Individuality

After reading the article titled " Individuality" in Time magazine, it made me think about what that word really means, literally and metaphorically. Every day we as human are given the gift of free will and it leads in to being individualists. We make decisions as simple as what to wear when we get dressed in the morning and what people wear is a form of self expression. The lyrics in a song is someone's way of expressing their feelings. Emotions, thoughts, the way someone feels is all different according to one person. In the article Raymond Kurzweil, "believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans." Of course there are many ways to analyze this hypothesis. Would it be a great new discovery? Or could it be a very dangerous not so well idea? When I hear this I am very skeptical about Kurzweil's theory. It would definitely increase technology and the obvious increase IQ scores. However the thought of merging with computers makes me a little weary. If we merge with computer it defeats the purpose of being independent and being an individual. Would we even be human if there was a microchip inside of us? Wouldn't that just make us an advanced robot? Without individuality there can not be a human race the way I see it. We would all be programmed and the technology inside of us would make us who we are. The role of being a computer and controller would be reversed. When you use a computer, you decide what it types, you tell it what website to take you to, you are the controller. If we merge with computers, the microchip would tell us what to do.  With the idea that, "Maybe the artificial intelligences will help us treat the effects of old age and prolong our life spans indefinitely." I agree because hello we would be a ROBOT! Of course we could increase our life span because the computer inside of us would keep us going until it starts to break down. There is also a religious view to take into consideration, death is supposed to be a secret virtue. The religious people out there would think that this idea is unrealistic because they believe that we have to die sometime and we are not the one's to determine our fait. In fact I think that way as well. Kurzweil's theory is a little similar to the way people live in Brave New World.  They are pre determined to what social class they live in, what jobs they will have, and they are expected to die before getting "old" and the cycle continues. Technology is used in Huxley's novel, while the people sleep they hear a voice telling them to be happy to be a gamma, alpha, or beta because they have a good life. But  character Bernard believes that this is not the way things should be. He wants to believe that they should not be predetermined jobs, social classes included. I don't think that he is trying to show Lenina a romantic side, he is definitely on to something. Huxley's theory is a bit far fetched, and Kurzweil's idea is some what realistic, I would just hate to see individuality go away, if that were the case then would there really be a human race? We will have to wait to see what the future has in store for us all. 

Is this our future?