Biggest upheaval coming in smallest bits

“You haven’t seen anything yet”. That’s what people often like to say. The latest developments in the field of medicine and technology are taking that tantalising statement to a whole new level. Imagine “doctors” so small that you can’t see them, coming in enormous numbers that you can’t possibly think of. They are meticulous and relentless. Their destination? Your troubled heart, or kidney, or lungs or blood veins etc.
It might take a bit more time for the “Nanobots” to be highly efficient enough to double or triple human lifespan. But with the exponential speed of technological advancement, who knows. And the latest disclosures are promising. According to a CNN report, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich an ambition is fast becoming a reality – to develop microscopic robots that are guided by externally generated magnetic fields for use in the human body. Simply put, the day may soon come when millions or billions of the tiniest “doctors” could be sent into your body to fix troubled spots.
Science fiction? Nobody dares to say so any more. Nanotechnology is pervasive nowadays but it is just getting started – or taking baby steps, so to speak. Computer smartness is going in the opposite direction of the computer’s size. Nobody can accurately predict the speed of technology, but globalisation means new tools and new ideas are feeding off each other, every minute, every second. It’s likely that kids of the near future will watch “Transcendence” or “Lucy” and call it “underestimation” rather than wild imagination.
Already, people in the nanotechnology field are thinking big. Many possibilities are beyond the realm of medicine. CNN said that water treatment or environmental clean-up could become more effective. An army of trillions and trillions of robotic oil-spill cleaners could swim nonchalantly through murky waters and get rid of the pollutants. But that may not cause an upheaval like another perceived mission of the nanobots. What if, experts now say, we can use the tiny little things to revolutionalise “learning”?
Science fiction, in the past and at present, loves the idea of “uploaded” knowledge. The move “The Matrix” shows someone who did not know how to ride a certain type of motorcycle become a daredevil rider in an instant, thanks to a swift downloading of new knowledge and skills. The people questioning such a possibility should consider the fact that a respectable expert is foreseeing such a revolution. MIT digital guru Nicholas Negroponte believes that in the future, we can receive information and knowledge directly from nanobots that swim through our bloodstreams up our brains and imprint whatever is meant to be imprinted.
Again, there will be controversies. A movie, “Strange Days”, many years ago presented a controversial concept of people buying other people’s “experiences”, sexual or whatever. There were “stolen” experiences or “experiences for sale” showcased in the 1995 film. The movie was, and probably remains, thought-provoking, but it didn’t even touch on nanotechnology. In other words, the “experiences” were transferred temporarily in the film, not permanently implanted.
“I’m tired of trying to catch up with technology.” That’s what people often say. Ironically, ultimate technological developments may help provide a solution for the tired souls. What nanobots can do may be limitless, and “uploaded knowledge” is certainly among the possibilities. If that happens, the game will change big time and across the board. Our great, great grandchildren, possibly, may not need to play catch-up anymore.