Bryan Murphy's Blog - Posts Tagged "technology"

When you write science fiction, you tend to extrapolate current trends to picture the future. If you write social science fiction, you will look keenly at cultural trends. Last night, the BBC (which is watchable because they are prevented by statute from bombarding you into submission with commercials every few minutes) provided a neat juxtaposition of one aspect of culture, popular music, 50 years ago and today. What struck me most was the change in the clothing of the musicians. The men in “Sounds of the Sixties” were seen as alpha males at the time, but they'd only dress so flamboyantly these days if they were striving for recognition as gay icons. And almost every part of their body was clothed. On next was the Reading Festival, where the headliners were all stripped to the waist. So how about 2066? Will the disrobing have continued, perhaps to the point of musicians of all sexes appearing starkers except for high-tech tattoos, the shyer ones preserving their modesty with hologram pixelation? Or will a reaction have set in, with performers only appearing as holograms, perhaps not even of themselves but of depersonalised avatars?

One thing that strikes me about the last 50 years is how little life has changed. Technology has advanced, but it has not inverted people's hierarchy of needs. There has been no revolution in needs and hopes. The “ revolution of rising aspirations” was already under way, and has spread more widely; that, however, is a psychological phenomenon which owes more to economic than to technological development. So when someone claims that technology is about to transform our lives in short order, I smell a rat. Nevertheless, Harari makes a good case that massive change is gonna come, and we have to hope his warnings do not fall on deaf ears. He does offer us a silver bullet with which to tame the tiger: a form of yogic meditation in which he has invested an enormous amount of his time. Let us hope that it delivers more on its promises than dear old Transcendental Meditation™ ever did. In any case, if you fancy some entertaining and challenging mental exercise, read this book.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...