TOMORROWS

14 WHAT
WILL WE BE LIKE
TOMORROW?

We are the only natural beings whose existence is not solely determined by norms and limits of a vital order, as we continually incorporate the effects of everything we do into our own nature. We create objects, technologies, moral values and cultural rules that configure the physical and social environment in which we live, expand the capacities of our organism and shape our subjectivity. As the material and symbolic conditions that sustain our everyday lives are altered, our perception of the world, others and ourselves also changes. What we are is constantly evolving, and this openness in our own nature is our core trait.

Some of the transformations that will affect us in the coming decades may be glimpsed on the horizon, and others may not. It would have been hard to predict the impact produced by the internet, for example, which in just a few years has profoundly changed our way of being in the world. Perceptions of space and time, the way we deal with information and memory, the organization of work, networks of our personal relationships, and the relationships between local and global, the individual and the collective are examples of patterns that have been profoundly altered by the relationship between people and technology.

As occurs with all technology, of course, its effects are complex. On the one hand, the internet has transformed the world into a more accessible, shared and supportive place, but on the other hand it has also precipitated the emergence of new forms of violence, crime, control and oppression – digital attacks on security systems, cyber espionage, scams targeted at individuals and state censorship of information, for example. [1] Accordingly, we must remember that scientific and technological progress needs to be accompanied by ethical reflection and political actions to guide its effects and serve our ideals.

In a few years, the internet will become ubiquitous, invisible, and no longer perceived as a technology that affects our lives, but rather a dimension of our own reality, in which we and objects will be immediately and permanently inserted, without us needing to connect.

Combinadas Combined with virtual reality technologies, the internet and social networks will keep us interconnected not only through words and images, but also through our senses [2] – for example through the sharing of tactile or olfactory experiences, or experiences of immersion in shared virtual environments.[3]

Growing parts of everyday life will take place in this virtual space. As a result, we can imagine that access to this sphere of existence will join the list of universal rights. In this process, populations that remain excluded from the digital revolution will find it hard to avoid economic and social marginalization.

The internet will become ubiquitous, invisible, and no longer perceived as a technology that affects our lives, but rather a dimension of our own reality, in which we and objects will be immediately and permanently inserted, without us needing to connect.

Among the digitally included, new patterns of personal relationships are already emerging on the horizon. The psychological and social experience of distance and closeness is ceasing to be anchored exclusively in physical space. The geographical factor is tending to play an ever smaller role in the establishment of work relationships, friendship networks, romantic relationships, and political and scientific associations. Nobody will be condemned to marginalization due to being physically distant or psychologically cut off from the majority’s standards. In this situation, an extraordinary quantity of information will be more accessible to each individual. On the other hand, secrecy, solitude and silence will need to be conquered. [4]

Together with the internet, the exponential advance of communication technologies and computing will expand spaces for the exercise of power by individuals. Ever greater access to information of all kinds will mitigate differences between experts and lay people. The progressive cheapening of digital technologies and the universalization of the internet look set to enable leaps forward in the diffusion of knowledge to all, resulting in greater power to influence among individuals and organized groups. [5] Local acts will have ever more scope to produce global effects. A single individual, wherever they may be, may be seen and heard by millions of people across the planet. The exercise of individual autonomy will be able to expand. Linguistic barriers will be progressively more readily surmounted through the development of ever more effective instant translation tools. [6] Thus, as well as being fantastic instruments for the universal diffusion of knowledge, technologies may also serve to promote tolerance and equality on a global scale, and consequently greater tolerance between different cultures.

The accelerated expansion of biotechnologies is leaving behind the natural limits of the human condition […]; the concept and experience of paternity, maternity, kinship and affiliation will become significantly more complex and uncertain, requiring constant cultural redefinitions.

On the other hand, a reduction in privacy and control over individuals are tending to expand exponentially. Information about personal correspondence, financial transactions, medical records, aesthetic, political and moral preferences, lifestyles, contact networks, geographical movements – nearly everything will be recorded by surveillance and monitoring systems, by the state, by medicine and by corporations. The issues that should occupy a crucial place on the political agenda to come will certainly include the tension between the pursuit of security and the preservation of freedom, and the struggle for control of information about individuals.

The accelerated expansion of biotechnologies is leaving behind the natural limits of the human condition. [7] Given the multiple varieties of parents’ biological contributions and the emergence of new forms of marital and family partnerships, the concept and experience of paternity, maternity, kinship and affiliation will become significantly more complex and uncertain, requiring constant cultural redefinitions.

With the expansion of the possibilities for intervention regarding our anatomy and physiology, the traditional polarization between masculine and feminine will yield more space in the social imagination to spectral visions of sexuality: a pluralistic range of body configurations and gender identities will become ever more accessible and legitimate.

Through bionics, nanotechnology, genetic bioengineering and brain-machine interfaces, other classic polarizations – between natural and artificial, between biological and cultural – will experience a progressive reduction in their relevance. Biological forms, including human ones, will be ever more biotechnologically shaped in line with human choices and decisions – moral, esthetic, political and commercial. We will produce interfaces between organisms and technological devices that are increasingly complex and friendly, and this will greatly expand our cognitive, sensory and communication capacities, as well as the way we perceive our body and constitute ourselves as social subjects, as already predicted some years ago.[8]

The possibility of overcoming natural limits and impositions through practices to enhance various aspects of individuals’ biological and psychological life (memory, moods, cognition, sleep, appetite and sex) has been winning over the social imagination. [9] We no longer discuss if, but how we will make use of technologies to regulate our psychic and social life and improve our bodily and subjective performance.

New hybrid forms of life, simultaneously natural and artificial, will appear. The technological control and regulation of the biological, psychological and social conditions of life will generate countless ethical and political challenges. The boundaries between normality, mere difference, abnormality and pathology, in the fields of biological, psychological and social functioning, will be the subject of intense cultural and scientific disputes. [10] Malaise, a trait inherent to the human condition, may manifest itself in new ways: new forms of suffering, new symptoms, related to the new ideals and the new demands for wellbeing arising in this future situation.

The acceleration of the globalization process will increase interaction between different populations and societies, whether through trade, the circulation of information or migratory movements. This process may enable greater understanding and welcoming of the diversity of human cultures, promoting the expansion of tolerance and the preservation of traditions previously threatened by isolation. On the other hand, it is likely to lead to pressures toward a cultural homogeneity whose development may result in the aggravation of inter-ethnic, cultural and religious conflicts. [11]

We can only speculate as to what situations the future holds for us. The combination of political transformations, cultural movements, scientific discoveries and technological advances will certainly profoundly modify our way of living, but the world that will result from this combination has yet to be defined. Will it be more equitable and inclusive or more unfair and exclusionary? Will we manage to create a more tolerant and shared world, or will we see inequality and violence persist in new ways?

We cannot say for sure what we will be like tomorrow. However, we can and must say clearly what we want to be like tomorrow, because this is the way we will engage in constructing what is to come. The best way of dealing with the future is to realize that we are starting to invent it through the intentions and gestures we are producing in the world today.

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