Automation Marches On

Automation marches on and has brought us to the point of no return. To be alive today is to be the beneficiary of key periods of technological growth and its distillation – automation.

First came the automation of the physical realm through water, steam, wind and electrical power. Objects that had been handled (literally)by humans were now handled (so to speak) by the mechanical application of energy, Then we decided that the real power lay in automating our very thoughts, and voila, Boolean algebra is used to build machines that can help us optimize our thoughts and apply our thinking processes to machines. What’s next…apps for our very existence? Our souls?

Segue to driverless cars, smartphones, pint-sized plastic cylinders that translate our wishes and commands into front lawn lights turned on while we’re still miles from home and emails sent without our having to touch a keyboard – it does seem as if we’re living in a golden age of technology. Have we failed to see the true, best promise of computers and Boolean algebra? Yes, life on earth has already been transformed in just one generation by the digital revolution and an ever-increasing rate of technological change is a given at this point. Artificial intelligence is barely out of the womb, and we expect robots and robotics to change the face of employment in our lifetimes.

Withal is there still something more, something outlandish, something much more personal – even something  theological? Can we expect a New Age which, as Albert Einstein said, we are woefully unprepared for?!?  Is the promise of computing and all things digital just a new and more exciting chapter in human evolution? Are we going to turn ourselves into machines at this point, into cyborgs who can go for centuries without that proverbial “30,000 mile checkup?”  Is there something even greater to be hoped for; something that will fulfill not only the practical yearnings of humanity but our spiritual yearnings as well? Do cloud computing, wireless technology and the rapidly evolving state of artificial intelligence also promise us something existential, something that will help us to escape from our imprisonment in the randomness of it all and will bring us a big step closer to seeing ourselves as crew members on the Starship Enterprise?