Extinction

[Digit]

Re #71118, of course Wikipedia has an article on Human extinction.

[Talons]

Not quite as awesome as Zed's response. Thanks for that enjoying read which well exceeded my expectations. I can't believe that I forgot to ask about The Matrix scenario, where every human is permanently hooked up to a BCI.

[Zedability]

I can totally see BCIs being developed, just because it's going to start as ways to help patients who have strokes or have locked-in syndrome or whatever. And eventually, it could become common enough that people use that for more minor advantages, like perfect memory or something. But if there's any sort of network they're connected to, I think there would be a lot of concern over safety and stuff. Like, antivirus software is never going to develop at a faster pace than the viruses themselves, and there could be serious consequences for agency. And if BCIs could become small enough to be unnoticeable, it's possible that some governments would be tempted to use them for dictatorial purposes. But I think all those problems would be recognized very quickly, and if BCIs did become common, they would either be isolated systems instead of networked systems, or they would have safeguards built into them that allowed people to control their BCIs as much as the BCI controlled them, essentially. I would give a 9.5/10 for them being in use for the next 1000 years, a 6/10 for them being used to subdue criminals or the mentally ill, and a 2/10 for them being used by governments or terrorists to assert control over a population.

[Talons]

What about in terms of addiction? We already saw people spending every waking moment in World of Warcraft. There's potential for addiction there, especially if you add in some sort of chemical pleasure response as in Star Trek:TNG episode The Game

[Zedability]

That's very true. I guess I was lumping all non-enforced use under the 9/10. There's already rampant video game addiction in some places.

[Emiliana]

Potato potato potato.

That's all.

[Talons]

I see. Well, thanks for indulging a sci-fi nerd. You will be missed around these parts.

[Zedability]

Thanks