Dystopia: A cyberpunk's world

Cycling through the news on technology, I often ask myself what lies ahead. Inevitably, I get to the conclusion that, at some point in the not so distant future, we are all going to reach a stage when we have to take a stand on where does the border between human and machine should be set.

(Image: Cottonbro Studio)

As we stand on the brink of the singularity and we watch the development of such tech as VR and the mindlink, looking at the day to day improvement of prosthetics and orthotics that promise to make us more and more compatible with the implement of machine parts. As we face the reality of the integration of digital parts such as batteries and microchips by surgical means in order to treat conditions and diseases that would have no better solution otherwise. And, as we dwelve into the manipulation of our bodies hormonal balances or the solution to certain forms of visual and earing impairments through the interaction of technological solutions with our glands, nerves and muscles, we are faced with a new reality. We are bordering the transition to a new world. One where we will be able to enhance our capabilities and extend our life span through cybernetics.

I passed the age of fifty now, and I can remember a time when all of these new wonders were no more than science-fiction. As I grew up, we had black and white TV's and barely any phones, and they were based on valves and electric analog circuitry. Cyborgs and personal computers were the stuff of novels by P. K. Dick, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. And I lived through the novelty of the ZX Spectrum, the first Apple and IBM PC's. In short notice, there came mobile phones and plasma screens and all kinds of digital solutions and I find myself with no doubt at all that the road that lies ahead is bringing us closer and closer to the worlds imagined by those authors.

The danger, as I see it, is imposed on us by the fact that we are bordering on a whole new world while a huge proportion of mankind is neither aware of, nor has the means to be a part of it. We border on this new world while there are still unsurpassable gaps in education, income and opportunities between a small proportion of previledged ones that will be able to benefit fully from this transition and a wide number of unpreviledged ones who will, most assuredly, fall victims to our society's neverending capacity to make the weak turn into fodder for the benefit of a few. We can already see the shape of things to come in the walled off high tech cities of China, that deny access to the ones that were unlucky enough to be born on the outside.

As we get ever nearer and nearer to this possible technocratic revolution, we are demanded to reflect, discuss and offer our ideas into the mix, and we need to bring this matter to as wide a debate as possible, under penalty of, one day, waking up and finding out that there is nothing more to be done about it. Then, we will be living in a world over which we have no power and over which we had no say, and that is very scary.

My mission statement, as I start my being part of the Steemit community, is to launch my ideas about this subject in this platform and put them into debate. I want to hear from my fellow stemians, discuss and reach some common ground on matters of ethics, values and morals for this world to come. I want to find people that want to make a difference, by thinking and talking about matters that should interest all of us and that are being subtly let out of public debate and democratic scrutiny. I hope you join me on this task to not go blindly into a future that seems certain but can be made a bit better if we don't let it slip into the exclusive domain of corporate meetings and shareholders assemblies.

Do you find this theme important? What are your ideas about it?

11.01.25 - @hefestus