Monday, July 23, 2007

Technium: the 7th kingdom of life?



The Edge has published an speculative essay
by Kevin Kelly of Wired
magazine. In it, he explains his use of the word technium to describe
the whole system of technology as it exists in our world. Technium, he
says, "has its own inherent agenda and urges, as does any large
complex system, indeed, as does life itself."
He explains his idea
further by saying that technium is the child of humanity but that with
each new technology like AI, robotics, and genetic engineering, it
challenges our notions of what it means to be human. And the bit about
the 7th kingdom? "There are roughly six kingdoms of life according to
Lynn Margulis and others. As an extropic system that originated from
animals, one of the six kingdoms, we can think of the technium as a
7th."
An essay full of interesting, if unusual, ideas.

Source: http://www.netchain.com

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