The Frightening Future of Technology

For my New Communication Technologies class, we read an article called, "Mind Control and the Internet" by Sue Halpern, which is a discussion about the not-so-far-away technology of biochips, or in other words, putting a computer in our brains so that at any moment any information you could find searching the internet would be available in your brain. When I first started reading this article, I thought how ridiculous this all sounds, but if I were to read something 30 years ago that said I would someday hold a pocket-sized computer in my hands with more computing power than NASA had getting to the moon, I would have been skeptical too. This technology is very possible and is on its way.

I do appreciate this technology for the medical aspects. It is discussed in the article that work being done at Brown and Washington University suggests the possibility of restoring mobility to those who are paralyzed and giving voice to those who have been robbed by illness or injury of the ability to communicate, which is amazing. Time Magazine published an article in 2005, saying "Applied Digital Solutions won FDA approval last year for what it bills as the "world's first human implantable microchip." A radio-frequency identification (RFID) transponder the size of a grain of rice, the VeriChip contains a 16-digit personal ID number that can be scanned like a bar code, providing health-care workers access to your medical records online." The possibilities are endless.


However, in class we discussed the ethical dilemmas of this new technology. I brought up the point of, if we would hold all the information in the world in our heads, why would anyone go to school? School is also the place where we learn our social skills at a young age. It was also brought up that if we became these cyborgs, we might lose some of our very human emotions. I don't know about you but I'm picturing these emotionless anti-social yet super smart zombies walking around.

To go further, if everyone was able to access any information they wanted and potentially become an expert in all areas, couldn't anyone be a doctor? Or a rocket scientist? Or a professional athlete? Skills wouldn't seem special anymore because everyone would have them. We also might lose our creativity and originality. What would the world be like then? I'm very curious to see how this plays out and it is amazing that I will even have the opportunity to.


Halpern, Sue (2011) 'Mind Control & the Internet', New York Review of Books, June 23.

Fonda, Daren (2005) 'Biochips for Everyone!', Time Magazine, November 9 <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118348,00.html>.