I'm pretty 50/50 on Kurzweil and Joy. First of all, lets just start off by saying that we cannot take for granted how much technology has helped the world around us as we know it now. And that can be true for almost every field: medicine has been positively effected, business and economy, even advances in science for our planet and making greener more renewable sources. Furthermore, I do believe that people 50 years ago would look at our future now and be just as terrified by what it entails as it does not to look 50 years ahead. Of course we are frightened by nano technology and more robotics because it is a world so different from ours right now.
However, the world has also negatively changed due to technology. We live in a world that is extremely obese due to laziness (which you can thank technology for partly), diseases like HIV and Staff infections can be attributed to mistakes in science and medicine and an overuse of antibiotics, and we are a society extremely reliant on electricity now more than ever. Personally, I think these stakes get higher and higher as we delve into grater technology and this is why I fear the technology of the next 50 years.
Yet, one must consider the good with the bad and I think that there is a lesson to be learned from our mistakes. As long as our world continues to advance forward with the best intentions then I am happy with the idea of technological advancement in areas like robots and nano technology. Additionally, I think we will need the skeptics and the conspiracies to keep technology in check and make it be certain that everything we invent gets rigorously re-tested and have back up plans. As with every ethical question in society, the only way to find the true answer is to come at it from all angles.
