Technological Evolution

Looking back to last week, I still cannot get the idea of these technological advancements out of my head. The TED video was surprising and shocking at the same time. I have recently been aware of the exponential growth rate of technological improvements. These improvements are occurring more faster and often as time goes on. This is amazing, because robots and other artificial life are becoming more realistic, just like that one robot dog thing. It was able to regain its balance when it was kicked by that one man. What I found even more interesting, was when the robot dog thing was slowly going down the snowy hill. It made a life-like mistake of slipping, but then it regained its footing. I watch a few science fiction movies from time to time thinking that some are completely unrealistic. But, when I saw the robot dog thing, I slowly started to think of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terminator. Could the "age of machine" really be real? And if so, how close are we to reaching it? This is one thing that scared me.

Another part of the video that we saw, focused on cell research, the duplication of organs and other various body parts. Whatever problems that could not be fixed by replacement, was fixed by technology (such as hearing aids for the deaf). And due to the ever increasing speed of technological advancements, the deaf will be able to hear better and better as time goes on. The man in the video said that possibly in a few technological generations, a deaf man will have a hearing aid that will allow him to hear better than the average human. And from then on, hearing aids will continue to become even better than the one before. He brought up the idea that humans are at such a high level, that they could possibly create their next evolution. Now, I am a Catholic, and I am sort of afraid of the fact that humans will be interfering with a natural cause of nature. Is it right for us to be playing God?. What scares me the most is the thought, what if we mess up? I mean, we're only human. Will there be extreme consequences? Only time will tell if we choose to do such.