Exponential Ethics

What do you fear about the future? Is it robots? Is it our inability to keep up with emerging technologies? Within a few decades, we could see technological changes never before witnessed—ageless societies, software-based immortal humans, cybernetic organisms, and means of transport at lightning speed. Can we coexist with machines that will be smarter, faster, and wiser than humans? Will we blend with technology, or will a new dimension of “humans” emerge? What are the implications of human intervention in evolution, and can we do it responsibly? 

Ultimately, should ethics play a role? If yes, how? 

Ethics must keep up with the exponential progress of technology. Ethics should leapfrog and facilitate public debates, not only among rulers but also among influential contemporary thinkers, philosophers, scientists, engineers, and prominent science fiction authors. Students should also be empowered to reflect before creating new disruptive innovations. 

We don’t want to slow down progress; we want to befriend it.  This coming decade will be the most pioneering decade in history, and exponential technologies will lead to exponential innovation. We should strive to take this journey, conscious of the risks we are facing, and raise a call to action for openly discussing the social repercussions these technologies could have if left only to their “makers”—a call to action in pursuit of exponential ethics.