I once saw a movie that forever changed my attitude toward the future. It was called Forbidden Planet, based on
Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In the movie astronauts encounter an ancient civilization that, in its glory, was millions of
years ahead of us. They had attained the ultimate goal of their technology: infinite power without instrumentality, that
is, the power to do almost anything via their minds. Their thoughts tapped into colossal thermonuclear power plants,
buried deep inside their planet, that converted their every desire into reality. In other words, they had the power of the
gods.
We will have a similar power, but we will not have to wait millions of years. We will have to wait only a century,
and we can see the seeds of this future even in today’s technology. But the movie was also a morality tale, since this
divine power eventually overwhelmed this civilization.
No comments:
Post a Comment