The Defining Moment of Mankind

I recently sat down to dinner with three close friends.  After some time, the conversation entered into some intriguing domain.  The following question was posed: “What moment in history best defines mankind?”  There are so many instances where man has done something of great significance.  How could one choose just one defining moment?  It would need to be an event of upmost importance – one that changed the course of history in a major way.  It should also reflect the nature of our species and set us apart from other ones.  After some pondering, each of us expressed our respective view on the matter.

Robo Sapiens

I want to share with you the most engaging talk that I witnessed in recent years.  The lecture, which can be found on ted.com, was given by Juan Enriquez in February 2009, as the economic collapse was beginning to be sharply felt in North America.  The eighteen minute presentation shook me to the core.  While it moves along in an entertaining fashion, it eventually ends up in extremely intriguing territory, with fascinating yet plausible predictions for the relative near future of mankind.  I will give a brief summary of the content of the lecture (link for talk).

Among other things, it is unsustainable practices that have led to the economic downturn.  Companies with tunnel vision have taken the shareholders dollar and put it through the shredder.  Today, when trying to move forward from our dark economic situation, we must be very careful where our time, energy, and of course, money, is invested.  More than ever, our focus should be held firmly upon areas with anticipated growth.  According to futurist, Juan Enriquez, our attention should turn to science, and in particular, the fields of cell growth, tissue growth, and robotics.