Future Society

I have often wondered what we will be like in years to come, I keep hoping that as a race we will finally become peace loving and respectful of our planet. Somehow I doubt this will ever come to pass, the Utopian ideals of fantasy never seem to come about.

However, saying that, I seem to feel that there is a certain truth emerging from an Asimov novel, namely The Naked Sun.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure, the book is a basic whodunnit based on a planet called Solaria, a planet of 20,000 people served by millions of robots which has left its population living solitary lives. Obviously I don’t see this happening any time soon in our future, but what I do see is what Asimov was warning us about in his novel, that technology is steadily breaking down social interaction and replacing it with an abhorance of personal contact. In his dystopian vision of this planet, humans did not interact in person at all, every interaction took place using holograms or messages.

Sounds familiar? I bet most of you spend an unhealthy amount of time on Facebook or Twitter, happily chatting away to your friends to keep in touch. Imagine how this will be in a couple of decades. I already know people who’s only method of socialising is through their computer screens. In fact I would consider quite a few of my online mates better friends than some of my real acquaintances. 

It’s a sad thing to realise, as the world becomes more populated and technologically advanced people get ever more lonely.