The Age of Superabundance

PART 01 — The Age of Hyper-Acceleration

Humanity Touches the Realm of the Gods

Exponential technology has reached the level of miracle: In the Christian New Testament there is a passage that reads, "I was blind, but now I see." Ever since, restoring sight to the blind has served as the benchmark for measuring divine power. In 1968, Stewart Brand wrote in his book Whole Earth Catalog, "We are as gods and might as well get good at it." From Stewart Brand's point of view, that is a crucial yardstick for judging how well we humans are doing at acting like gods.

This is where Max Hodak, founder of Science Corporation, enters the picture. His company restores sight to the blind using a tiny retinal implant and an infrared optical device. In other words, performing miracles is his business. Prima is a photovoltaic microchip two millimeters across. Inside it are roughly 400 light-activated pixels that replace the retinal photoreceptors lost to macular degeneration. In clinical trials in Britain and Europe, all 32 participants who had been legally blind saw their vision improve, and average acuity rose from seeing nothing at all to being able to recognize faces (a miracle, quite literally, had occurred).

This raises one momentous question.