What Freedoms Will We Even Have in a Technological Future?

Have you ever wondered where we’re going? What’s in store for us when technology becomes an inevitable constant in all aspects of human life, and how will society change? Will it become something devoid of morals, as portrayed by recent sci-fi media like The Outer Worlds? What’s stopping technology from becoming something we can no longer control? I often think about futuristic concepts and the different technologies that might be available even in 20 years. I wonder: “how will those technologies affect our lives, and how could they be used to benefit us?”

David Gelernter, a computer scientist targeted by the Unabomber in 1993, says in his manifesto: “we don't believe in technological change (we only say we do), we accept bad computer products with a shrug … instead of demanding that they be fixed and changed.” What Gelernter points out here is that companies aren’t held accountable as much as they should be over low quality products. The potential for profits vastly outweighs the need for quality in the eyes of many companies, and this truth hasn’t changed, even decades after the publication of his manifesto.

It’s hard to tell what will happen in the future, considering how much power corporations currently have, and seeing politicians take donations from those companies, leading to even fewer freedoms for consumers. I personally believe that everything will be okay, that our future is hopeful and won’t eventually lead to a boring, dystopian society. In the vein of a hopeful future, the concept that caught my attention in Gelernter’s manifesto is his "cybersphere" prediction. This manifesto was written at the turn of the century in 1999, yet Gelernter developed this idea that technology would be integrated into nearly every part of our lives. The idea that the internet will evolve into a cybersphere is probably the closest thing we’ll have to a hopeful technological future. A future where technology is used for everything in our lives, while staying simple enough to not be influenced would make such technology an incredible tool for our benefit.

Self-aware terminators are unlikely, please relax

If Gelernter’s idea of the cybersphere does come to fruition, I doubt we have anything to worry about. Sure, the premise of rouge singularities leading to bloodthirsty robots is a possibility, but that hypothetical would have to be created and programmed by someone. Even then, whatever the cybersphere is would have failsafe’s and firewalls to prevent such an influence from taking hold. Gelernter does have some ideas in his manifesto that are infeasible, such as his concept of a decentralized internet, where websites are only as large as the current userbase. Despite that, he does have some incredible ideas, and did catch my attention with most of his points. His third point also caught my attention, where he says that “Everything will change.” and I agree with him. I’ve had this idea in my head for as long as I can remember, and it’s a phrase that I’m trying to live by: “I want to see the world move forward.” Until technology is no longer a luxury, we’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds.