The Augmented Age

We are currently living in the Information Age, and the Industrial Age is still lingering around, but fading away rapidly. However, there are already large numbers of people in this world living in the Augmented Age. However, those people are currently leaping fast ahead of the rest of humanity, and soon we will find ourselves witnessing an uncertain Augmented Divide.

The term Augmented Age embodies an Age where all physical objects not only generate information, but also a virtual information layer which augments the value and usability of those objects.

The best current rudimentary example of the Augmented Age is the smartphone. It is not only a device of the Information Age, but a device heralding the new age. In essence the smartphone and specifically some apps, are augmented reality windows. Microsoft Windows provided us with the windows into the Information Age, smartphones are providing us fuggy windows into the Augmented Age.

The most basic example of the Augmented Age is a Google Maps app, It not only gives us information layered on maps, but also augments the view of terrains. This augmented reality provides us real time changing information layered on the existing physical world. The Augmented Age is not only static information, but real time changing information. This augmented layer is derived from a multitude of variables with the human as the starting point. This augmented layer is crowd sourced, internet of things sourced, and predictive.

More importantly, the information is partially not man made, but machine made by self driving cars and algorithms based on basic artificial intelligence. The Augmented Age is no longer only a human intelligence creation as the Information Age. Rather it is a collaboration of Information created between ape, human, and the nascent computer intelligence.

Currently we only have windows into the augmented world, tiny holes in the wall we look into this new world. However, soon we will have augmented glasses or devices that will gives the ability to see the entire world in an augmented manner. In the process itself, our bodies will be augmented by these devices, which at first will only augment our sense of sight. However, in the future our bodies, organs, intelligence, and many other bodily elements will be augmented.

The benefits and realities of this world to come are difficult to predict. Nonetheless, we should not only be concerned with predicting the benefits, but also the dangers of this new age. We need to realize that those among us who take full advantage of this Augmented Age will be more successful, productive, healthy, among many other things than those of us who don't. In result, an augmented divide will fall upon us, and for those left behind there might never be catching up to those living in the Augmented Age. The questions is, will we choose to live in a world of apes, humans, and augmented humans? Will we all be created equal?