Nature Plus Technology
People who think that they are not particularly knowledgeable about technology actually are
to the extent that they are living it. When you upgrade to a Blackberry, you are increasing
your connectedness. When you Google something and find new information, you are
becoming “smarter” because you have access to information you didn’t have before.
Some blind people are receiving electronic retinas connected to their brains so that they can
see. Doctors are implanting a computers in patient's brains to alleviate the symptoms of
Parkinson’s disease. The before and after videos are astounding. I know people with cochlea
implants and heart pacemakers are common. There is absolutely no doubt that we are
connecting computers with people and sooner or later, the option of having oneself connected
electronically to the Internet will be quite common. There are blogs where people are already
calling it unfair that rich people will get connected and poor people will not be able to afford
the cost of surgery. To these people, it is obvious that it will happen and a given that it should
happen. The only question is “will it be fair to those who cannot afford it?”
I picture people walking down the street past a AT&T store which offers brain-upgrade
phones. Picture that a couple named Sue and Tom are only 20-something and are married to
each other. These young people walk in just to see what is going on and they both decide not
to get an upgrade. Salesman wags his head and calls us stupid under his breath. But what if
a couple both get Parkinson’s disease and the computer device that they insert is the new one
that is monitored by the doctor’s computer? To do the monitoring, both people now have
computers in their brains which give feedback information to the doctors using the cell phone
network. This is not strange, they have pacemakers which give information back to the
doctors now.
But now when this couple walks by the AT&T store, all they have to do is to “sign up” because
the operation connecting them to the Internet via the cell phone network has already been
performed. The “upgrade” would be as easy as it was for anybody to “upgrade to a
Blackberry”. At that point in time, the man may decide to sign up and the wife may decide not
to.
Now the plot thickens. The connected member of the couple will grow to feel like his
connection to the Internet is “part of me”. We know this will happen because of studies that
have been conducted on humans which receive cochlea implants, etc. What will happen to
the relationship between two people when one is connected and the other one isn’t?
Next
People who think that they are not particularly knowledgeable about technology actually are
to the extent that they are living it. When you upgrade to a Blackberry, you are increasing
your connectedness. When you Google something and find new information, you are
becoming “smarter” because you have access to information you didn’t have before.
Some blind people are receiving electronic retinas connected to their brains so that they can
see. Doctors are implanting a computers in patient's brains to alleviate the symptoms of
Parkinson’s disease. The before and after videos are astounding. I know people with cochlea
implants and heart pacemakers are common. There is absolutely no doubt that we are
connecting computers with people and sooner or later, the option of having oneself connected
electronically to the Internet will be quite common. There are blogs where people are already
calling it unfair that rich people will get connected and poor people will not be able to afford
the cost of surgery. To these people, it is obvious that it will happen and a given that it should
happen. The only question is “will it be fair to those who cannot afford it?”
I picture people walking down the street past a AT&T store which offers brain-upgrade
phones. Picture that a couple named Sue and Tom are only 20-something and are married to
each other. These young people walk in just to see what is going on and they both decide not
to get an upgrade. Salesman wags his head and calls us stupid under his breath. But what if
a couple both get Parkinson’s disease and the computer device that they insert is the new one
that is monitored by the doctor’s computer? To do the monitoring, both people now have
computers in their brains which give feedback information to the doctors using the cell phone
network. This is not strange, they have pacemakers which give information back to the
doctors now.
But now when this couple walks by the AT&T store, all they have to do is to “sign up” because
the operation connecting them to the Internet via the cell phone network has already been
performed. The “upgrade” would be as easy as it was for anybody to “upgrade to a
Blackberry”. At that point in time, the man may decide to sign up and the wife may decide not
to.
Now the plot thickens. The connected member of the couple will grow to feel like his
connection to the Internet is “part of me”. We know this will happen because of studies that
have been conducted on humans which receive cochlea implants, etc. What will happen to
the relationship between two people when one is connected and the other one isn’t?
Next
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