Information technologies are growing at exponential rates. We know that we will soon have computing powers that will be trillions of times more powerful than all human brains that have ever existed thinking simultaneously. Whatever can be done by A.I. will be done by A.I. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality will usher in an age of Real Virtualities.

With the strides being made in Genetics, future generations of poets will compose genomes and create new species of life with the same fluency that Blake and Byron wrote verses – as Freeman Dyson puts it. Computing with DNA, spintronics (computing with the spin of electrons), Li-Fi, and quantum computing are all works in progress and will become commonplace in the coming decades. We are seeing compression in Space-Time-Matter-Energy. Various forms of smart agents, Artificial Intelligences, Cyborgs, and direct machine-brain interfaces are already among us.

The merger of biological and non-biological intelligence, immortal humans integrated with software, and greater-than-human intelligence that expands outward in the universe at the speed of light – is that our destiny?

FUTURISM presented by Awecademy in collaboration with HP is an 8-part educational series designed by Rohan Roberts, that takes a techno-philosophical and techno-optimistic view of the future. The series offers new insights and new perspectives into how emerging technologies will shape our lives in the future and change human society in surprising ways.