Are We Cyborgs?

​As the développent of digitalisation gathers pace over the last 20 years, it seems preeminent that emerging technologies of our era might replace all the skills and analytical abilities we developed since the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the !7th-18th century. We are at the cusp of a new revolution in our global societies in which technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, Big Data, OLAP, Data Mining, Data Analytics, Data Warehousing, Digital Twins, etc, will collectively succeed in replacing the fruits of analytical and cognitive skills that we dorked diligently to develop since the Industrial Revolution.

With such a change almost certain and eminent, what are we, as global humanity have prepared to face such challenges? Will machines control us in an Orwellian world? Or will be become Human-Machine hybrid cyborgs?  These are interesting questions which lead us to consider the essential question, “What fundamentally differentiates us from the products of these technologies are our own creation?” If they can do anything that we can do, what is the essential meaning of being a HUMAN?

We are entering an interesting era, in which in order for humanity to survive and even thrive, we have to return to our basic human nature which was lost through the same Industrial Revolution which made us machine-like. We as humans, are not created to write the perfect code, or to design the best building bluprint, or even diagnose a patient perfectly. Yes, these skills and abilities are vital, but soon they may be carried out better and more efficiently by machines. What will our niche be as controllers of these machines? 

Personally, I am convinced that our niche wil be that what the machines cannot do and perhaps will never be able to do. I ask you sincerely, can a machine really be "spiritual", in the sense that it is regularly inspired by the Divine throughout the day with creative ephipanies? When we begin to consider such questions, we can come to those areas which will be our niche in the future, God willing. These are the most important things that makes mankind, human. To search for such answers, we need to leap from the physical enviromennt of our senses to the metaphysical environment of our inspiration. This can only be done if a "belief" system is natural and rational, as marrying science and technolgy with feelings and emotions that do not make any sense will get us nowhere in terms of trying to answer such critical questions. 

At this junction of global human development, we are forced by advances in emerging technolgies as well as many pressing challenges to seriously recondier the traditonal role of "religion" since the era of Enligntenment in Europe in which great philospohers degraded the role of tradition religion that was illogical, retarded though, and not aligned with scientific advanement. We are forced to reconsider true religion as not the illogical "feel good thing", but the natural and rational way of living which science and technolgy has always been aligned with because just like science functions on natural principle, so do human societies that live a natrual lifestyle. This was amply proven as well as scientific advancement during the "Dark Ages of Euroope" i.e. the Golden Age of Islam based on a rational and natural religion, gave birth to modern science.

So the way to survive now is to "evole" to the natural state that was always meant for us, by always improving ourselves daily based on natural human principles. Part of that improvement is spiritual improvement in which we work diliegently on our heart and discard negative thoughts, and behaviour. We have no choice but to strive to be the best version that we were made to be. And in this endeavour we realize the pinnacle of what it means to be truly human in every sense of the word. It will be our good manners, how emotionally intelligent we become, how pure our thoughts are, how close we are to the Divine, how we sinccerely we live our lives, what positive legacy we want to leave that will make us survie and even thrive in the new era we now enter.

The same "solution" is the real key to most of our very pressig global challenges, including global disparity, crime, delinquincy, intolerance, mental illnesss, sustainabilty, environmental protection, human development, ethical ecconmoic models, good governance, responsible scientific advancement, etc.

Are we interested? 

Are we ready?

PS: Courtesy for the inspiration for this blog post is from a TED Talk by Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency (UBA), is a renowned expert in the fields of globalization, sustainability, decarbonization and digitalization. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpFgNZSwm-A)