behave in the future. In this case, the fate of the human race would
be at the mercy of machines.
• Joy also voiced out his apprehension about the rapid increase of
computer power. He was also concerned that computers will
eventually become more intelligent than humans, thus ushering
societies into dystopian visions, such as robot rebellions.
• To illuminate his concern, Joy drew from Theodore Kaczynski’s book,
Unabomber Manifesto, where Kaczynski described that the unintended
consequences of the design and use of technology are clearly related to
Murphy’s Law: “anything that could go wrong, will go wrong”. Kaczynski
argued further that overreliance on antibiotics led to the great paradox
of emerging antibiotic-resistance strains of dangerous bacteria.
• The introduction of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) to combat
malarial mosquitoes, for instance, only gave rise to malarial parasites
with multi-drug-resistance genes.
• Since the publication of the article, Joy’s arguments against 21st century
technologies have received both criticisms and expression of shared concerns.
Critics dismissed Joy’s article for deliberately presenting information in an
imprecise manner that obscures the larger picture or state of things.
• John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (2001), in their article A Response to Bill Joy
and the Doom-and-Gloom Technofuturists, criticized Joy’s failure to consider
social factors and only deliberately focused on one part of the larger picture.
• Others go as far as accusing Joy of being a neo-Luddite, someone who rejects
new technologies and shows technophobic leanings.
• As a material, Joy’s article tackles the unpleasant and uncomfortable possibilities
that a senseless approach to scientific and technological advancements may
bring. Whether Joy’s propositions are a real possibility or an absolute moonshot, it
is unavoidable to think of a future that will no longer need the human race.
• It makes thinking about the roles and obligations of every stakeholder a
necessary component of scientific and technological advancement.
• In this case, it preeminently necessary that the scientific community,
governments, and businesses engage in a discussion to determine the
safeguards of the humans against the potential dangers of science and
technology.
RELEVANCE OF THE ISSUE

• This debate has significant practical ramifications, making it more than merely
a theoretical issue to be debated in academic halls. We should work to halt or
at least slow down modernization if it makes society lees livable. In this
situation, conservatives have a good case and can persuade people to support
restorative policies. However, if modernization serves to raise living standards,
we should comply, which would more closely align with the liberal political
platform. In the latter scenario, there is also room for greater modernization,
which would be acceptable for missionary operations like “development aid”
for “under-developed” countries and would promote various reformer impulses
in industrializes states.
SOCIETAL COLLAPSE

