Decoding Future

Even wondered what the future looks like? Barely 20 years back, there wasn’t a device we knew that can call people physically far away from us. Now, that device is very much a necessity in our lives – smartphones. Smartphones have perforated through different classes in the society, irrespective of the economic status one has. Televisions have improved from a CRT to a plasma to an LCD to an LED and now what – a true HD? There was a huge gap between a desktop PC and a smartphone few years back, which is now crowded with ultra-thin laptops, palmtops, PDAs, Tablets and even large screen smartphones!

So, what’s next now? Can we have a smartphone that’s smart enough to decipher our mood using some signals that pass from our fingers to the phones when we touch the device and react accordingly? Just for discussions’ sake, imagine you are frustrated and you decide to fiddle with your smartphone, your smartphone senses it and suggests that you need to freshen up or else you can mess up your day by taking fighting with someone you care for or do something professionally that you will live to regret for the rest of your lives. Or imagine you are super-excited, your smartphones picks up your mood and suggest that you use your social media apps to share your happiness with your social world. 

Smartphones have advanced to such a level that it can analyse your health status accurately. I don’t think we are far away from a situation where your smartphone can act like your true friend in more ways than one. The problem comes when we take this “relationship” too far (something that I explored in this post). Recently, I watched two movies that address and explore similar ideas. I watched “Lucy” (review – movie’s OK, nothing great though) and “Transcendence” (review – movie’s OK, better than Lucy, worth watching once). 

“Lucy” explored the situation where we utilize more than the estimated 10% of our brain. There are theories that say we can be closer to the Almighty once we start utilizing more than, say, 80%, of our brain. These are theories though and are given based on certain assumptions / postulation. Movie shows a person can multitask at the rate of knots, control other people the way they want to or even (hold thy breath) travel across time and be a living testimony of the theory of evolution! Yeah they stretched it too far. But then, did they?

I saw “Transcendence” primarily for Johnny Depp and Christopher Nolan (producer). The movie has 2 areas which can either fascinate you or intimidate you NOT to watch the movie. One – uploading the conscience of a person onto a system and two – rapid regeneration of human organs and if I stretch it a little bit more, regeneration of a dead human! The movie smartly shows technology healing humans almost immediately, giving sight to a blind person, resurrection of the dead (ring any bells? clue – Bible). Man almost became God in this movie. Too stretched without rational reasoning, I feel. You start by supporting the research on artificial intelligence and end up going against the same. I, for one, don’t want man to take God’s place. 

But can all this really be a possibility in about 100+ years’ time? Technology is changing from being a boon to a bane. Technology has provided us with an efficient and a cost-effective way to provide electricity to all corners of the world – nuclear technology. But the same has provided us with deadly bombs that can not only kill the current generation but handicap with next generation as well! Make no mistake about it, we are in for exciting times! We will see more innovations that our previous generation but will also bear witness to more destruction.

Future is being decoded in two ways – beneficial and destructive. The side that wins this battle will decide the way forward / backward, whichever way you look at it.