As technology develops at an increasingly rapid pace, from
smartphones to wearable devices to biotechnology, the implications of our
dependency on technology becomes an even greater concern. The implications not only apply to the effect
on culture, but literally upon who and what we are. Will we become cyborgs? Will technology replicate us and become indistinguishable from humanity or will it surpass and dominate us?
While scientists, physicists and science fiction authors
prognosticate on the inevitable technological takeover, the real answer may be: "not so fast." A CBS News story describes
how London police have identified “super-recognizers” to help in facial
recognition of known criminals. It turns
out that certain people, using only their eyes, have the ability to perform
facial recognition far better than any machine or software program.
It may be, then, that there are processes integrated between
the brain, the eyes and all the things that make us human, over eons of
evolution, that cannot be replicated with a computer -- that until we until we understand the very essence of the
nature of the universe (which may be unknowable), we can never fully understand
the depths of biological processes.
Or it may be that the study of “super-recognizers” becomes
another step towards understanding how to replicate biology and “The Matrix”
really is not so far away.
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