Welcome to the Machine Society
Technology is changing us.
I’m Mike Elgan. And I’ve been writing about technology for a few decades. I’m an opinion columnist and futurist. And I’ve noticed over the years that our tools, which are designed to help us, are also changing who and what we are.
What is the nature of this change? Where is it leading us? How should we understand and respond?
We’re becoming a Machine Society, where human interaction is increasingly mediated by machines, or in conversation with machines instead of other people.
Through spatial computing and holoportation platforms, we’ll interact with holographic avatars of people or AI-generated fake people. AI will choose our words and thoughts and read and capture them, simultaneously displacing and enhancing cognition and memory.
LLM-based generative AI chatbots, as Jaron Lanier pointed out, automate human collaboration on a massive scale.
We’re entering a new age where human society is dependent on and altered by microprocessor-based machines.
Where is all this headed? Carlyle observed that we entered into a co-dependent partnership with machines centuries ago. Since then, humanity’s senior partnership in this relationship has declined and the machines’ importance has risen. The role of AI-based machines in civilization will never stop growing.
We live in a tech-driven era. Our politics are characterized by divisiveness, disinformation, and radicalization, driven by the global internet, social media, and the ability for just about anyone to create content for a global audience. Russian disinformation, Chinese censorship, the decline of traditional media, and small-donation fundraising of radicals in Congress — all made possible by digital technology.
Similarly impacted: Education, religion, science — even dating and marriage. Every aspect of human society is mediated and affected by machines.
We live in a new Machine Society where machines accelerate change. This newsletter aims to address how new technologies affect, change, and become part of us.
Did the futurists predict our current world? Tracking technology trends, I’ve noticed that mainstream 20th Century science fiction largely missed the mark.
In the past few years, we’ve best understood our fast-changing world by tracking emerging trends that used to be cyberpunk sci-fi.
In writing about the themes transforming our culture, it’s clear that these mirror the themes of late 20th century cyberpunk: artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial reality, spatial computing, holograms, holoportation, lifelogging, surveillance, megacities, robots, cyborgs, lab-grown food, post-nationalism, corporations with nation-state power, oligarchs with nation-state power, late-stage capitalism, privatization of government services, transhumanism, posthumanism, genetic engineering, brain-computer interfaces, cybernetics, digital immortality, artificial consciousness, biohacking, nanomachines, nanobots, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, autonomous weapons, cybernetic implants for sensory enhancement, memory manipulation, artificial ecosystems, techno-organic hybrids, man-made body parts, prosthetic brain power, prosthetic memory, computerized prosthetic limbs, nootropics, mind simulation, artificial wombs, cryptocurrencies, hacking, remote work, digital nomad living, and cyber-religion.
Let’s understand this changing world together. Welcome to the Machine Society.
