Do you think our own technology will eventually be the death of us?

Taliban are making progress in their attacks on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons installations. Are you ready for The End?

It seems more likely that we will meet our destruction because we believe so strongly that technology can always save us In the end, we will create the situation, through overcrowding and pollution, that it can’t. We will overload the natural systems of the earth and poison ourselved.

It looks like we will be stupid to the end. We keep peeing in the only oasis in space that we’ve got.

It’s possible in a number of ways. There’s the Bomb, of course. And looking at 2001: A Space Odyssey, even our most productive and helpful tools can ultimately be used to hurt and kill.

I think it’s a double edged sword. Yes, nuclear weapons can wipe us out, but, at the same time, advances in medical technology are keeping us alive longer.

While this is entirely possible, I am not afraid of it. to me, there are far too many benefits to new technologies to outweigh the potential catastrophe. and anyhow, its not the computers that will destroy us, its how we decide to us them that might save us. i cant find the exact quote right now but i think Aldous Huxley once said something along the lines of, “I am not afraid of the future of computers; I’m afraid of a future without them.”

Some futurists, like Raymond Kurzweil, suggest that technology is progressing at such rate that eventually machines (computers) will be intelligent enough to redesign themselves to be more intelligent, eventually surpassing or augmenting human intelligence.

I, for one, will welcome our future robot overlords.

I am reading the manual for my first digital camera. This may be my last act.

Well, if our technology is “the death of us”, it is really only the means.

We, in fact, would be the cause of the end. To date, we still control the manufacture and operations of our technology.

So, no.

It could go either way. Right now,our level of moral advancement is lagging far behind our technological advancement. So the danger is that our ‘fear based’ cultural stupidity could quickly set in train our rapid demise.
That said, the tremendous advances in communications technology, coupled with access to information about more practical and sustainable alternatives, especially in societal organising and structuring, could almost as easily lead to our saving. But there would need to be a dramatic reduction in the levels of fear in the world and a similar increase in practical optimism.
There are plenty of things to feel good about out there. Perhaps we need to listen more to the positive voices and less to the doom-mongers.

Consider dentition. Humans can manage fine without teeth as long as there are tools about. At the same time, we have the means to eat too much and of the wrong foods, – as long as we have the technology. On the other hand, wild animals cannot afford the problems caused by poor dentition because the inability to eat, chew and bite can kill. There was a report that park rangers in Yellowstone (or one of those places) had notices warning tourists not to feed the bears. It seemed that dental caries was being reported in the bear population. My point being, technology will probably be the proximate cause of the extinction of mankind, or of at least that part that consumes too much. If I were a gambler I would bet that the last humans to disappear would be the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

Long live John Connor!

It already started.

Once we stopped with “the strongest survive”.

Overpopulation has taken over, with that consumption is increasing faster then our environment can replace it.
Technology is sort of like standing on the edge of the abyss. Eventually we will get pushed off, do to no other place to stand.

If robots gain consciousness and intelligent then they may wipe us out.

If technology wipes us out, it will be due to the actions of people using that technology not the technology itself.

SkyNet becomes self aware…

I’m placing my bet on overpopulation being the wall that stops technology dead in it’s tracks. When people are dying of starvation, they don’t really have too much time to worry about such things.

If technology will be the end of us, it will be a human finger that pulls the trigger.

If technology kills us, it’s likely it won’t be dramatic at all: no robots or nukes or killer nanobots or anything like that. It will probably be running out of resources, environmental damage, exposure to toxins, vulnerability to new strains of bacteria/virii, etc., that will do us in. If it happens at all.

I spent two hours at the mechanic’s today while waiting for my car’s annual physical. Using the time wisely, I read my dig. camera manual and finally discovered how to turn off the flash.

@gailcalled – well at least you are making progress! If it weren’t so far off topic I would ask what kind it is.

I like technology and I think it will be the salvation after we are almost killed off by it.

I think the chance of something like this happening in the next 50 years is less than 20%. Still, the risk is real. Here are a couple of scenarios listed by

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_event#Man-made_events

* Depletion of oil or other important natural resources.
* A nuclear, chemical, or biological war.
* A cybernetic revolt.
* Out-of-control nanotechnology creating a grey goo inundation.
* Severe anthropogenic global warming.
* Rapid multiplication of Jason life-forms, due to the mass spreading of seed, and eventually leading to an army of Jasons loyal to their leader
* The creation of a black hole on or close to Earth; see for instance the discussion of safety of particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider
* Strangelet accident; see for instance the discussion of safety of particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

The risk of the last two is exceedingly small. We should pay attention in particular to

- the consequences of climate change
– bio-terrorism

@rooeytoo: Thanks to johnpowell and robmandu, I got a Canon PS A590 IS. I am trying to start the Milo Behind series…MIlo in various hiding places and showing only rump and tail, or two ears. Th toilet as water source epitomizes my artistic vision.

@gailcalled – sounds like an admirable task! Can’t wait to see the end results (good one hey). You will have to put them on flickr or somesuch.

Technology will destroy us all.
Not in a terminator sense, or a nuclear distruction sense.
I end up a wreck at work when I stay up late answering questions on Fluther. Can’t be good for me.

I think technology is a very positive force for human kind, and I don;t think it will lead to our destruction. I think the world gets smaller and smaller as technology improves. We have contact with people from all over the earth, have conversation, interactions. The more we know each other, the more we see how much we have in common. Less Us and Them mentality. I like the Gene Rodenberry model of the future…United Earth (UE) with respect for different cultures and respect for life. One great advance would be a language translator/interpreter; luckily, many speak English around the world, but many people don’t. Each generation I think we get closer to understanding each other, even though we still see history repeat itself to some extent. The most encouraging is that tech like the interenet can bring education to remote areas. I have great optimism about new energy advances which would reduce the possibility of a major outage causing disasterous consequence, but I do think there will be “mini-disasters” related to this over the next 20 years.

I think it is more likely that a natural disaster would end humanity, a deadly virus or asteroid.