As technology continues to advance at an exponential rate it is clear the future holds many new technological advances which will drastically change society, the economy and politics. A potential advancement which undoubtedly will be utilized in the future is the merger between man and machine. (Titley, 2009) While the use of artificial limbs and organs are currently used solely for medical purposes, as the technology surrounding this market improves it is inevitable that eventually certain components will start to supersede the biological body part they are intended to replace (Trivedi and others, 2008). One such technology could be the integration of online content and access via optical implants. Essentially this technology would be a further advancement of mobile phone technology which has experienced significant growth over the last five years.
Such a technology would allow an individual to be connected online and navigate through the internet via an optical implant creating a viewable screen on the surface of their eye which the user could navigate through eye movements or voice control. The effects of such a technology would be a dramatic leap forward in both the integration between man and machine as well as cause a great social change insofar as everyone would constantly be contactable and online. To better understand some of the ramifications of such a technology the following section will explore this future technology in terms of its effect on society, the economy and the political domain (also see diagram below).
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"Man and Machine".
First the social ramifications have both pros and cons to the development of such a technology. One of the most negative aspects is the potential that such a technology could dramatically intrude on the privacy of an individual as it could detail there location, interests and even what they are looking at. On the other hand such a technology would further allow instant access to current events and a wealth of information as well as providing a closer online society much as face book and other social media sites do in today’s world.
The economic ramifications of such a technology would create a whole new market where companies could directly sell to clients much more efficiently then current e-commerce technology. Furthermore there would be a large marketing opportunity as having instant access to the population would allow a greater level of accuracy when it comes to market trends and consumer opinion.
From a political standpoint this technology could greatly increase democratic principles as it would be relatively easy to judge public opinion on certain issues instantly. Furthermore the information such technology could provide would be invaluable in terms of voting and gathering census information as access to the entire public would be instant.
- Deepak Trivedi, Christopher D. Rahn, William M. Kier, Ian D. Walker. (2008) Soft robotics: Biological inspiration, state of the art, and future research. Applied Bionics and Biomechanics. Vol. 5, Iss. 3.
- Titley, C. (2009) We have the Technology. Engineering & Technology, Volume 4, Issue 15, 12 September pp. 22 – 25
