Harbus

Issue date: 11/19/07 Section: Viewpoints & Humor

My last question was: What do you think is the biggest drawback of our world becoming increasingly hi-tech? Ray Kurzweil responded by pointing out that ever since man discovered fire, innovation can be turned to good or to harm, and that he believed a key current threat was the spectre of bioterrorism hijacking scientific advances meant as cures and using them to make more communicable or deadly viruses. He believes that the answer is to continue to advance the response systems to such a threat, such as our ability to create effective medication within days, based on interfering with RNA to turn off new viruses within days. Unsurprisingly, he is working on such a program at the moment.
Somewhat disturbed by such a specific and well-thought-out doomsday scenario, I decided not to ask Philip this question: partly because time was short, but also because he is so relentlessly enthusiastic and optimistic about the potential of technology in general and virtual worlds in particular, it would have felt like stealing a ball from a playful puppy. Instead I leave you with his answer to a question from the audience: if no-one is in-world on Second Life at any particular time, do the trees still move in the wind? His answer was a confident yes, leaving me with the feeling that perhaps the virtual world is a little more certain than the real one, philosophically speaking.

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