The Ethics of Technology for Population Health

Excerpt

In a recent TED talk, futurist Maurice Conti suggested that we are entering a new age of man. From the hunter-gatherer age (several millennia), to the industrial age (several hundred years), to the information age (several decades), Conti proposes that we are now entering the “Augmented Age.” In this augmented age, humans and machines will periodically merge directly and indirectly as neural interfaces allow us to interact with our physical, electronic, and virtual world more easily. While Conti is not suggesting that we will all become connected cyborgs, he does suggest that our fundamental relationship with technology and information will evolve, seamlessly. He suggests that these integrative technologies will be adopted in the same manner that society has adopted smartphones and now demands instant (free) Wi-Fi connections. …