You are likely reading this on a device given you by technology. Human nature combined with natural components drive technology. Provided that people of earth all get the memo (and join earth rather than just beating her) more and more enhancement of the human body will be devised. Already there is concern about the ownership rights of DNA, not just human DNA, but everything from plant and microbial DNA to that of endangered species.
To cure disease, to save agriculture, perhaps the idea of possessing information may have to fade out. The idea of sharing “ownership” as nature does may have to be adapted; a forest is not a commodity to any of its inhabitants, so much as it is a community. Human centered social engineering methods have all failed to some degree, given the deplorable condition of earth after colonialism and industrialization.
The only way in which future technology and science can enhance the human species is by free and open dissemination of information, such as is done by the internet. Also needed is the human comprehension that life is a complex dynamic of inter-dependent systems. Once that is achieved, there is no reason to believe that humanity will not continue to enhance every sense they have. Magnification and photography will enhance seeing, new innovations will enhance listening, even to deep space, improved fuel (hopefully clean) systems and smart grids will enhance the strength of humans to move objects to manipulate and optimize regeneration of everything from human tissue to rainforests. Robots will be devised to be our best organic farmers, and nano-technology combined with genetic engineering can push the meaning of being a senior citizen to well past 100 years.
Perhaps the greatest innovation will be in ideas themselves. People can now fairly well grasp the idea of a meme. That innovation and adaptation are driven by shared societal connection matters. The old idea that man is the master and nature must be controlled is slow to die, and will probably be only toppled when severe damage to earth’s ecology is no longer possible to ignore. Yet, as resilient as nature is, what ever species come through the bottle neck will have the invaluable knowledge of how to learn from nature rather than trying to dominate her. Society’s improved values will demand a durable and sustainable society rather than a throw away and degraded one.
The greatest lesson that nature has for humanity is belonging. The second greatest lesson is that her laws are universal and apply as much to humans as to the more than human world. For example nature demonstrates how nothing should be wasted in an economy of abundance, seeds become nutrients, waste becomes food, and death always becomes life.
Although this may portend an uncomfortable zombie apocalypse for the cynics, it means full vitality of all inter-connectedness for living beings. Every genius, Da Vinci, Newton, Einstein, and more, knew that unveiling nature’s laws is how to reveal truth. Applying nature’s laws to innovate everything from Velcro to skin tissue is the task of the new technology engineers.