• Many theories have been put out to explain why society

collapsed. This includes the works Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire by Gibbons, Collapse of Complex Societies by
Joseph Tainter, and the more recent collapse: How Societies
Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond.
• Tainter (1990) points out that communities must safeguard
certain resources in order to maintain their people, including
food, energy, and natural resources.
• Societies may become more complicated as a result of their
efforts to address the supply issue by establishing
bureaucracies, infrastructure, social class distinctions,
military activities, and colonies. The marginal return on these
investments in social complexity can occasionally turn out to
be negative, and societies that fail to scale down when their
organizational overheads become out of hand eventually
collapse.
• According to Diamond, environmental factors have played a
significant role in many previous cases of societal collapse.
These environmental factors include deforestation and
habitat destruction, soil issues, water management issues,
overfishing and hunting, the effects of introduced species,
• He also propose four new variables, including human-caused
climate change, the build-up of harmful substances in the
environment, energy constraints, and the full exploitation of
the Earth’s photosynthetic potential, that could contribute to
the collapse of current and future society.
• In order for a negative outcome that occurs in small, almost
imperceptible steps to be accepted or come about without
resistance, even though the same outcome, had it occurred
in one sharp leap, would have elicited a vigorous response,
Diamond draws attention to the danger of creeping normalcy.
He describes the phenomenon of a slow trend being
concealed within noisy fluctuation.
DIFFERENT CLASSES OF SCENARIOS
INVOLVING SOCIETAL COLLAPSE
1. Local Societal Collapse 2. Global Societal Collapse
o Individual societies may fall apart, o We speculate that emerging threats
but if other highly developed (such as nuclear holocaust or
societies survive and continue where drastically altering the global
the failed ones left off, it is unlikely environment) or the movement
that this would have a decisive towards globalization have increased
impact on the fate of humanity. the interdependence of many
o This type of collapse has always regions of the world and expose
occurred in history. human civilization as a whole to risk.
ASSUME THAT THERE WERE TO BE A
GLOBAL SOCIETAL BREAKDOWN . THEN
WHAT FOLLOWS?
• The consequence would succeed as an existential
catastrophe if the collapse were of a character that prevents
the reconstruction of a new, higly developed global
civilization. However, it is difficult to imagine plausible
collapse in which the human race survives but renders it
impossible to restore civilization for all time.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THIS EXPANDING
SOCIETY IF A NEW, TECHNOLOGICALLY
ADVANCED CIVILIZATION IS FINALLY REBUILT?
• Once more, there two options. The new society might avoid
collapsing, and in the two parts that follow, we’ll look at what might
occur to a resilient global civilization. If not, the cycle is repeated, and
the new civilization collapse once more.
• We come to the kind of circumstance that the next parts will explore if
a sustainable civilization develops. We then have the kind of scenario
that was covered in the preceding section if one of the collapses result
in extinction instead. The final scenario is a cycle of perpetually
repeated regeneration and collapse.
DIFFERENT CONCLUSIONS FOR
DIFFERENT SITUATIONS

• Although there are numerous plausible explanation for why a

highly developed society can collapse, only a small subset of
these answers is likely to be able to explain an endless cycle
of collapse and regeneration.
• A cycle couldn’t be dependent on a variable that might affect
some advanced civilizations but not others, or on a variable
that an advanced civilization would have a realistic chance of
overcoming.
• If such a variable were to be blamed, one would anticipate that the
collapse-regeneration pattern would eventually break when the right
conditions finally allowed an advanced civilization to overcome the barriers
to sustainability.
• The suggested cause of collapse could not possibly be as potent as the
reason for the extinction of the human species.
• The power of the intellect to reason is what distinguishes human from other
animals, and this is where humanity has advanced. The reason is the
capacity for analysis, invention, deduction, and formulation. Human may
strive and invent because of reason, and it is through invention that
humanity has evolved civilization and improved the globe.
• Today, we can argue that technology is the culmination of all instrumentally
valuable cultural information.
RELATION OF TECHNOLOGY WITH
HUMANITY
• When we discuss how technology and humanity interact, it is clear that
we must deal with the interactions of a number of very complicated
phenomena, including technology, science, society, and universal legal
systems.
• As part of its exploration and advancement, humanity has been able to
overcome the limitations of nature thanks to a variety of potent energy
sources, including coal, petroleum, electricity, and others. All of this has
facilitated the development of quick forms of transportation, which has in
turn made the world a small, interconnected community.
THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

• The technologies behind nuclear, biological, and chemical

weapons of mass destruction were undoubtedly potent
weapons with a high risk. However, developing nuclear
weapons requires, at least temporarily, access to both
uncommon- in fact, practically unobtainable-raw materials
and extremely sensitive information. Additionally, biological
and chemical weapons programs tended to call for extensive
work.
• The genetic, nanotechnological, and robotic (GNR) technologies of the 21st
century are so potent that they have the potential to cause entirely new
types of mishaps and abuses. These mishaps and misuse are the most
hazardous for first timers. These are easily accessible to individuals or
small groups and are widely viewed. They won’t need big facilities or
expensive raw materials. The utilization of them will only be possible with
knowledge.
• Therefore, we have the potential for both weapons od mass destruction
and the knowledge and technologies that enable them, with the power of
self-replication greatly enhancing the destructiveness.
• The book Plateau describes two potential futures for humanity: one is
stagnation at (or very near) the present status quo, and the other is a
growth followed by a permanent plateau.
STATIC VIEW

