Why We'll Take Longer Baths in the Future

There will also be more interest in spiritualism and philosophy -- unless, of course, humans and technology are merged together, in which case things will get very confusing indeed.

By the year 2025 artificial intelligence (AI) will have become a reality. In simple terms, this means that when you phone your bank and have a twenty-minute argument about credit-card charges you'll be speaking to a computer without realizing it. More spookily, by the year 2050 there will be two highly intelligent species on Earth -- traditional, genetically pure humans and technologically aided hybrid humans. The latter will be 'people' who have been genetically manipulated by the insertion of DNA segments to prevent certain diseases or to create certain emotions or personality traits. They will also be robotically and computer-enhanced to improve strength, sight, vision, or intelligence. Again, one will evolve very slowly, and the other will change as rapidly as technology and ethics permit.

Do we want this to happen? Perhaps the question is whether or not we can stop it.

Some people will say that this won't happen. We will understand the threat and pass laws to prevent such enhancements, much in the same way that human cloning is already outlawed. But if history can serve as a guide to the future, it shows us that mankind is curious. Someone, somewhere, legally or illegally, will be tempted to answer the question 'what if?'

In Los Angeles you can already visit a reproductive technologist and choose sperm or eggs based on IQ or appearance: 'blonde hair, blue eyes, and an aptitude for tennis, please'. If you can't make it to LA, you can always order sperm over the Internet. And if we are already doing this, it's only a very small step before we add nonbiological elements to our children. Given that companies such as Nike sponsor thirteen-year-old soccer stars it's probably also just a matter of time before a company signs up a promising fetus on a thirty-five-year sponsorship deal.

If such experiments simply involved the insertion of technological elements into a human brain or body, this would be almost no threat to the human species. But what if the enhancement involves nanotechnology or computers, and the machine elements really do start to think for themselves? What happens when we produce machines that are more intelligent than us? What happens if these machines develop some kind of self-awareness (consciousness) and become self-replicating? Once that gene is out of the bottle it will be very difficult indeed to put it back in.

OK computer

Our relationship with objects is going to change in the future. In the past, objects were neutral. They were not intelligent and did not possess a state of mind. If they had a personality, it was given to them by their designers and was entirely skin-deep. Otherwise we imbued personality into objects via our own imagination. This won't be the case in the future. Take children's dolls, for example. Historically these were inert, rather poor representations of the human form. They are already becoming more realistic and more intelligent. Owners of the 'Amazing Amanda' can already chat with their doll, and 'intelligence' is available in the form of facial recognition, speech recognition, and radio-frequency identification device (RFID) impregnated accessories. If you're a bit older (and presumably no wiser) you can even buy a physically realistic, life-sized 'love partner' for US$7,000 from a company called realdoll.com. But you 'ain't seen nothing yet.

In a few years' time you will be able to personalize your doll's face (one of your own choice or, more likely, a famous face), communicate with your doll by telephone or email, have real conversations, and experience your entire life history through the eyes, ears (and nose) of your doll. The latter will be achieved by the doll and other linked devices preserving your emails, phone calls, and other images and information captured through its artificial eyes, ears, and nose. In other words, the doll will become a digital storage device with the capacity to document your entire life. The so-called 'life-caching' industry is already worth US$2.5 billion annually. This will in turn give rise to a debate about the ethics of information, because questions will arise as to who owns such information, whether or not it can be sold or traded, and what happens to the information once the 'owner' dies.