Its quite evident that we are facing huge amount of technological disruption. The pace of change has gone to such a level that no one can make sense of what is happening around the world. More and more money is being put in R&D and pace of change is accelerating every day , everybody wants to get there first.
Although this rapid advancement in technology has huge potential , we humans are not very farsighted , because we don’t have the tools to forecast the implications of something deep down the line. Nonethless nobody can risk it, they have to get there first.
Everyday Facebook , Youtube , Netflix etc are collecting tons of data, and they are beginning to understand what triggers us. Social media seems free , but obviously its not, you are not only paying with your time but most importantly your attention.They know exactly where your attention is. These companies have collected huge amounts of data , with our advances in computing power they possess the ability to hack our minds and even influence us, however they like.Its already happening. Maybe Free will is not so free after all. So its really necessary to devise a plan to regulate this huge amount of data we are producing everyday, before freedom of thought is a thing of past. Sounds like a nice problem to solve.
As we couple the psychological data with bio-metric data, we will revolutionize the medical services. We can be monitoring our bodies real time and for the first time can really see how something affects us. It may be possible when programmable nanobots live inside us and monitor each and every moment inside us. But again there is this problem for regulation of data, who owns this data and we cant even imagine what might happen if this very very private data comes in wrong hands, or how will insurance work in such a scenario 😅.
We as a civilization must acknowledge this fact and start thinking of possible solutions , because once we are past a certain point there is no turning back. What we decide today will shape our future and we should definitely be interested. Technology has a very huge potential and hope we achieve it with minimum casualties, minimizing disruption. We are definitely living in exiting times, this all may be obvious to you but what matters is to acknowledge it consciously. Lets bring these discussions to the table wherever we are.
P.S. - In 1950s people were thinking about nuclear war, but nobody could foresee internet, so it is possible that what we think today might never materialize, but we must make sure whatever materializes we are in control of it.