The Singularity. It sounds pretty foreboding, and it just might be. There has been a lot of discussion about how 'strong AI', AI that is smarter than human, may just take over life as we know it. At that point it is just a matter of deciding if humans will be fondly treated as pets, or removed altogether. This is probably a red herring, or will come to pass only by gross miscalculation. (umm, aka human error!)
It is abundantly clear that humans will take advantage of any enhancement possible to improve their competitive standing: steroids, face lifts, breast implants, vitamin supplements, and a host of herbal enhancements that have no scientific standing at all. If a memory chip were available to improve our recollection, I have no doubt there would be a line around the block to use it. (with the notable exception of Alberto Gonzalez, who may be better off without it, plausible deniability).
There are already a number of 'chip implant' pioneers that have surgically placed devices into their bodies, even beyond the routine replacement joints, stents, and such.
ancient Wired article
Monkeys at least have been trained to control a robotic arm with a thin needle sensor slid into their motor cortex.
Monkey Business
Raytheon is developing an exoskeleton for the army that amplifies strength, and it's getting closer to deployment.
Starship Trooper
Can anyone argue that it's not just a matter of time, barring a complete Luddite revolution?
Humans will merge with the machines and participate in the rapid increase in intelligence. I believe there will no longer be a clear distinction between human and machine intelligence, that it will be a unified, connected whole. (possibly a loosely connected set of tightly connected subpartitions of the whole, ok, even a disjoint set of tightly connected subpartitions or various combination thereof). Well, I didn't say exactly when, so I'm still pretty safe in this (non)prediction(!)
A danger of the Singularity that bears particular attention is that of authoritarian rule, possibly even a "tyranny of the majority". Even under current conditions, a large portion of humanity live under authoritarian rule. With the degree of control that a tightly knit network of integrated electronic and biological beings allows, the temptation for one class of beings to dictate the very thoughts of others, may completely dominate the network, long before the Singularity has truly arrived. It's possible that it won't matter, as the great leap in intelligence eventually attained will arrive at the same enlightened destination regardless of the social structure. That is a branch that I would prefer not to test, however(!) Even now, some European countries are drawing up lists of internet websites to be blocked. It is a slippery slope to expand the definition of the blacklist to include those in disfavor to the government's way of thinking, or obstacles to their ambitions.
So far, examples of network collaboration such as Wikipedia, digg, and other social sites have shown great promise in avoiding the pitfalls of anarchy. It remains to be seen how the will of the net behaves as more power is diverted to its control, or if the will of the net will be diverted and controlled by the existing powers that be. These are crucial times indeed.
