Project Vision 21

A few decades ago, looking at the telephone of that time, and then at the radio, the television, the camera, the video recorder, the maps, the flashlight, and many other artifacts I could never, not even in a moment of high imagination, anticipate that some One day all these devices would be merged into what we today call a smartphone.

But now, with that previous experience of seeing how a single device or artifact emerges from different technologies, now we can and must ask ourselves what will emerge once quantum computing, neurological computers, artificial intelligence, new forms of energy, robotics, and other advanced technologies merge into a single “reality.”

Everything points, first of all, to the arrival of an almost immortal synthetic human, with physical, mental, and cognitive capacities and abilities unthinkable and unthinkable for us, mere biological humans, mortal and certainly limited and finite.

In other words, just as the disparate elements mentioned above have merged into smartphones, so too will the disparate elements of new technologies (dare we suggest) also merge, but no longer into something so small that we can carry it in our hands. hand, but in something so big, possibly on a planetary level, that we will no longer be able to understand.

Certainly, I am not talking about science fiction or conspiracy theories, but about a careful and constant reading of scientific reports and articles, published by serious, respected, and verifiable sources, which would indicate that this process of emergence of new entities never seen before in the known history of humanity they are already emerging.

Again: it's not science fiction. The global network of supercomputers is already underway. Artificial intelligence capable of anticipating the actions of human beings (and even correcting them before they act) is already a reality. Prototypes of artificial brains have already been developed. Synthetic skin and muscles have been in development for years. And that list could be expanded almost indefinitely.

So, what is emerging? And another question: how prepared are we to respond to whatever emerges from the union of technologies that, as Arthur C. Clarke said, already seem indistinguishable from magic?

The arrival of synthetic humans and super-intelligent robots will mean coexisting with non-human intelligent entities (although not necessarily people). How will this unprecedented situation affect our brains, our hearts and even our decisions? I mean, we can barely live among ourselves, how are we going to interact with the new thinking beings?

But this new reality includes another perspective, that of “them.” How will synthetic humans and super-intelligent robots treat us? Because, although they are the result of our experiments, we will be able to do little and nothing to stop them if, as anticipated, in each of them all the technologies already available but still separated are merged.

And even if none of the above happens eventually, the exercise of thinking about it and anticipating it is valuable in itself because it serves as an exercise to prepare ourselves for a future we cannot anticipate.