Is Technology Developing Dangerously?

microsoft_hololensWith advancements in technology creating smaller and more powerful products over the last decade and most recently moving toward wearable devices, such as smartwatches, wristbands, an array of virtual reality headsets, from various companies. Google Glass was an expensive project and never really took off, smartwatches have been around for a while and are starting to build some momentum as with VR headsets, however the smartwatches can be worn anywhere as a useful fashion accessory on the other hand VR headsets are rather bulky and restrictive of vision. Microsoft have solved the later with a transparent VR style headset known as HoloLens, which projects holographic images into the surrounding area of ones home or workspace, after all it’s still rather large and people aren’t particularly fond of wearing devices on their faces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW3wWAinNTA

Software dependent on powerful servers continuously processing incredibly large amounts data every second, such as Siri, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana, deliver personalised search results as well as helping with common tasks. What are the limitations of these digital personal assistants and how might they improve and evolve in the future? Well there’s always room for improvements, however the limitations could disappear depending on how the technology develops. Movies such as Her, explore ideas as to how an OS could adapt and evolve to an individual users needs and develop itself even further. There certainly isn’t a shortage of movies on artificial intelligence based on robots including Short Circuit, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, I Robot, Ex Machina, Chappie just to name a few. Other movies such as Transcendence explore with the idea of a supercomputer with human intellect and consciousnesses.

There really isn’t anything to fear at present or for the foreseeable future, the technology has both it’s limitations and it is unlikely to develop in a dangerous manner, however there are some rather dark possibilities should people be able to hack into and control our most personal technology depending on how dependent we become. Here is a short film based in the near future showing possible outcome of how technology might develop.

Sight from Robot Genius on Vimeo.