Though it is fashionable to say the internet is making us stupid , futuristJamais Casciojust publish an article inThe Atlanticrefuting that idea . In fact , he call up computer networks and biotech are an evolutionary response to global crisis .
Cascio ’s basic premise is this :
Here ’s an affirmative scenario for you : if the next several decade are as spoilt as some of us fear they could be , we can respond , and survive , the elbow room our mintage has done time and again : by set out smart . But this sentence , we do n’t have to rely alone on natural evolutionary processes to boost our intelligence information . We can do it ourselves .
Most people do n’t realize that this process is already under direction . In fact , it ’s come about all around us , across the full spectrum of how we read intelligence . It ’s seeable in the hive mind of the Internet , in the powerful tool for feigning and visualization that are jump - commence new scientific disciplines , and in the ontogeny of drugs that some multitude ( myself include ) have discovered let them study hard , focus better , and stay awake longer with full clarity . . . And advances over the next few decades , driven by discovery in transmitted engineering and stilted intelligence , will make today ’s engineering seem crude . . .
Scientists refer to the 12,000 years or so since the last water ice age as the Holocene epoch . It encompasses the procession of human civilization and our co - organic evolution with tools and engineering science that tolerate us to grip with our strong-arm environment . But if intelligence augmentation has the variety of impact I await , we may presently have to start thinking of ourselves as living in an entirely new era . The focussing of our technical evolution would be less on how we manage and adapt to our physical globe , and more on how we manage and adapt to the Brobdingnagian amount of knowledge we ’ve created . We can call it the Nöocene date of reference , from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ’s conception of the Nöosphere , a corporate cognisance created by the deepening interaction of human minds .
you’re able to read the whole clause inThe Atlantic .
Futurism
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