Information Overload

While beginning to read Feed by M.T Anderson, it made me realize how scary our future could be depending on the route that technology takes. The basic concept to Feed is neural implants placed in humans and essentially the wealthier you are the smarter you are by having the ability to purchase a more advanced feed. It is frightening to think that this could ever be a possibility for the future of our country. The whole so-called “American dream” would disintegrate and evaporate into nothing if this were to come about. There would be no hope at rising to the top based on your abilities or what you were best suited for, everyone would be engineered based on the amount of money your family makes. Now many of you may think to yourself how likely is this really that people would allow neural implants placed in their brains and to a certain extent yes this is true that method probably wont come about if at all until

hundreds and hundreds of years from now. But we have to think about the other ways this could come to be more specifically technology that is already present within the scientific community today, genetic engineering. It is already possible to pick the sex of your baby from the womb and to edit the genes searching for genetic mutation, how far off are we from hand picking the traits our children receive? The fact is that this selective process is a pricey endeavor as well and so if the technology came about where we were able to hand select how smart our children would become based on their genes then there is no doubt the wealthier classes would get an advantage. This advantage would be a repeated process where the rich would stay at the forefront of developments and at the top of the academic sphere and those from more humble means would have no chance to get ahead in the world. So the question that is presented is should we continue on in developments and hope we don’t end up in a society similar to the one found in Feed or should we place restrictions and enforce rules to keep these developments in check making it a fairer environment for everyone and ensuring the American Dream.