Robot body parts, night vision eyes, batteries instead of blood. These are the images that come to mind.
But in fact we have been augmenting our bodies and minds for hundreds of years.
You are more than a body
How far away from your phone do you ever physically get?
Our phone is often the first thing we pick up in the morning, and the last thing we put down before bed. We carry it with us wherever we go. The furthest I am ever from my phone is a room away, or on the bathroom counter when I take a shower.
The technology is a part of me.
Mechanics, Tools, and Muscle
Why would we ever build super strong arms? When a tool is enough.
The requirements for physical strength has disappeared as technology has improved.
Electric drills and hammers make it easier to assemble.
Backhoes and cranes make it easier to lift heavy objects.
Cars, bicycles, planes and space shuttles let me travel great distances.
Guns, bioweapons and drones make it easier to kill.
Our bodies respond by becoming weaker.
Knowledge transfer and memory
Downloading memory like Neo learning kung fu in the Matrix is already possible, it’s just slow.
For centuries we have been transmitting knowledge via technology. I’m doing it right know. Like sending data down a cable into the back of your head, I am sending ideas straight to your brain via pixels on a screen.
Memory too. Instead of using my brain I simply write it down. To transmit back to myself at a later date.
In what other ways will we continue to evolve as technology does the same?
The end
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A surprising amount of my fellow students couldn’t code.
I would say even the vast majority of those who graduated, couldn’t code. At all.
Many of my friends told me themselves, even after 4 years of learning, they didn’t know how.
They knew it, but they didn’t.
They were smart people who spent a ton of time and effort learning. They knew the terms, the syntax. They knew the theory, they could pass the tests. They could solve the math puzzles and the leetcode problems. They could write some code.