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  • Writer's pictureERNESTINE SIU

A MODERN FRANKENSTEIN ERA

The world is on the verge of some massive changes due to the rapidly inclining discoveries and developments in the technology field. Just over ten years ago, the entire world completely changed due to the discovery of the smartphone. Before that, the idea of having the ability to carry most of the information in the world on you at all times in the form of a smartphone, was absolutely absurd. Today, the word technology means automated cars, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and the Bioprinting of organs. In my humble opinion, this raises an important fundamental idea: just because we can, doesn’t mean that we should. Elon Musk stated in an interview with Bloomberg that, at the rate that we are going, we may end up “produce(ing) something evil by accident.”



Fortunately, the technological developments that we have today have only made life more convenient and efficient, although, some recent discoveries are extremely fear-provoking. First of all, the recent development of autonomous cars has brought along several potential problems. Not only could these cars lead to a lazier population dependent on convenience, but also, due to the fact that these cars are able to communicate with each other, there exists a new problem to prevent - terrorism. Hypothetically speaking, if a system such as Tesla’s were hacked into by a terrorist group, the world could face mass destruction. This situation is shown in this scene from the movie, The Fate of the Furious, where the system which controls all of the automated cars, is hacked, leading to the destruction of the city.


The perpetrators turn the autonomous cars into deadly armies and use them as weapons to aid their personal agenda. The fact that this very situation was depicted in an enormously popular Hollywood movie, shows that these ideas already exist even before the world has completely transitioned to using this new technology. These cars which are meant to enhance the experience and safety of being in a vehicle can be turned into a weapon used by terrorist groups. This development will likely take over the automotive industry within the next five to ten years, and here’s the scary part - this is only the beginning.


An even more complex development arises: the creation of artificial intelligence and Bioprinting of organs. These new technologies bring with it many new problems which the human species has never experienced before. Today, we are on the very brink of having the ability to Bioprint human organs, that is, we have the ability to use a three dimensional printer to create functioning human organs. This new technology will likely lead to the ability to print a fully functioning human body in the future. This video, called the “The Fifth Element an example of future 3D Bio Printing” is a visualization of what Bioprinting may look like:



Along with this, the development of artificial intelligence has advanced tremendously as of late. In a recent study done by Google, researchers found that the robot, AlphaZero, which was created by Google using artificial intelligence technology, was able to beat the reigning chess bot in 4 hours. The article stated: “The irony in all of this is apparent in the AI robot’s name … AlphaZero plays more like a human than any other chess-playing AI yet learned this with zero human input – just a set of rules and four hours of playing against itself.” If Bioprinting technology is combined with artificial intelligence in the future, we may end up with an entirely new race which has superhuman capabilities. Although these developments may be extremely beneficial as the Artificial Intelligence can aid in military or scientific endeavors, who is to say that these new discoveries will not be abused or that an accident will not occur? The problem, in my opinion, with the rapid creation of technology that we have today, is the fact that we, as a species, have never encountered or tested ideas such as these.


The combination of Bioprinting and Artificial Intelligence can lead to extremely intelligent humanoids made out of bullet proof steel and extra organs. If these creations can communicate with one another and if, in some brilliant way, consciousness is created, they can essentially grow their own empire by creating more of their own kind. Also, unless we can somehow program a system of decay into the robots (which can always be overridden accidentally or by the robots themselves), they will be

immortal which gives them the advantage over our species. This can lead to three situations: the extinction of the human race, the creation of a new race which simply replicates humanity, or an extremely efficient world run by technology. There are many obvious perks to having A.I. and Bioprinting, but similar to the age old novel, Frankenstein, just because we have the capabilities of doing something, does not mean we should do it. Our overconfident approach and arrogant search for convenience and efficiency, may lead to us creating our own dystopia. Musk even stated in an interview that Artificial Intelligence is humanity’s “biggest existential threat.” No one can predict how humanity will end, but th​is is just a warning.

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