Unabashed

I’ve been known to ruminate about our distant future before. Truth is, I’ve spent quite a chunk of time considering it, and one theme continues to repeat itself, running through my mind over and over. The impossibility of it making it that much more enticing for some reason, a thought that really doesn’t make any sense at all. But still, I think about it often, and it’s run around in my head for years. The idea is this: that eventually, technology will render technology obsolete. Is that even possible? Maybe: once we’ve invented the machine that will create anything we can imagine, we will no longer have to invent things ourselves. That may well be the point we all like to refer to as the “Singularity.” In order to create such a machine, I think we would have to solve, ultimately, mathematics. I don’t think there would be any unsolved equations any more. We would know exactly what happens to matter when it crosses the event horizon of a black hole, and we would be able to calculate the precise moment of a star’s demise, even though that moment might be a billion years away. Once every mathematical problem is solved, we will then program ourselves according to whatever schematic we choose, and our wishes will become fulfilled with only a thought. Ask, literally, and ye shall receive.

I’m working on a book (yes, my hiatus didn’t last very long did it? What can I say, I lay awake thinking about a story line for four hours two nights ago…), or I’ve been working on a book set in the distant future, and a man named Augustus Dane, a great thinker, at some point in the story’s history, stated, “Technology has made technology obsolete.” This was right after the ultimate mathematical equation was finally solved, by a blond-haired boy not yet a teen (the blond hair is a significant part, since in this future, every one’s shade has pretty much become a standard cafe au lait, and very few people are born with anything but brown or black hair. It’s going to be very difficult to be a racist in this future :-) I’m sure people will figure out a way, though. They always do), a prodigy of immense promise, who has also figured out how to and taken up the hobby of granting consciousness to animals. Once humanity discovers it’s possible to grant consciousness to animals, of course, all the animals are granted it, and the world population explodes due to the vast numbers of sentient beings now living here. (There’s a cutoff, of course, the brain must be of a certain capacity or it won’t work. Chickens and snakes, for example, were never able to gain consciousness. No birds at all, as a matter of fact. Gives credence to the slander “bird brain,” aye?). But wolves, elephants, whales, bears, sharks…all manner of animals have been given this “gift,” which of course turns out to be not all that great of an idea.

I’m thinking that, when offered the “gift,” a cow will turn it down on behalf of its species, because of the sudden horror of knowing what has been happening to its kind throughout history. Dogs, likewise, will choose not to accept the gift, because they realize once they can think that they had it much better before.

Now, this is a pretty raw idea, keep that in mind. I haven’t done any research and I’m not a mathematician, so I don’t even know what I’m talking about when it comes to science. Forgive me. I hope it’ll sound better once it’s written down. Anyway, that’s the premise, the basic idea of an idea, in its most rudimentary form, and I’m posting it here so someone else can say, “Gee, what a great idea,” and write it so I won’t have to. Or–this is one of those points where the Great Doubt slips in and makes its voice heard–It’s really a crappy idea.

What do you think?

written by Matt Mitchell