Myisha Nawar
Stephen Hawking recently told the BBC that most threats to humans, root from science and technology. He surmised that the 21st Century will be the most dangerous for humans because of the very progress we have made in science and technology. There’s irony for you. Experience lulls us into the sense that development in science and technology will contribute to human well-being. The goal of technology assessment is to move society to making conscious choices about which technologies to adopt and which to forego.
1. Self-Replicating change: This is easily the kind of technology that you can lose control of and, even if the machines created are not harmful or dangerous themselves, the quick consumption of resources in exponential replication could lead to the disintegration of your lab by a swarm of hungry nanobots.
2. Nanobot weaponry: We need to draw a line on the nano-tech being used for weaponry. They could be used to block sunlight, destroy resources, jam communications and restrict movement – all without putting a single toe on the ground.
3. Automated war drones: Humans may sometimes make decisions based on judgment, even during war. Automated war drones definitely sound tempting! A robot that can select a target, aim a gun and fire without the strings of human intervention attached to frees up a lot of manpower. But, who will stand up to take responsibility for their actions? No sense of moral judgment gives birth a form of a deadly force.
4. The Alcubierrie Warp drive: When you fire up a warp drive, high energy particles that occur throughout the universe get caught up in its warp field. This isn’t a problem for traveling, the issue is that stopping at any point will release the particles and could destroy whole star systems – possibly even generating black holes!
5. Virtual Prisons: Applying a rigorous course of rehabilitation in a matter of minutes would be enough to crack a person’s mind.
6. Gene sequencing for pathogens: Sequencing and altering the genomes of pathogens and then publishing the results could lead mankind into a lot of hot water. While the information is intended for noble use, there are those who can induce a lot of damage with the information.
7. Electronic telepathy using brain chips: This near-future technology will undoubtedly be rudimentary, but we would still have to consider the consequences of opening our brains up to the outside world. If another person can gain access to your brain to send a message, they can potentially get in there for more nefarious reasons.