Business insider published a provocative article suggesting a transition to come where our devices will progress from being detached to wearable, and eventually to implanted. Elon Musk just launched Neuralink, a company seeking to develop a neural lace that could upload our thoughts. Sweedish startup Epicenter is now implanting microchips in their employees to act as cards so they can open doors and pay for a smoothie. Can this be the beginning of a whole new industry that wants to shape us into cyborgs?
This is not scientific fiction anymore but part of a near future. Technology is basically the outgrowth of humanity’s desire to create tools. Tools are extensions of our bodies so we can perform tasks more proficiently. Yet, these technologies are taking tools to a different level: they are no longer extensions but would become actual parts of our bodies. This is clearly a new frontier we have scarcely considered.
As business titans imagine this cyborg scenario, the question I want to ask is who gets to decide our future? Just look at how our lives now are shaped by the gadgets that surround us. Are ready to accept them as part of our bodies? In a vacuum of vision, the future belongs to the few who dare imagine it now. Maybe it is time we step into these conversations and start imagining alternative futures.
Are you ready to imagine?
