DOSSIER N°2 : IDEA OF PROGRESS

Documents :

[WORKED IN CLASS] Transhumanism and the future of humanity

- Sarwant Sigh,

November 2017

[WORKED IN CLASS] Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - The Mechanical Apartheid

(Trailer),

SQUARE ENIX, May 2016

[PERSONAL DOCUMENT] The story behind Hatsune Miku, the japanese pop star

hologram

, Emilia Petrarca, May 2016 (here)

Introduction :
In class, we worked on the notion idea of progress. To begin with, I’d like to give a definition

of this notion. The idea of progress can be defined as an improvement, a development or a

change – a technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a

better place. Transhumanism and holography are linked to this notion as it shows the

enhancement in technologies through the years with body modifications and creation of

holograms. In the first part we’ll talk about how technologies can improve or deteriorate our

daily lives and in the second part we’ll speak about if we should keep improving technologies

or if they have already reached their limits.

Is technology too intrusive in our lives ? Could new technologies will be able to replace

human beings one day ?

Part one : Technologies, improvements and deteriorations

In this part, we’ll talk about how technologies can improve our life but can also deteriorate it. In

Transhumanism and the future of humanity

, we learnt that progress are to be made in our

brains, so we could be in the shoes of everyone. There will be an amelioration on our

thought processes, and as well on our empathy. But won’t there be a lack of intimacy ? Also,

as the social networks are going to expand, there will be more way to directly express our

feelings. So, what’s the use of having social interactions in real life if we are able to have

them virtually ? This is an unhealthy way of life, because online, we’re not as sincere as in

real life. It would affect our way to act and to think, our relations with people and of course,

our daily life as well. In the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided trailer, we can see there’s a dystopia

about transhumanism and limbs being replaced. In fact, in the trailer,

In The story behind Hatsune Miku, we can see that a hologram can also makes concert and

have fan. It is a good thing because it shows music’s enhancement, as we’re able to create

a singing voice with a software only, and to make her do shows, have a fanbase and sell a

lot of merch, as she’s even more popular than some real artists. It is also very useful for

independent music creators, as they’re not always able to sing or to pay a singer to sing their

songs. To take another example, we recently learnt that the swedish band ABBA, formerly

disbanded, want to make another concert, by using holograms. We might ask ourselves is

the technology isn’t going to replace human beings in every fields, though.

Part two : To improve or to regress ?

In this part, we are especially going to have a reflexion on whether technology should keep

improving or if it is already too much and needs to stop indeed to regress. We had already

seen that technology is able to divide us. Also, in the case of the transhumanism, it’ll dig an

even more important gap between the wealthiest and the more destitute. The fact is, that to

implant robotic limbs isn’t save either. It can sometimes damage our body if this one isn’t

adapting to the technologic change. Plus, technology, along with social networks, keep

getting improved and people don’t stop to think whether it is a good idea or not. In

Transhumanism and the future of humanity, we saw that social networks like Facebook or

Twitter are going to get updates and ameliorations very often. But with the recent scandal

involving Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is it really a good idea ? Will our
intimacy will remain completely stolen if we keep trusting these social networks ? We can

also add that technology is slowly replacing human beings, and somehow, it might be getting

out of hand really quickly. If robots are to be integrated in our society, what could happen if a

general crash happen ? Or even if the robots’ programs are disfunctionnating and that they

become suddenly aggressive ? This is a risk that I think we shouldn’t take, and for me

technology is enough advanced and don’t need to go further.

Conclusion :

To conclude, I’d like to say that technology is a part of our life but obviously it has its flaws

and its qualities. Technology can have a huge impact of our life and sometimes even destroy

it, that’s why I think it’s better if technology remains under control. I also personally think that

technology shouldn’t go further, as it may endangers the whole world, if, for example a

general crash of all technologies happens.