The Japanese apparently have a saying for people who aren’t much good with technology – “Analogue Person“, literally translated. Futurologists have long predicted that eventually an underclass of people who do not have access to/do not want to use/don’t know how to use technology would evolve and some even go as far as to say that this would cause the human species to split into two sub-species of the elite and the digital underclass. Whilst this isn’t predicted to happen for thousands of years if this isn’t an early sign I don’t know what is!
Of course, there is another line of thought which says this has already happened in Japan. You don’t have to look far for the evidence:
This twelfth generation android from Sony Robotics dubbed “Sony-san” is a particularly disturbing example of the future anthropomorphisation of humanity! Sony-san has appeared in music videos, variety shows, and the occasional advert, and reportedly “lives” in a Buddhist temple (so much for secularity of science!).
1984 was a turning point in many ways (think Apple Computer, George Orwell, Linux, the Space Programme, Terminator, my birth…) and a mere 23 years later the world has been revolutionised by technology. But this revolution is not like its predecessors; it has no end. Like it or not things are not going to move at an ever-accelerating pace. Don’t look back in 50 years and say I didn’t warn you!
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