Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It.

The North and South Americas were considered “The New World” once upon a time, but now we’re all in a New World. It’s a little scary for some of us, frustrating for many, and exciting for others. It’s called technology, and it is moving and changing so fast, we can’t keep up with it. Did you ever hear the old saying, "Men (or women, depending on your sex); you can't live with them, and you can't live without them"? (Such an archaic comment.) Well, these days I say, "Technology. You can't live with it, and you can't live without it." Silly. Or not. Especially if you read last week’s blog.

The worst part is the frequent updates. Just when you feel you’ve mastered (if you’re lucky…as much as possible) a program or phone or whatever, there is another update, another new phone or computer – because the new programs won’t work with the old computer. What was wrong with the last program, phone, computer? Are they (program updates) actually helpful? Or do they just tweak a couple of minor things and make the site look prettier? And especially, why do they change the formats that don’t need changing so it's like having to learn a new program – again? Is it to keep our brains moving toward all the changes that must come?

Then comes the next all-around step in technology for basic humans. Some of us are awed by creatures like Alexa and can’t imagine what the point of “her” is, while for others “she” is practically a member of the family. “She” certainly seems to be a member in one of my son’s households. The day Alexa finally recognized their youngest daughter’s voice when she gave Alexa a command was one of the most exciting days of the decade in their house. (Here’s a pause to let you visualize it and give you a laugh.) Alexa lets them call home – or from the next room – through “her”, sets reminders for months in advance, keeps track of everything from grocery lists to what time you have to pick up the kids from school to whatever you want her to keep track of. “She” has games you can play, turns on lights, T.V.’s, etc., etc., etc. You can get lost in whatever project you’re in – as long as Alexa is in hearing distance. “She’s” a robot without a body. “She” is an amazing tool. If you take the time to learn how to utilize “her”, “she” will save you time and worry. “She” is an external memory aid (used to extend brain memories, so we don’t have to keep so many up front).

What’s the next tech step? Amazing new technology is being created as we sit here typing/reading. Some of it is as unbelievable to some of us as walking on the moon was to many back in the 1950’s. [A Soviet test launch of a R-7 rocket sent the first artificial satellite into orbit On Oct. 4, 1957. Human landings on the moon took place between 1969 to 1972.] Now rockets, though not yet commonplace, are taken for granted and the thought that earthlings may one day be able to take an overnight trip to Mars – or beyond – doesn’t seem that farfetched. Let’s take a brief look into a few technological advances being worked on at the moment.

Have you seen any good sci-fi movies about robots that are practically human? Many movie robots have seemed pretty lame, and in reality, they have so far been pretty limited in “brains” and functions thus far. But now cloud robotics (robots with super-brains stored in the online cloud) are not long in coming. They’ll be as knowledgeable as Google, plus be our butlers – and they will be able to talk and learn from one another. That’s sounds a little scary to me. To be fair, these robots will start out in the job market in fields far more advanced than the present robotics in factories. The hope is that someday (not that far away) robots will be able to see, hear, comprehend natural language and understand the world around them. Didn’t these scientists watch all those “computers take over the ship/world” movies? Geez. I hope the WIFI doesn’t break down when they’re making our dinner.

Synthetic media is basically false photos, text, sound and video – but so real appearing, we won’t know what is and isn’t real. Similar to deepfake technology but much more advanced, there is potential for great creativity, but also for creating highly malleable channels of communication such as fake news or state-sponsored misinformation.

There are several new pushes in the medical field, including gene-editing (wiping out serious diseases in people) and “mapping” the brain (to crack the code the brain uses to drive behaviors), but one of my favorites, which is even now being tested with success, is neurotechnology. Three men paralyzed in accidents have had nerve signal-boosting implants put in their spines. All three are now able to walk a short distance. In France, an exoskeleton (robo-suit) gave back a 28-year-old man the use of his lower limbs after breaking his neck. The man uses two 64-electrode brain implants to control the suit.

If you’re not fond of Microsoft or how big it’s gotten – or because of all the updates they force on us – you may want to take another look. They are working on reversing the damage on climate change by removing carbon emissions. The needed shift from fossil fuels is not enough to diminish the worst effects of climate change, so Microsoft not only plans to be carbon negative by 2030 (including fleets of electric cars and planting new forests), but it is monitoring the development of technologies that will reverse the damage and repair the air – though it is in early stages of being viable or having a significant impact at this point.

I’m not going to try and describe xenobots – okay! Enough! If you want to go deeper, go to Science Focus’ “20 new technology trends we will see in the 2020s” By Rob Banino and look into the rest of the upcoming technologies. For now, my brain is tired just thinking of all the learning and adjusting that’s coming for us – hopefully our children will continue to play make-believe and be ninjas, superheroes, and princesses despite all the technology that surrounds them.