Technology ushers in a virtual new world order

The future will happen sooner than you may think and … it may be a dark place. Futurist and trend analyst Faith Popcorn holds a sceptical view of tomorrow. From robot wars and living a double life between the real world and the metaverse, through to an environmentally decimated planet. She said all this might come to pass in the next two decades as, thanks to the Covid pandemic, technology has gained tremendous momentum.

Elon Musk is at the leading edge of technology that is simultaneously scary and exciting at the same time. His company, Neuralink, hopes to implant chips into humans as early as next year.

This piece of silicone wiring is intended as a brain implant to both record and stimulate brain activity. Initially, it may have medical applications like treating neurological disorders or spinal cord injuries among others. A competitor, Synchron, has already started human testing with chip implants this year.

Popcorn said this might only be the beginning. “Brain-chipping will become the rule rather than the exception,” she said.

“It can make you smarter, condense all the knowledge of, for example, a degree into a programme that runs in your brain, replacing years of learning with an implant.”

In Popcorn’s 1982 book, The Popcorn Report, she predicted “cocooning” and today, more than ever, before people are cosying up at home and spending more time there than anywhere else.

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This was a trending trajectory even before Covid but accelerated by it. Chances are, though, that new technology will see people isolate and associate in even stranger ways. Being so near, yet so far apart. And that is what the metaverse will build for us. It’s an entire, alternative reality.

In the metaverse you will build your own avatar, choose your looks and your character, build a home and even have a virtual family, work there and enjoy recreation there.

In fact, anything you do in the real world will be available, virtually. Popcorn said timelines are calculated backwards.

“I always look at the possible outcome and work it back to where technology is today. And given where we are at technologically today, I’d say the new world order is only a few decades away.”

– news@citizen.co.za