Could disruptive evolution describe the complete assimilation of disruptive technology into our biology? As such, can it allay fears of an AI take over in the future?
Disruptive evolution could become the term used to describe the innovative amalgamation of human and machine.
In a growing atmosphere of disruptive technology and exponential growth, could human evolution become programmable?
Most would agree that evolution is a languid and finely tuned process that takes thousands of years to perfect. Modern humans have been romping around the planet for roughly 200,000 with only basic genetic changes. Luckily we haven’t encountered any drastic environmental threats that would necessitate immediate mutations in our DNA.
However, with technological progress reshaping the contours of social and cultural life, we may no longer have to depend on evolution to orchestrate change.
Rapid innovations in the tech world are influencing, changing, and even redefining the parameters of many types of industries and markets.
These dynamic influences are collectively referred to as disruptive technology.
Disruptive technology is generally defined as an innovation that displaces a traditional market by creating a new and advanced one.
Strides in artificial intelligence (AI), and by extension machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL), are spearheading the groundbreaking expansion of novel tech in daily and professional services.
Disruptive technology is the new normal
However, with a growing dependence on data, automation, and sophisticated algorithms in consumer lives, the prospect of job loss to machines is a real threat.
England is experiencing an economic environment rife with fears of AI invading the professional landscape. According to a recent survey, over 60% of individuals believe that there will be less jobs available to humans in the next ten years.
The technology sector is on the path of exponential growth in regards to developments in digital manufacturing. Pundits commonly refer to Industry 4.0 as the inclusion of robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), data, cloud computing, and sophisticated analytics redefining how humans experience a product or service.
As such, paranoia of an AI take over has been echoed not only in popular sentiment, but also by major figures in the tech world. Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have predicted an apocalyptic future where robots outwit and overpower human kind.
Nevertheless, the very advancements that threaten reality as we know it are also safeguarding against it.
In fact, the combination of mechanical and biological resources in the human body is evidence of this occurrence.
Can we speed up evolution through innovation?
The existence of neurological prosthetics in the medical devices industry is proving that cyborgs are already among us, and that disruptive evolution is real.
Advances in bionics and medicine have resulted in artificial body parts that replace a missing or ruined limb. As such, communication between nerves in the body and transmitters from a transplanted piece of machinery are effectively turning people into cybernetic organisms. People are living proof of disruptive technology speeding up human evolution.
Elon Musk’s solution of a neural lace design could also serve to increase human cognitive abilities that would rival those of AI. His plan is to create a computer interface that specialists would weave into the brain, and thus drastically increase its processing power.
Additionally, workers in Sweden undergo chip implants to facilitate their entry and exit in and from work. The radio frequency identification chips are no bigger than a grain of rice, which doctors surgically insert into the hand.
Arguably, the heavy reliance many cultures have on smart devices exemplifies disruptive technology creating cybernetic alliances with the human condition.
These portable slices of technology provide an almost infinite field of data to people at the speed of thought.
Disruptive evolution: catching up with the future
As such, disruptive technology is a valuable tool. It is accelerating human potentiality, even if our DNA may not provide the road map.
In fact, tech and digital advancements already replace the genetic outlines that steer our life experiences from womb to tomb.
Without a doubt, disruptive technology will continue to cause both fascination and terror. However, the inevitable truth is that it will increasingly combine with our biology as we try to beat AI.
And possibly even cheat death.
History is already rife with the implementation of foreign resources that have aided in the progression of humankind.
While far more rapid than anything witnessed before, disruptive technology is just another part of this portfolio of assets.
Disruptive evolution therefore, is the rapid and ongoing amalgamation of innovative technology and the human form.