It happens quite often to see people looking shockingly at the alarming unemployment rates and accusing technology as the main cause of the problem. This is something that has been ongoing for a long while. Probably the best known example is Luddism in the late 18th century. But, even today with the Industrial Revolution well consolidated and accepted, we still have those who look at technical advancement with suspect.
Instead of welcoming and embracing technology for the potential increase in productivity it can bring resulting in evolution for humanity, many individuals look at it horrified, with nostalgic eyes for a past that no longer exists. “Technology steals our jobs!” is their accusation.
The debate on this topic is very active, we can easily find hundreds of articles on this theme. A recent example is “Robots are Stealing our Jobs”.
Are we sure that we prefer to wash dishes and clothes by hand if we have the option to use the dishwasher, washing machine and dry-cleaner? Do we really want to get up from the sofa each time to turn on the television or change the channels instead of using the remote control? The list could go on forever…
Technology is not the problem. The progress of humanity goes in parallel with technological development. How we decide to use new inventions may be a problem, but this is not due to technology itself, but human beings.
Rather than looking straight at the core problems of the system in which we live in, the common tendency is to distract people with problems that do not exist. Why? Probably because distracting people from real issues is the best way to keep individuals from thinking on how to change the world we live in for the better. In other words, it is a reactionary approach.
The book Project Humanity 7.0 tells us about a reality in which technical discoveries are there to serve us. It is possible, if we are intelligent enough to distinguish between correct use and misuse of innovation.
Frankly speaking, there is even an overload of dystopic or cyberpunk material out there. On one hand it deserves the merit of allowing us understand what could derive from a misuse of the human intelligence, and therefore it helps put us on guard. But, on the other hand, it spreads out fear towards change, and terrifies us on technology. These popular and hot topics have inspired many books and movies of great appeal, if not even masterpieces that should be in everyone’s book and/or film collections. It’s time to develop a new opposing genre focusing on concrete positive and evolved realities, and not utopian: a great name for it would be Evolutionary. This is our mission, this is Project Humanity 7.0.