QUO VADIS, HUMANKIND?

Human progress occurs via revolutions in thought: Clay tablets were supplanted by papyrus, sheepskin scrolls by bound books, illuminated manuscripts by Gutenberg type, and now we have the digital script.

Each revolution has been (technologically) for the better.

Innovative visionaries have always believed that we have within us more resources of energy than have ever been tapped, more talent than has ever been exploited, more strength than has ever been tested, and more to give than we have ever given.

Yet, consider these words:

“We have made our way from worm to man, but much of us is still worm.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Worms inhabiting an “electronic ecology.”

The biomolecular revolution promises to give us a genetic description of all living things, offering us the possibility of becoming choreographers of life on earth, and possibly, in space too.

The digital revolution suggests computing capabilities that are virtually free and unlimited, placing artificial intelligence within reach.

And the quantum revolution offers new materials, new energy sources, and perhaps the ability to create new forms of matter.

The genie cannot be put back into the bottle.

Physicists such as Michio Kaku ponder on some of our deepest questions that concern the fabric of space and time, such as whether space can be torn, whether time can be reversed, and how the universe was born and will eventually die. The study of space-time may ultimately answer one of the most intriguing questions about the future; the final destiny of all intelligent life in the universe.

Yet, does all this technological advancement imbue us with a sense of deep and enduring self-worth? Or are we so far removed from our humanity that only a dim memory of our planet will survive, like an insect congealed in amber?






[Excerpted from the 'Leadership, Learning & Laughter' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]