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Techlepathy is a neologism, referring to the communication of information directly from one mind to another (i.e. telepathy) with the assistance of technology. Recent advances in cybernetics research indicate that such a technology is indeed a realistic, and possibly even an inevitable, future. Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, England is one of the leading proponents of this view, and has based all of his recent cybernetics research around developing practical, safe devices for directly connecting human nervous systems together with computers and with each other. He believes that technologically enabled telepathy will become the sole or at least the primary form of human communication in the future. He believes that this will happen because of natural selection, much as other technologies have been adopted even by critics over time. Like home computer systems and even mobile telephones, which were once thought of as fantasy, and later as being impractical, both are now commonplace tools utilised daily by most individuals in developed countries. Similarly, Warwick and colleagues believe that even those who doubt the utility or practicality or even morality of such technologies will over time be drawn into using them as it becomes less and less economically and socially viable not to be able to communicate thoughts instantly, just as it has become much less economically viable for businesses not to be able to conduct instant transactions across computer networks, and less socially viable for individuals not to be able to send and receive information and speak to one another from any location.
Postulated Developmental Stages It has been speculated that techlepathy will come about in a number of different stages. The number of stages varies depending on the considerations made and which theories of the mind one assumes to be true when making such extrapolations, though usually the number of stages is between three and five. As stated above, the postulated future development of techlepathy technologies is divided into "stages" in different ways by different theorists. Morality of Techlepathy The morality of techlepathy is controversial. Proponents such as Transhumanists often put forth the logically invalid argument (or dismissal) that most radically new technologies are controversial, yet very few technologies seem to actually be suppressed as a result of this controversy: techlepathy, they claim, will be no different. It may be noted, especially by critics, that nuclear technologies are widely restricted due to their controversial nature, and there are serious talks about the elimination of the field of nuclear weaponry altogether. Techlepathy, though not destructive in an overt way as nuclear technology, may turn out to be destructive in a much more insidious and covert way - it may, as cited by critics and even supporters, lead to the alienation and marginalisation of late adopters and resistants. For example, Kevin Warwick, a proponent, speaking in the documentary "Building Gods"(video), admits that he cannot really imagine much of a positive future for resistants and late adopters, explaining it thus: "Just like we have cows now, so we'll have humans in the future. There'll be other creatures - other species, cyborgs, intelligent machines - that are the dominant life forms on earth. And, as a cyborg, if a human came to see me and it starts making silly noises, a bit like a cow does now, if a cow comes to me and says 'Moo'.... I'm not going to say, 'Yeah! That's a great idea, I'm gonna do what you tell me!', so it will be with a human. They'll come in and start making the silly noises that we call speech and human language and so on, and I'll hear these trivial noises, and I'm not going to do those silly things - why should I? This creature is absolutely stupid in comparison to me!" See also | ||||||||
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