Technotronic Society: Living to 1,000 Years Old and Technological Feudalism.

The "technetronic" society - "a society that is shaped culturally, psychologically, socially, and economically by the impact of technology and electronics—particularly in the area of computers and communications." that Zbigniew Brzezinski predicted in his book, Between Two Ages : America's Role in the Technetronic Era is here.  In this book, he argued that in order to prevent global instability from emerging from economic equality, developed nations would have to come together to coordinate policy.  In other words, a new world order.

It's interesting to note that two years prior to writing the book, "Between Two Ages", Brzezinski wrote an article called "America in the Technetronic Age" for the CIA-funded publication , "Encounter Magazine" which is no longer published, of which he wrote:.

"At the same time, the capacity to assert social and political control over the individual will vastly increase. As I have already noted, it will soon be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and to maintain up-to-date, complete files, containing even most personal information about the health or personal behaviour of the citizen, in addition to more customary data.

These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities. This will encourage tendencies through the next several decades toward a technotronic era, a dictatorship, leaving even less room for political procedures as we know them.

Finally, looking ahead to the end of the century, the possibility of biochemical mind control and genetic tinkering with man, including beings which will function like men and reason like them as well, could give rise to some difficult questions". - Zbigniew Brzezinski, "America in the Technetronic Age" The Encounter. January, 1968

There is no doubt that humanity is on the cusp of developing the capacity to transcend itself, creating a superior life-form that will transcend human limits. This, hands down, is the biggest challenge to society in this new age...actually,  in the history of humankind, this potential ability to transform man into Nietzsche's "Overman" (Übermensch), essentially, god-men.

According to gerontologist Aubrey de Grey the person who lives to be 1,000 years-old has already been born. This should raise the question, who gets to live to be 1,000-years old? Because, surely, this only applies to those who can afford to live that long. We can't even deal with the extended life span of baby boomers, most of which will not even make it to 100 years!  Not to mention, our current materialistic value system, where, as Martin Luther King said, "machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people", makes the likelihood of an extension of even 50 years very problematic for the 99%.

The exploitative transnational elites.

And unfortunately, from what we've seen thus far, the maxim, 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, is absolutely true. Not so long ago, the manifestation of this maxim was clearly seen in Nazi Germany, which one can argue, lurks beneath the surface of our current political power structure. Truth be told, a covert system of eugenics and classism is already in place.  Granted, this system cannot be compared to Hitler's system; however, the less money, the less white, the less power and status you have, the less likely it is that you will receive health care,  or have the resources needed to extend your lifespan.   However, now that we're face to face with the prospect of people living 1,000 years, to be sure, the emergence of a bolder, in your face techno-eugenics system of mass control and technological feudalism/classism is all but inevitable. That is, if left in the hands of the exploitative, transnational elites, which, of course, it will be..

In 1958, Aldous Huxley wrote in Brave New World Revisited, “The future dictator’s subjects will be painlessly regimented by a corps of highly trained social engineers.” He quotes an advocate of this new science: "The challenge of social engineering in our time is like the challenge of technical engineering 50-years ago. If the first half of the twentieth century was the era of technical engineers, the second half may well be the era of social engineers." He then went on to say, “The twenty-first century, I suppose, will be the era of World Controllers, the scientific caste system and Brave New World.”

As Brzezinski noted, "in the industrial age, the introduction of the machine was the beginning of utopia; for others it meant the unleashing of evil".  In the technotronic age, the introduction of transhumanism is the beginning of utopia; for the great majority it means the potential unleashing of an evil that most cannot imagine.

"Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. . . .There are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequence that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence." —Herman Hesse, Steppenwolfe

Related Links:

In An Appraisal of the Technologies of Political Control, author Steve Wright observed that a revolution in military affairs was indeed occurring, and warned that the technology will be used by the security forces of various countries for suppressing internal dissent.