• The static viewpoint is absurd. It would imply that even in a

time of extremely rapid change, we have only just reached
the pinnacle of the human experience.
• The static viewpoint would likewise entail a significant
reversal of many tendencies.
1. The world’s economy will be seven times richer than it is
now in 2050 if it grows at the same rate as it has over the
last fifty years.
2. In 2050, the world’s population is expected to reach over 9
billion, which would result in a sharp increase in average
wealth.
3. The world would also be nearly 50 times richer by 2100 than
it is today. The world’s current wealth may then be equal to
that of a single, small nation.
The time it takes the global economy to double throughout
human history has drastically decreased on various
occasions, including the timing during the Industrial
Revolution and the move from agriculture to industry. If such
a transformation takes place in this century, the global
economy may be many orders of magnitude larger by its
conclusion.
Another reason for giving static view a low probability is that
we may anticipate a number of specific technical
developments that will endow people with significant new
abilities.
4. Virtual reality environments will make a larger portion of our
experiences. The capabilities of recording, surveillance,
biometric, and data mining technologies will advance, making
it gradually possible to maintain tabs on people’s whereabouts,
interactions with others, activities, and internal processes.
5. Potential growth that would allow us to directly alter our
biology through technology means is among the most
significant. Interventions may have a more profound impact on
us than changes to our beliefs, habits, culture, or educations.
Healthy lifespan could be significantly increased if we can
learn to manage the metabolic mechanisms that lead to
human senescence. If scientists could create secure and
reliable techniques for regulating the brain circuity
responsible for subjective well-being, the ancient but largely
fruitless quest for happiness may succeed.
6. Drugs and other neuro technologies may eventually make it
possible for users to change their personalities, emotional
characteristics, cerebral energies, love attachments, and moral
character to become the kind of people they want to be. Our
intellectual life might be deeper with cognitive improvements.
7. Nanotechnology has had a wide range of effects on
computers, medicine, and industry.
8. Machine intelligence is additional potential revolutionary
technology.
9. Prediction markets may enhance human groups’ capacity to
predict future changes, and other institutional or technology
advancements may pave the way for novel human
organizational strategies that result in more successful
institutional innovations.
• It is difficult to forecast how these and other technology
advances will affect how people live their lives, but it seems
safe to assume that they will have these kinds of effects.
PREDICTION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• Good (1965). The concept of technological singularity that is

directly related to AI and stated:
“Let the definition of an ultra-intelligent computer be one that
can far exceed all the intellectual activity of any man, however
smart. One of these intellectual task is designing machines, so
an extremely intelligent machine could create even better
devices. This would undoubtedly cause an “intelligence
explosion,” leaving human intelligence far behind.
Therefore, the first ultra-intelligent machine is the last
innovation that man will ever need to create. It is more likely
than not that an ultra-intelligent machine will be constructed
within the 20th century.”
• In the Coming Technological Singularity, Vernor Vinge
developed the concept and modified Good’s forecast on
timing: “within thirty years, technology will allow us to
develop superhuman intelligence. The human age will come
to an end shortly after that.
TECHNOLOGY AND ITS USABILITY

• The future of technology will be defined by its simplicity, usability, and

relevance to demands of the future. Since 1900, technology has advanced
to the point where what formerly worked may now seem outdated. New
technologies emerge every year, and it is up to the users to grasp them
and learn how to apply them to their daily life.
• Technology has revolutionized how we communicate, travel, and socialize.
It also makes learning easier, has altered how we live, and has created a
wide range of opportunities. For those who are eager to learn how to use it
and make the most of it, future technology will open up additional options.
• Technology is good and has the potential to transform our society, but how
we utilize it will determine whether it is advantageous or not. Future
technologies must be designed to be user-friendly and to benefit people and
society. Future technology must be used by society with noble intentions.
• Designing and utilizing upcoming technology. Humans possess a special
capacity for picturing the unthinkable and coming up with novel ideas; it is
this ability that will define the kind of technology that will be used in the
future.
1. Computer technology future.
2. Next generation wearable computer is HOLO.
3. Watch technology upcoming.
4. The forthcoming of home technology.
5. The coming of classroom technology.
HOW TECHNOLOGY IS TRANSFORMING
THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

