Weekly News Column Opinion and Laughs on The Record

Future Shlock in Argo

Jeff Borgardt's Soundoff from Summit Column 8/4/05

 Jason and the crew of the Argo were the finest legendary
explorers in human mythology. Jason snatched two fire-breathing
bulls to plow Ares, zoomed past a immortal dragon and won the
golden fleece.
    This story celebrated the magic of discovery and adventure.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but great discoveries are still
happening. Technological innovation has been the primary driving
force of change in society and daily life and will continue to
radically alter our lives as modern men continue to search for the
golden fleece.
    In “Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing our
Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human” author Joel
Garreau dreams of future innovation.
    It’s always fun to dream about the future so what are some of the
likely and unlikely golden fleeces in the works?
    Right now, scientists are testing the pill ‘modafinil’ that allows
people to stay awake for nearly a week without dreariness.
    Other researchers drilled a hole in a monkeys head and shot the
brain with electricity. Now, they say the monkey can move things
with his mind.
    Other scientists are studying the sticky features of the Gecko. They
hope to build gym shoes that climb on walls. There are also
scientists funded by the U.S. Government’s Defense Advanced
Research Project Agency, DAPRA, for super soldiers that can run
miles on a few breathes and wear ‘exoskeleton’ suits that boost
tremendous strength.
    Memory pills that have begun to proliferate on college campuses.
    Garreua, formerly a Washington Post editor, also writes about
designer babies, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and
robotics. He says steroids are “primitive” and the controversy over
their use in sports is a confused referendum on the biological
enhancement of human bodies.
    Then there is the amazing march of computer technologies. The
strength of computer processors has doubled every eighteen
months. At this rate, the power of computers in a few decades will
be almost incomprehensible.    
    Garreua also dreams of advances in medical science such as
nonotech robots that patrol the bloodstream and attack pathology
and prolong life.
    OK. So that’s all pretty breathless. Here’s an expedited passage
from Radical Evolution: “Turns out the diffusion of any new
technology — air-conditioning, cable TV, laser eye surgery —
follows the same pattern. First there are the Innovators. These are
the geeks for whom venture-someness is an obsession. These
add up to 2.5 percent of the population. The come the Early
Adaptors. They are just slightly ahead of the crowd but they are
much more connected to the social fabric. They are hip. Early
Adopters constitute a seventh of the population. The Early Majority
follows. They are numerous — a third of the population. They never
lead, but they don’t want to be stick-in-the-muds. Fitting into this
group are the CEOs who, in the nineties, may not have known how
to type, but nonetheless insisted their company have a website.
The Late Majority then kicks in. For them, change has become
inevitable, usually because clinging to their old ways is killing
them economically. This Late Majority is another third of the
population. By the time a technology reaches them, it can be
irritating to deal with those who are not with the program: ‘You
have to find a pay phone because you don’t have a cell phone?
You have no Web Site? Are you serious?’ Finally come The
Laggards. They don’t have a lot of money, hate risk and fear every
change and challenge.”
    Needless to say, Jason and the Argonauts were no Laggards.