It is looking fairly clear to me now that as a race we are heading for an interesting split in our evolutionary tree. I think we can predict a few interesting branches in our evolutionary timeline.
I had some fun with this one, but I think it can be quite a divisive subject, and it certainly will have very real political and cultural implications. Really even the discussion about GM food falls under the issue.
Who Wants to be Part Robot
The first split will be defined on either side by those willing to be implanted with technology devices and those who do not want to be implanted.
This is an easy call right now, as those willing to be implanted is going a close subset of the community that presently spends most of their time plugged into mobile devices. This demographic is already in effect a partial implanted set, on a psychological level. The switch to permanent access for some will be seen as minor, it will be understood as simply an 'upgrade'.
The scifi term for a technically enhanced human is a cyborg, a cybernetic enhanced human. Scifi writers expected coming cyborg races to emerge through technology developments that would be based around physical enhancements, both in the field of medical repair (like the bionic man) and for enhanced performance eg for military means.
It is already clear that the military is skipping the cyborg step and taking the leap to full robotic armies. Robot soldiers are much easier to mass produce and faster to replace with new models, there are none of the issues of biological time for growth and training to deal with. Drones are in live field in many parts of the Middle East today, and two-legged and four-legged robot soldiers are in development to be seen on the battlefield within 5 or so years.
I believe the battlefield itself has been a computer game for a while already. It's only the 'execution on the ground' part that now remains to be fully automated, then the human is made redundant (except as the victim). I think now the most important military technology has become the code used to command and execute a cyber war. It is way more easy to hack into and take control of a robot army than to bother fighting it. Drones and missiles have already been overtaken by hacker groups and will be again.
But back to us as a race. These developments are already having a massive effect on us. There will be no more jobs in manual labor over the coming few decades. All the talk you hear about unemployment is not going to change, and i expect there is going to be much much more of it. There is simply is no more 'work' at least in the sense of that old school manual stuff, left to do.
Japan is well on the way to creating a fully robotic sub-class to pick up all the manual labor of their society. China, the world's manufacturing base, is also hot on the trail. While suffering workers shortages, many of the top manufacturing companies have already started aggressively moving to fully robotize their production lines.
"Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturerby revenue, is accelerating its automation drive and could deploy as many robots as workers at its China factories within three years, Guangzhou's 21st Century Economic Report says. "
The US on the other hand is aiming to compete with China taking an interesting tac for creating an even cheaper workforce by allowing prisons to now commercially hire out labor creating a new slavery system.
So us funny humans are left twiddling our thumbs and looking at screens. I am certain at least a chunk of us is going to take the cyborg route, and will upgrade to an implant version of their phone at some point.
NUIs
Up until recently the cutting edge of computer 'user interfaces' or UI was the graphical user interfaces seen on phones, Apple and Microsoft devices. Graphical UI's (GUI's), originally mouse driven, have recently entered into a phase of rapid evolution, becoming more touch and gesture driven.
Touch interfaces are often augmented with gesture sensitive systems to drive command sets from the user. Taking a further step, technology already exists for both neurologically projecting a graphical image into a human brain, as well as neurologically reading commands from a user brain back into the computer. I call this type of human computer interface a NUI for 'Neurological User Interface'.
I believe NUI's will replace GUI's within the next 10 or so years.
(This technology has already been used, for example in fighter jets being piloted via such neuro connected systems. But these have already become redundant for military use as it is now dumb to put a pilot in a jet, when a jet can be replaced by a fleet of drones controlled by a far more advanced artificial intelligence computer system)
Evolutionary Branching
Technology based evolutionary branching of our society has already started and been detected in heavy computer or smartphone users..
"Use of hand-held technologies, such as mobile phones, GameBoysand computers, has caused a physical mutation in the under-25s, according to new research. The study, carried out in nine cities around the world, shows that the thumbs of the younger generation have overtaken their fingers as the hand's most muscled and dexterous digit."
"If you're over 30, you'll probably press a doorbell with yourindex finger, while anyone under 30 may well use their thumb."
The present set of smartphone junkies is in a full evolutionary shift, with real measurable changes happening right now. But I believe the point where this will kick in at an even greater level is when we start implanting NUI devices. From this point on, different human traits become more important and relevant to an implantee than to a non-implantee, this will strongly drive evolutionary change in different directions for the two branches of humans.
I call call the emerging race of NUI implantees NUIBorgs or just NUIBs.
However, there is a second evolutionary branch, that will overtake the NUIBs, that I find more exciting. The NUIBs will come from heavy use of neuro interface implants, but there is the possibility to interface with technology on a superior level to the neuro based interface. For me the next, more superior wave of technology after NUIs is Psychic or Psy level interfacing, enabling a technology skip of the primitive neural interfaces.
I define the difference between Neuro and Psy based interfaces as how deep the interface goes into ones intent. Neuro interfaces read and write to the areas of the brain relevant to motor or emotional response. Whereas Psy level interfacing goes much deeper to communicate on levels of intent.
Consciousness
Our science is struggling with the concept of non-local consciousness. Up until recently, science thought of consciousness as a 'local' phenomena that only existed 'in' the brain. But science is being assaulted by a barrage of data from diverse fields that all show this view to be inaccurate.
I will leave it to you to explore this, but in summary, it is now fairly clear that the 'neurological brain' is simply a receiving device for consciousness, not the source of consciousness. This opens up the 'technology' sphere to create all manner of devices including consciousness receivers, transponders, reflectors and transformers all of which I believe will come about as we begin to more tangibly grasp the science of consciousness (as opposed to the science of neurology) and put it to work.
At this point the NUIBs will have a potentially competing evolutionary line to theirs that can emerge from the group that are averse to implants. Humans that got neuro systems will have evolved themselves down a branch that can be superseded by the new emerging Psy human branch. Sure it 'may' be possible for NUIBs to shift to Psy based systems but this really depends how far down that evolutionary line they have gone. The main issue I see with the NUIB rout is one of continuing and increased desensitization from the connected requirement to heavy stimuli, eg bigger special effects, stronger sound effects. These take their toll on sensitivity.
Which is for you ?
The fact that consciousness is non-local means that communication can happen at a distance between human and device. No implant required.
I have heard some say this was one of the ancient technologies of Atlantis. I can't confirm that, but I can say from experience that crystals can be effected by consciousness and vice versa.
Also obviously our planet is crystalline in nature, it has a synergistic effect on us and us on it. This means we are on some level in communication with it, something many indigenous cultures are well aware of, as well as many wisdom traditions.
Modern westerners have become pretty numb to nature, but many seem to be able to make the consciousness leap when they take the right chemicals. I don't think you need the chemicals, but they can help some of us remember what is real and that's got to be a good thing.
Maybe you could call it 'evolution' when we get the hang of this, but really its just a new remembering of what we forgot.