• The science fiction genre has imagined all kinds of ground-

breaking technologies, but reality is home to just as many
enthralling examples of advanced technology that is
transforming human’s everyday lives and may have an
impact on them in the future. Even while some of the new
innovations may best remain in science fiction, technology is
significantly altering how people experience life and enabling
them to do things that were before only possible in dreams.
1. Hearing colors/ Hearing at arm’s length.
2. Eye-camera/ smart contact lens/ eyeball jewelry implant.
3. Human compass.
4. Password pill.
5. Electronic throat tattoo.
6. Interaction with devices.
7. Robot atm/ controlling wheelchair.
8. Bionic limp.
9. Artificial vision system.
10.Terminator arm/ titan arm.
11.USB finger/ mind uploading.
THE NEW PANDORA’S BOX (TECHNOLOGY)

• We don’t seem to have paid much attention, yet the new

Pandora’s boxes of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics
are practically all open. Ideas can’t be put back in a box, they
don’t need to be mined and processed like uranium or
plutonium, and they can be freely duplicated. Once they
leave, they leave forever. The American people and its
leaders “invariably do the right things, after they have
examined every other alternative” Churchill observed in a
well-known left-handed compliment.
• To avoid losing the possibility to do the right thing at all, we
must behave more strategically in this situation. We do not
ride on the train; it rides upon us, as Thoreau once observed,
and it is this that we must combat in this day and age.
• According to Nick Bostrom (2004), there are four future
scenarios for the Humanity and Technology:
1. Spreading the timeframe of consideration may have the
least impact on the extinction scenario.
2. The longer the duration, the less plausible the recurrent
collapse scenario is, for reasons that are clear from the
graphics.
3. The degree of civilization is predicted to be constrained to a
restricted range in the case of plateau scenarios, and the
longer the timescale under consideration, the less likely it is
that the level of technological advancement will stay within
this range.
4. Like extinction, the overall likelihood of post humanity
rises monotonically with time.
POST-HUMANITY THEORY

• A definition oof the so-called “post human condition” is long

overdue. It refers to a condition that has at least one of the
following cgarateristics:
1. Population bigger than 1 trillion persons.
2. Larger than 500 years life expectancy.
3. Large fraction of the population has cognitive capacities
more than two standard deviations over the present human
maximum.
4. near-complete control over the sensory input, for the
majority of people for most of the time.
5. Human psychological suffer become rare occurrence.
6. Any change of magnitude or profundity comparable to that
of one of the above.
• Whether the transition was brought on by biological
augmentation or other reasons, post humanity is a
hypothesis or concept that is of an advanced level of
technical or economic progress that would require a drastic
change in the human state.
THE LONGER TERM

• The four families of scenarios we have considered –

extinction, repeated collapse, plateau, and post humanity –
could be managed by changing the time frame during which
they are thought to take place, the scenarios may already
have had enough time to develop over the course of a few
hundred or a few thousand years. Yet such a period pales in
comparison to the age of the cosmos.
MESSAGE TO HUMANITY

• It goes without saying that, like all other aspects of growth,

technical advancement is like a two-edged sword that, on
one side, has the potential to kill and, on the other, has the
potential to protect. However, it is up to each individual to
decide how to use it effectively and in the right context.
FIN.
PREPARED BY:
JERALD MOLLENO
CHRYSTYLL FAITH RAZO
JESSICA MANDANE