[Lunaverde]

Science Fiction has long been the only genre in literature that really looks at the possible future of humanity and our technology. Some of it has been eerily accurate -- seems to me we here in the US are currently living in a blend of Brave New World and 1984.

The question is will technology really change human culture to the radical degree depicted in some of the current Singularity post-human novels, for instance? These authors generally seem to plot worlds where the advent of the Singularity somehow destroys capitalism. Because nanotech allows a post-scarcity world, plenty of everything for everyone, capitalism simply is no longer needed. Also, they seem to like the idea of freewheeling, cooperative, anarchist societies as a natural result of the hypertechnology. While I very much like these ideas, and hope the human race does manage to overcome capitalism and turn to a more ethical cooperative anarchism, I wonder if it will come about due to technology. Or will it be caused by something else, if it happens at all? Personally, I rather doubt it will ever reach that kind of egalitarian height, but one can always hope!

Perhaps cyborgs -- if we ever do develop that kind of capability -- will be the new underclass. Perhaps it will be the genetically modified humans or animals who will be the underclass. Some of the most beautiful speculations on the genecically modified underclass (animals in this case)were written back in the early l960s by Cordwainer Smith. The Dead Lady of Clowntown story has never been topped in my opinion, as a wonderful look at this issue. Humans tend to be hierarchical, and all our technology so far has not changed the basic monkey-brain and monkey-cells that we operate from. I don't know if advancing technology really will advance human ethical systems, nice thought though it may be.