<- noindex -> <- print: exclude -> <- /> ad-180x150-1 ->
It’s easy to blame politicians and greedy companies by the growing gap between rich and poor, but some say it actually is sleep technology that will incite the fight Future classes.
Some experts believe that Gagdets reduction sleep intensify the problem of wage inequality across the planet. The idea is that only the wealthy can buy such equipment and thus will be the ones able to be more productive at work. It’s like they say: the rich getting richer. Night after night.
The next 20 years, military leaders will unlock the secret to need two hours of sleep a night through a “combination of apparatus and chemicals,” anticipated Marcelo Rinesi of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Rinesi provides that, so scientists solve failures and reduce the side effects, productivity stimulus machines will be available to civilians.
Just like computers, the first models of these sleeping innovations will cost thousands of dollars, providing, of course, a biological advantage to those who are already economically disadvantaged. This will trigger outrage and protests, it said. “The social and economic impact will be enormous. It will generate a lot of resentment and envy. We are not accustomed to rich people experiencing a biological experience a different life.”
“This will leave employers with lots of power, especially due to the tight labor market, while companies are starting to rely more on robots,” he added. “That’s my particular dystopia.”
Today the poorest people have shorter and less healthy lives, often plagued by obesity and disease, according to the Urban Institute. Soon, they may be forced to sleep add to the list of factors that diminish their quality of life, Rinesi said. “Sleep is not a disease – but is able, in 50 years, people say, ‘Wow, that poor guy, he needs to become unconscious eight hours a day.’”
The first sleep reduction tools are likely to be “machines that soldiers engage themselves” to monitor and adjust the neurochemistry, Rinesi said. As the design is refined, the tool will be the size of an iPod, portable, and finally will become “smaller and cheaper and better,” until it is tiny enough to be “implanted in the brain,” he said. The implants stimulate brain sections and will be complemented with drugs to speed up metabolism and regulate the chemistry of the brain and body, he said.
Professionals who earn a lot, such as lawyers and hedge fund executives will be motivated to spend extra hours working, he said. Others feel pressured to compete with robots workers, nodded James Hughes.
Think of sleep technology as the new cafe, said Hughes, author nonfiction Citizen Cyborg book: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future [Citizen-Cyborg: Why Societies They need democratic React to Human of the Future Project, in free translation].
“It will be used as caffeine and amphetamines to increase production – the new Valium,” he predicted. “In the future, the number of jobs will decline due to the robots and who does not need much sleep will be a great advantage.”
It sounds like a story from a science fiction book, but the US military is already studying ways to reduce sleep, a report of “Human Performance” funded by the Pentagon.
“The most impressive performance factor in military efficiency is the performance degradation under stressful conditions, especially a lack of sleep,” according to the report of 2008.
The report denotes a sense of urgency to be the first to master the sleep technology. “If an opposing force acquire advantage in sleep, it would be a serious threat … The manipulation and understanding of human sleep are part of the modification of the human performance program in which findings may have consequences for the country’s security,” the report said.
Five years later, the US military research arm created a mask to reduce the need for sleep. The Somneo Sleep Trainer heats the face and blocks audiovisual distractions to stimulate deep sleep quickly and allows the user to sleep better in less time, according to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Research on Defense. It also has a blue light flashing gradually as the time to wake up approaches. This would restrict the sleep hormone, melatonin, creating a less groggy feeling.
Military leaders like General George Patton, the Second World War, they use sleep as a strategy to win wars long ago, as shown by the Human Performance report. In World War II, the Nazis were taking methamphetamine to stay alert and enhance performance – called Crystal “warning aid” and “miracle pill,” according to the German author Heinrich Boll, winner of the Nobel.
From the point of view of Rinesi the sleep reduction technology is an extension of it. “We do not know very well how to keep people awake without letting them psychotic. But is the US Army or the Chinese army will find out how to do it. They have the capital and the need,” he said. “When you get into the hands of civilians, that’s going to get interesting.”
The technology has played important role in increasing the wage gap in the United States in the last 60 years. “Some economists believe that the main force behind the changes in American wage structure is the technology,” a National Bureau of Economic Research report noted. “There is a direct causal relationship between technological change and redistribution acting on the American economy.”
But restricting technology – including sleep reduction tools – is not the way to solve the problem, said Hughes. “Do not banish cabbage because it is better for you than potato chips,” he said, adding that gadgets can increase productivity and quality of life in the same way that healthy diets.
Instead, it is up to government officials help level the playing field. In the future, the solution to reduce the gap between rich and poor will not be very different from today, said Hughes. “It’s the same solution we try 150 years ago,” he added. “Tax the rich.”
Translation: Stephanie Fernandes
No comments:
Post a Comment