Ahead of Our Time

Will the knowledge of advanced, unforeseeable technology be able to enable us to "reach for the stars" and boost our understanding to a new level? Many of us have imagined a scenario where we would have the knowledge of a currently unforeseeable piece of technology and the knowledge of how to create it. In our scenarios we would be able to use that to gain vast wealth, or change the world, or even reach enlightenment. But in reality it would just be a piece of technology that would be so far ahead of our time that we would not even have the resources to create or more importantly, maintain it. Or would it be so advanced that it would self sustain?

Problems of privacy, moral implications of advancing technology, etc arises from this thought. But it also raises an interesting question in that will technology eventually outpace or even replace the "human role"? In Bush's article he writes about how in the foreseeable future there could be libraries or encyclopedia systems that could search results associatively. One thought could lead to another but then could lead to entirely different subjects based on related searches. Yes today we have similar, although "primitive" versions of said machine (memex) such as Wikipedia and targeted marketing advertisements on Google for example. But Bush's idea goes far beyond that of Wikipedia, into the realm of automatic association and the ability to create relevant information of every possible "route" a search could take. In Bush's article he  mentions that we need to use technology to "encompass the great record and to grow in the wisdom of race experience", to record our histories and pasts so that we may better and further ourselves (Bush). Now imagine that this can be done without the need for a human to physically search something. For example a machine could diagnose, search and prescribe the best possible treatment a sick patient on its own using its expansive database of information and any relevant information. The human role would stop there as it is more precise, and faster than any human could do at the same scenario.

An article by Steve Lohr mentions the idea of the actual technology being able to replace the need for human intervention. If machines are able to do it faster without "human error", why not let it. It is already happening today. Google Map's mapping system has "robot-driven cars (has)...logged thousands of miles on American roads with only an occasional assist from human-back seat drivers" (Lohr). If we look back at history we can clearly see that since the Industrial Revolution our advancement in technology has been in an exponential curve, especially after the dawn of the 21st century. It was and STILL is at an extreme exponential growth with every passing day.

Will we one day be outpaced by our constant strive for more knowledge and burning desire for better technology?

Lohr, Steve. "Technology Advancements Outpacing Human Role?" Technology Advancements Outpacing Human Role? N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Sept. 2012. <http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/technology-advancements-outpacing-human-role/453591/>.