Social Media
Social media has reduced human interaction significantly in the past few years. So many of us boast to have friends numbering in the hundreds and thousands, some even in the millions. It can be exciting to claim to have all these so called friends but it has not made us any more friendly or compassionate towards each other. As a child I spent so much time outdoors playing with my friends, it seemed like the best of times. These days children play with there friends who live next door by logging on to a web based multi-player game. While this may demonstrate humanity's intelligence and creativity, it also gives you some insight into what the future is likely to become, where we no longer have any real conclusive idea what the person we call friend looks like, or even if that friend is even human.
Interactive Games and Movies
We are limited only by our imagination. I no longer watch movies for just the entertainment value it offers. I now use them as a window into the minds of people. If the mind can conceive it, you can achieve it. No where else is this more evident than in the movies. Hollywood seems to be the trend setter and architect for many of the technology we use and enjoy today. Star Trek gives us a look at what may be possible at some point in the future. Creating games and movies, so interactive, that you become a part of the cast.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The Matrix is one of my all-time favourite movies. The idea of us being in a dream world from which we may not awake, living oblivious to the nature of our actual existence was bordering on the ridiculous at the time, that concept however, doesn't seem so far fetched anymore. AI seems a very real prospect for replacing humans as social beings. While I don't think our fate would be as dyer as for those in The Matrix, I do believe that it will only serve to further erode the already thin fabric that still holds us together.
Technology has made it possible to do things that we never thought possible. The breakthroughs will continue to take place. We will continue to push the boundaries of science, we will continue to learn, some good lessons, some bad ones too. But in all of this race to the stars and beyond, we must never forget our humanity, people will always need people. There is just no substitute.
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