March 15, 2000
Humanity’s extinction? - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- The other day, my History 12 teacher posed an article from the Vancouver Sun, (which was a reprint from The Washington Post) that outlined Bill Joy’s prediction that technology would somehow spell the end of humanity generations from now. Joy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, recently wrote a provocative article in Web magazine saying advancements in the field of technology will eventually lead to the downfall of society.
It is true that too much of anything is bad. That can be said of chocolate, but the man does have a point. If computers will be “a million” times more advanced than they are now, their possibilities will be endless, I’d assume. So instead of beaming me into websites or something like that, the computer will probably do something unforeseeable at this moment.
I think computers have made some interesting and useful contributions to mankind. There are still possibilities to behold, but the story so far, seems okay. But, the key word is the future. Frankly, it baffles me; perhaps it scares me.
The one thing that’s been bobbing its head amongst society in recent years, is the furor (or lack thereof) over genetically-altered food. Sure it’s neat to have an apple the size of Gibraltar, but it’s rather worrying to think what it took to blow it up to that size. The modification of the food has been done through the tinkering with genetic code and stuff of the sort (I am not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV). What I have a problem with is the fact we don’t know if we are eating genetically altered food or not. We have already, and that’s the problem. You may not know it, but anything you’ve bought from the supermarket, be it fruit or vegetable has been genetically altered. There are no labels. There are no signs. People buy stuff all the time, not really knowing we’re being used to test the damned stuff. We are the guinea pigs, and we don’t even know about it. Perhaps here is the beginning of the end?
Bill Joy may have some substance behind his quarrel. It’s an interesting and one to think about. If we can do this, what can a computer do? A computer that has no conscious, or will it? A machine with no feeling for humanity, or will it?
If you’re apathetic like most you won’t give a damn until you’ve been affected or someone close to you has. There’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe there is, but we don’t know yet.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .