# Can Technology Wake up and Come Alive by Robert Aunger > “Bill Joy, the prominent computer scientist, argued in a Wired article last year that "the future doesn't need us" because other creatures, artificial or just post-human, are going to take over the world in the 21st century. He is worried that various technologies — particularly robotics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology — are soon going to be capable of generating either a self-conscious machine (something like the Internet "waking up") or one capable of self-replication (nanotechnologists inspired by the vision of Eric Drexler are currently attempting to create a nano-scaled "universal assembler"). If either of these events came to pass, it would surely introduce major changes in the planetary ecology, and humans would have to find a new role to play in such a world. But is Joy right? Do we have to worry about mad scientists producing some invention that inadvertently renders us second-class citizens to machines in the next couple of decades? (Joy is so distraught by this prospect he would have everyone stop working in these areas.)” > **— Robert Aunger**, *2002, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Question? ... Why?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Is technology going to 'wake up' or 'come alive' anytime in the future?](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11790) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2002 Annual Question collection, *WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION? ... WHY?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2002 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2002 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|AI in the 1970s]] - **Article:** [[articles/Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession|Nolan's Odyssey]] - **Article:** [[articles/Cyber-Physical Lessons from Imperial Beekeeping|Cyber-Physical Beekeeping]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] - [[wiki/Transhumanism|Transhumanism]] - [[wiki/Genetic Recombination|Genetic Recombination]] - [[wiki/Evolutionary Covariation|Evolutionary Covariation]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Bill Joy, the prominent computer scientist, argued in a Wired article last year that "the future doesn't need us" because other creatures, artificial or just post-human, are going to take over the world in the 21st century. He is worried that various technologies — particularly robotics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology — are soon going to be capable of generating either a self-conscious machine (something like the Internet "waking up") or one capable of self-replication (nanotechnologists inspired by the vision of Eric Drexler are currently attempting to create a nano-scaled "universal assembler"). If either of these events came to pass, it would surely introduce major changes in the planetary ecology, and humans would have to find a new role to play in such a world. But is Joy right? Do we have to worry about mad scientists producing some invention that inadvertently renders us second-class citizens to machines in the next couple of decades? (Joy is so distraught by this prospect he would have everyone stop working in these areas.)” — Robert Aunger, 2002, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Question? ... Why?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-robert-aunger-technology-wake-come-alive ```