Going by recent headlines, I must say that never in my lifetime has the possibility of humanity’s self-destruction been off set by so much hope of its survival.
Going by recent headlines, I must say that never in my lifetime has the possibility of humanity’s self-destruction been off set by so much hope of its survival.
BOLD NEW WORLDS
Going by recent headlines, I must say that never in my lifetime has the possibility of humanity’s self-destruction been off set by so much hope of its survival. Amid Stephen Hawking’s dire warnings of the fallout of science and technology, Nasa released retro posters of space tourism that can be downloaded for free. A gentle preparation, perhaps, for the day men and women will explore starry frontiers like they embarked on African safaris one hundred years ago. The technology to colonise Mars is already available and, indeed, for visionary technopreneur Elon Musk, the red planet is Plan B should Earth collapse. We are at the cusp of the next big jump in human progress, and I, for one, can thank Hollywood for preparing me for it. Sci-fi fi lms are where a science noob like me go for the The Big Explain. The struggle of Matt Damon in The Martian showed how the desolate planet can be colonised. The touchscreen technology and targeted digital marketing featured in Minority Report are already here, and, judging by developments in robotics and artifi cial intelligence, slices of Ex Machina and Terminator worlds are not too far off. In fact, for a look at how sci-fi fi lms over the years have prognosticated life now, turn to p.58.
With the multiplier eff ect of technology – where were we before the Internet again? – there’s no telling what can be achieved in the next 50 years. To get a glimpse of the futuristic machines already in development, we talk to Peter Ho (p.42), one of the whizzes behind Singapore’s engineering one-stop shop, Hope Technik. But you don’t have to be a genius to see that business opportunities abound in science and technology. App developers are everywhere. On p.48, we feature the people behind some of Singapore’s most successful start-ups. They are young, savvy and enterprising, the new wave in Singapore’s technopreneurship. Just as I am writing this, news break of the discovery of gravitational ripples that prove Einstein’s theory right. I don’t know the implications yet, but the scientists are excited. We’ll see soon.
