Animals are becoming extinct all over the world, but there's one major species that might just be being overlooked. Humans may or may not be the next extinct species. The pace of society and the progression of technology is moving so rapidly that in a few hundred years, humans might still exist but the core of what makes us human may well possibly be gone. When I was younger, I never liked reading science fiction novels or watching movies that referred to some mystical future world. I found them so silly and far-fetched. But little did I know how different the world would be by the time I was 18 and in college. All those silly science fiction novels no longer seem so far fetched. Movies like "Pixels" (which is meant for family and children) or "Interstellar" are exciting and mind-blowing, but the futuristic worlds they are set in don't seem so far away anymore. Video game characters coming alive? Traveling through wormholes to try to save humanity? Nothing is impossible anymore.
As I was reading Kurzweil's essay, one scary question kept popping into my head. What on earth will we be in a few years? In my opinion, what makes humans unique is our ability to process information, absorb and connect an unlimited wealth of knowledge, and our capacity of feeling. Technology has already made it possible for robots and other engineered forms of technology to process information and possess knowledge. In a few years, perhaps these nanoengineered bodies will be able to "feel" things as well. When that day comes, what is the point of us anymore? We are destroying ourselves, and wiping our own species extinct by trying so hard to reach perfection. I believe we have crossed the line of trying to improve the quality of living, and now we are in a race towards a dystopian future that I used to think only existed in fictional books.
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