The Future of Humanity Driven by Science and Technology;

As changes are inevitable and so is the advancement in life that Sci-Tech can bring as it continuous to enrich and flourish our life.

In one sense, humanity's future includes everything that will ever happen to any human being, including what you'll eat for breakfast next Wednesday and all of the scientific breakthroughs that will be made next year. In that respect, it is difficult to consider the future of mankind as a topic, since it is more difficult to speculate on what will happen with the constant movement of science and technology around us. A discussion regarding humanity's future focuses on how crucial fundamental aspects of the human experience may change or remain constant in the long term. There may be valid arguments on this, but some characteristics meet practically any threshold. For instance, whether and when Earth-originating life will become extinct, whether it will colonize the galaxy, whether human biology will be fundamentally transformed to make us posthuman, whether machine intelligence will surpass biological intelligence, whether population size will explode, and whether quality of life will radically improve or deteriorate: all of these are critical fundamental questions about humanity's future. The future has frequently acted as a projection screen for our aspirations and concerns, or as a stage setting for dramatic entertainment, morality tales, or satire of present society's inclinations, or as a flag for ideological mobilization. When there is nothing wrong with exploiting the symbolic and literary affordances of an unknown future with science, just as there is nothing wrong with fantasizing about imaginary countries populated by dragons and wizards, it is relatively rare for humanity's future to be taken seriously as a subject on which it is important to try to have factually correct beliefs.

Most distinctions between our lives and those of our hunter-gatherer forefathers may be traced back to science and technology, particularly if we define "technology" broadly to encompass not just gadgets and equipment but also skills, processes, and institutions. Modern science and technology have had and continue to have a profound influence on human existence and society. While technology characterizes today's "digital era," discourse of "technological development" may dominate conversations of tomorrow. Science and technology is one of the primary driving factors of the future; it is affecting our lives and molding our future at unparalleled rates in history, with far-reaching consequences that we cannot even begin to perceive or comprehend. Meanwhile, predicting the 'real future' and figuring out how to do it well is a field in and of itself, just as experts within and outside specific science and technological fields project a wide range of predictions for the coming decades. Of course, we humans are curious and fearful about what will happen to us in the future.

Technology is expected to take us anywhere between human extinction and planet-sized self-aware computers within a century, with more conservative projections predicting a "third industrial revolution" by 2030. Understandably, aspirations and worries about technology may dominate images of the future for our present generation, particularly the young, because the future is really terrifying. The terrifying future is creeping up on us, and we have no choice except to embrace and prepare for the tremendous challenges that these forecasted changes may bring. We must remember that if we are to truly accept this knowledge and technology, we must restore it to its proper role in society. It has to be recognized as the foundation upon which we build economic, technological and societal progress. To do so, we must recognize the issues that have undermined its standing and offer solutions that begin to turn the tide.

Just as science and technology were the cornerstone of great advances of the past, so it will be fundamental to meeting the societal and environmental challenges of tomorrow. But if we are to embrace the vast prospects that science and technology provide, then we better buckle our seatbelts well, because we are about to experience the extreme take off of our lives driven by science and technology.

Author: Lance Brandon Ashlee A. Lanceras

2023, January 15

"CLN Katmon"