IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2016 - 63

"Aboriginal, one that had existed
for two million years. Nothing artificial, endowed with what nature supplied, not connected to a network."
"And, physical appearance?"
"Upright creature. Outwardly not
altogether different from today, a
body, two arms, two legs, a head,
with a brain for abstract thinking
and feeling. My height, nearly two
meters. A tall girl in my day."
"Are you saying that you used no
artificial enhancements, or germline
alterations?"
"My parents, called Millennials,
born in the century before me, were
oblivious to things like cyborg technology, genetic enhancements, and
even climate change. By the time I
entered the workforce, late 2030s,
technology had already been used
widely for therapies, like stimulators
for pain management, depression,
regulating bioprocesses like the
heart, skeletal prosthetics, and artificial organs, hearts, kidneys. This
was the first wave. Augmentation
technology to survive the meltdown
came later, in the 2060s, and then of
course the enhancements, the third
wave, to increase mental acuity."
"Fascinating Helen, go on."
"Back then, any two of us looked
the same, as far as form. But, internally, many were being enhanced
through implants, like a heart or a
pancreas. Beginning in the '60s,
some were chosen for notification
technologies to survive the meltdown. And not until the '80s did we
begin to incorporate devices that
helped us think quicker, more logically. On the outside, we looked the
same. Inside, we were diverging into
different technologies, all with the
same objective: survival and superior intellect."
"Are you suggesting that these
differences created, for the lack of a
better descriptor, different species?"
"Not exactly. Although the germline alteration business was
DECEmber 2016

proliferating, most pro creation still resulted
in aboriginal offspring.
These "feel good" technologies
But anatomies were
gradually being modiwere available to anyone, subject
fied by different equipto cost - many designed to alter
ment, ap plications,
installed at younger and
sensations, what we felt.
younger ages. Between
germline alterations
and hard technology,
we shifted into different spheres,
influence arousal, curiosity, and
what our predecessors referred to
motivational intensity."
as demographics."
"What do you mean, exactly?"
"But, the main point was to sur"We've forgotten that early on
vive, increase longevity, right?"
stimulators were prompted by
"Yes, therapeutic technology was
the need to survive environmenheaded there. Yet, it was impossital changes. As such they were
ble to deal with simply the physical
integrated into the sympathetic
body without wanting to improve
nervous system to slow down the
the psychology of individuals, their
production of adrenaline, and thus
outlooks, and of course treat emochannel the effects of 'arousal.'
tional disturbances, like depresFor instance, while increasing our
sion. Psychotropic medications had
sensitivity to temperature change,
been around for a hundred years,
it damped 'flight" response,' or
both drugs and in the '20s, deep
the impulse to act precipitously.
brain electronic stimulators."
Once installed, these types of
"Were they installed just to alleviprocessors gave the network time
ate illness?"
to size-up threats, before trans"No, these "feel good" techmitting to our processors, how
nologies were available to anyone,
to respond."
subject to cost. Many designed
"But, how did that change peoto alter sensations, what we felt.
ple? Did it alter their perceptions,
Affectively."
their dispositions?"
"Affectively?"
"I can say, I'm not the person
"Yes, some backed technolotoday that I was a hundred or even
gies that reduced emotional barrififty years, ago. My temperament,
ers, so we could see things for what
cognitive focus, and even socializathey were, impartially. Introversion,
tion changed each time a new operintrospection, forms of self-awareating system was downloaded."
ness, neuroticism and narcissism,
"How did it affect socialization?"
were suppressed. Systems that
"Close friends and relatives evenfavored cognitive over affective
tually drifted away into their own
thinking, over time, produced perspace, we became different in how
sonalities with lesser degrees of
we each saw the world. And, then we
openness, extraversion, and great
began to lose touch, not because we
levels of agreeableness."
were incorporating different operat"Were there attempts to deal
ing systems, but because somehow
with attitudes, say empathy or
the technology was de-socializing,
indifference."
partitioning us into electronic spac"They came at this a little difes where we could no longer effecferently, developing technology to
tively communicate. Protocols were
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