A professor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has said that within 200 years, humans may become god-like cyborgs as men and technology gradually merge to live forever.
Yuval Noah Harari said that wealthy humans, who can afford expensive "upgrades", will turn into man-machine hybrids as cyborg technology makes it possible to merge computer technology and living flesh.
Harari added that the merger of machine and man will be the "biggest evolution in biology" after life emerged on Earth four billion years ago. The historian and author of a book that charted human history said that humans would evolve to be god-like having power over death.
The cyborg-like humans of the future would also be different from humans that exist today as humans are from chimpanzees. Harari said that because of dissatisfaction, humans would not be able stop themselves from giving in to the temptation to upgrade either by genetic engineering or technology.
"I think it is likely in the next 200 years or so homo sapiens will upgrade themselves into some idea of a divine being, either through biological manipulation or genetic engineering of by the creation of cyborgs, part organic part non-organic," Harari said.
The Cyborg technology, however, would only be limited to the wealthiest members of the society, which means that it could widen the gap between the affluent and the poor. In the future, those who have money have the possibility to live forever but the poor would die.
Harari pointed out that religion is the most important human invention but the last few centuries were marked by humans not needing the crutches of the gods as they become powerful. He said that humans no longer need god, only technology.
Harari added that from a religious perspective, the world's most interesting place is not Middle East but Silicon Valley because this is where techno-religion is being developed and where people believe that death is just another technological problem to be solved.
Harari's warning came as a Hannah Critchlow, a Cambridge scientist, said that humans could download their brain into computers so they can live forever as machines, a concept portrayed in movies. Critchlow said that a computer that is capable of recreating the 100 trillion connections in the brain could possibly be made, which in essence would make it possible for people to live inside a machine.
Photo: Linus Bohman | Flickr
