The rapid development of modern science and technology may not benefit all human beings equally and may lead to the formation of a new form of elite ruling class based on economic superiority, which could have serious implications for the future of humanity.
Not long ago, United Airlines in the United States made headlines for forcibly removing a yellow passenger from an airplane. It was widely believed that this was the result of typical white racism. Racism is the tendency among white people to believe that white people have the most superior abilities and that yellow or black people are physically and intellectually inferior to white people. This is not true, and racism has been criticized by public opinion around the world. However, with the rapid advancement of modern science and technology, it may be possible to move beyond racism and create a truly superior race based on economic superiority.
Modern science and technology are advancing exponentially. Natural science, which began in ancient Greece and 16th-century Europe, was the study of observing and analyzing natural phenomena. However, in the 20th century, science and technology began to undergo rapid advances. Physics, chemistry, and life sciences have expanded beyond nature itself to include human creations that don’t exist in nature. This phenomenon is more pronounced in engineering than in the natural sciences. An example is modern biotechnology. According to Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens, a company called Retinal Implants is developing a device that allows blind people to see, at least partially, by inserting a small electronic chip into their retina. The device recognizes light, converts that information into electrical signals, and sends a direct stimulus to the brain, which has recently been advanced to the point where it can identify human faces. This research is in line with engineering’s belief that human creations that don’t exist in nature can be used to benefit humans. However, these advances in modern science and technology also pose serious threats to humanity. Let’s take a look at some of these threats.
As we mentioned earlier, science and technology are advancing at a very fast pace, but the problem starts to arise when the advances are not equally available to all of humanity. For example, even today, in many countries that do not have a healthcare system, many people cannot afford to go to the hospital, and as a result, many people die from diseases that are fully treatable with modern medicine. The development of agricultural life sciences has maximized agricultural production, and while developed countries are struggling to dispose of surplus crops, many developing countries are struggling to overcome food shortages. In other words, what is happening now is that the advances in science and technology that should contribute to a happy life for humanity are not equally available to all human beings.
Although we cannot be sure that this phenomenon will continue not only in the present but also in the future, we can all agree that this inequality will continue in the future if we look at the trend of modern society, where the rich and poor are getting richer and richer.
Let’s take a look at the future of science and technology and the consequences of such an unequal society. First, let’s look at the field of ‘brain science’. Neuroscience is a field that studies the mechanisms of the brain, the central organ that organizes human thoughts and emotions. Due to the brain’s creativity, many fields of research, including artificial intelligence, are interested in neuroscience. However, if we can technically study the brain’s operations and cross the threshold of building a computer-like computational system, we can develop a device that can be inserted into the brain as a chip that can perform operations beyond human limits. Not only that, but much of the knowledge we’ve learned through learning could be simply inserted into the brain, like a USB into a computer, and no longer need to be learned over a long period of time. However, even if these technologies are developed, they will not be available to all 7 billion people in the world, meaning that only the rich and their children will have access to them, making the difference between the poor and the rich more than just an economic one, but a truly superior elite group in terms of thinking and knowledge. We will no longer be able to use the expression “a dragon rises from a brook”.
In addition to brain science, recent advances in life sciences have also been used to improve physical performance, which could lead to the formation of a physically superior group. The most important area of recent molecular biology research is DNA. This DNA is the genetic information that determines our physical abilities. Recent biotechnology has advanced to the point where it’s possible to analyze DNA to determine a person’s genetic strengths and weaknesses. For example, Hollywood star Angelina Jolie had her genes analyzed and found out that she had a high risk of breast cancer, so she underwent a mastectomy to prevent the disease in the future. However, if the technology goes beyond knowing your genetic information to artificially modifying your genetic information to maximize your physical attributes without getting sick, it will create a physical elite. This, too, will not be available to all human beings due to cost, but only to a select few, and those with overwhelming physical and intellectual abilities will become the economic ruling class and may become the actual ruling class of humanity.
Therefore, modern science is faced with a dilemma because the leap forward in science and technology has two sides: it can greatly benefit humanity, or it can lead to the end of humanity. If we stop advancing science and technology in the face of these problems, we would be giving up on human happiness. On the other hand, if science and technology continue to develop in the same direction and impact society, we arrive at a rather grim conclusion: the ruling class will no longer be Homo sapiens, and the ruled class will be hunted to extinction by the ruling class.
As Yuval Noah Harari noted in his book Sapiens, when we launched satellites into space in the 1950s, it was expected that by the end of the 20th century, humans would be living in space colonies on Mars or Pluto. But here we are in the 21st century, and we haven’t even built a base on the nearest moon. However, no one who made those predictions envisioned the internet as we know it today, which means that what we are predicting now may simply be a pipe dream, as in the case above. Humanity may eventually reach its limits and fail to surpass the singularity. But one thing is for sure: we need to be alert to the current state of science and technology.
