Technological Singularity: Impacts on Humans in 2020 - Essay Sample

Introduction

Ray Kurzweil, in his work, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, outlines that technological singularity is inevitable soon. What are the real threats and implications to humans in terms of social, economic, psychological and health resulting from a technological singularity? We are in 2020, 25 years before the baseline for his argument yet the effect of technology is actively taking place in our lives. Although technological advancement has been beneficial to humans, it has numerous adverse consequences. Some of the impacts of technology include loss of social connection. Although technology connects people from different parts of the world through the global village, it is possible to have families where members rarely talk to each other since everyone concentrates on their computers, smartphones or television (Brown, & Duguid, 2017). Moral decay is on high rise since the regulation of content is low.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Nevertheless, technology advancement brings about loss of employment as most of the work that was initially under various people require only a few with the help of machines (Evangelista, 2018). Unemployment is rising rapidly. Research conducted on the cases of an increase in diseases such as cancer in the developing and developed nations indicates that examples are low in developing countries while they are high in developed nations relying heavily on technology. Studies on the connection between technology and the rapid increase in cases of cancer are still ongoing, but it is evident that there is a relationship (Rebbeck, 2020). Therefore, the technological singularity will change life on earth. Human beings need to be ready for a bumpy ride with technological advancement shortly.

Response to Classmate 1

The idea of focusing on the safety concerns resulting from the encroaching technological advancement is intriguing. The safety of humanity is paramount as far as technological singularity is concerned. The effects of technology on human endeavors are already eminent. People are already suffering from technological development. However, addressing the issue basing results on fiction movies such as iRobot leads to misleading results.

Response to Classmate 2

Analyzing technological singularity based on external or governing forces offer relevant governors on the rate with which technology changes and advances. These two aspects are essential in the scale and effect of technology on humanity. However, religion and laws are under the control of humans. This means that changes in the law and religious beliefs can take place anytime. Therefore, the two alone are not enough in checking the rate and effect of technological singularity.

References

Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (2017). The social life of information: Updated with a new preface. Harvard Business Review Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dynuDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=effect+of+technology+on+social+life&ots=2z2SLkOkCS&sig=YN5xVBp9qHs0hKFebBdYOE392OM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=effect%20of%20technology%20on%20social%20life&f=false

Evangelista, R. (2018). Technology and economic development: The Schumpeterian legacy. Review of Radical Political Economics, 50(1), 136-153. DOI: 10.1177/0486613416666565

Rebbeck, T. R. (2020). Cancer in sub-Saharan Africa. Science, 367(6473), 27-28. DOI: 10.1126/science.aay4743