Humans understand the world in only 3 dimensions and communicate in a very slow, serial fashion called speech. But can this be improved on? Can we use technology to upgrade humans?
As we discussed this question, the issue of whether we as a species will make it to this supposed future. Yes, the technology is there and if our progress stays on track we will see the technology we dream of here manifested. I mentioned Stephen Hawking's quote, that if we make it through this century that the human species is set on track to avoid extinction for many millennia. I think this is relevant, because he arrives at this conclusion based off of the potential of our future technologies with advanced computers, cyborgification, etc. Presuming we do make it to see this future, I think creativity and right brained thinking will be all the more important.
Consider how the nature of work has changed for us and where it is going in our immediate future. Daniel Pink's book A Whole New Mind addresses that creative jobs will be the in demand jobs now and in the future for working in developed countries. If we were to make the massive jump to this cybernetic future envisioned now, it would be all the more important of a commodity. Creativity is theoretically what separates us from the machines, and as machines inevitably surpass us in thinking power (even with cyborg enhancements) human will have to struggle to offer something machines can't do. It's the same dilemma many workers faced as the assembly line was replaced more and more with machines. I also imagine studies into HCI (human-computer interaction) will be massive growing field as well, as the future ensures computers and the internet will need to be seamless with our daily lives as well accessible by human thought. The big questions still remain though about what this will due to knowledge, how we process data, and how we think. Will we learn to think like computers? can we? What about visa versa? What are the still critical aspects of human jobs that won't be taken over by machines? If we live long enough, we might just find out.
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