August 11th, 2009 (See the About page above for more information on the underlying ideas of this blog.)
If there is anything to the majority of transhumanist claims, we are at an exceptionally interesting point in history. As technological progress accelerates, radical changes in the fabric of human life seem possible within our lifetimes. Negligible senescence, full immersion virtual reality, better minds and bodies, and neuroengineered gradients of bliss all might be possible. So might the death of the nearly 7 billion people on Earth, technological domination of a world totalitarianism, and futures in which humankind is alive but exists as something we would never have rationally chosen to become. Whether our future resembles utopia, a planetary graveyard or prison, or something in between depends on our actions as a society. Despite how bizarre it sounds to say it, it may be that all of our lives, the human race, the world, and perhaps even the galaxy are at stake. This sounds like a comic book job for Superman.
And yet not surprisingly, Superman is nowhere to be found. Calls for Batman and Spiderman have likewise turned up nothing but some movies and books. For better or worse, we live in a world without Jedis. Even futures posthumans rely on us to enable their existence, and we cannot expect cyborgs Major Kusanagi and Batou to solve our problems; JC Denton is likewise out. There is no Neo.
All we are left with is us. We don’t have superhuman fighting skills and research departments on call to invent slick gadgets. We are neither mystical wizards nor beings from another dimension, we haven’t fallen into nuclear reactors and gained godlike powers, and getting angry doesn’t give us golden hair and a thousand times our usual strength. Sadly, artistic license doesn’t allow us to get shot 20 times and straggle home. And despite desires to the contrary, we don’t yet have the technology to enable perfect memories, orders-of-magnitude faster thought, or 30 minute sprints on single gulps of air.
What we do have are foibles, eccentricities, and fixations. We have imperfections and disabilities, irrational modes of thought and poor calibration. We’re dragged down by fear and self-doubt and insecurities. We’re given to rash and ineffective violence, and to thinking in tribalistic, us-versus-them mindsets. We shake and we cry and we bleed, we get sick and we get disparaged and we get depressed. We don’t even know if we can make any difference.
And yet I think there is reason for hope that we can. History is full of examples of “ordinary humans” rising to face challenges that seemed beyond them. Abraham Lincoln once said “We are now on the brink of destruction. It appears to me that even the Almighty is against us. I can hardly see a ray of hope.” Yet his efforts were ultimately successful. And regardless of what the future may hold we are still the most powerful and intelligent creatures on this planet, and are likely to remain so for several years. Unless you believe in a god, there is no entity more able to step forward. If you could choose only one being to apply itself to these issues, it would be a human being.
Even now we can improve ourselves to become people better equipped for navigating our future. We can notice and account for our weaknesses when going forward, even as we work to reduce them. We can become more rational and better calibrated. We can manage our fears, keep our doubts well matched to reality, and face our insecurities. We can hold ourselves back from intuitive but damaging violent action, and force ourselves to remain open to new ideas, even those we most dislike, in order to best know reality and the course we ought to take. We can realize that our enemies are human error and human hatred, not human beings. And we can cultivate and maintain healthy bodies and minds, to keep us around and at our most effective.
Our actions that we take now, today and in the coming years, may determine whether humanity is a funny little short-lived oddity or the seed of a humane and joyous starfaring civilization. All that has gone before and all that will come after may rest on our shoulders. Of course it’s true it might not, maybe we’re even ”fated” to destruction or paradise, and then maybe we should just say to hell with the chance to save 6.7 billion lives, to help bring about lifetimes of potentially thousands of years and better lives for all humankind and other creatures. A person is free to throw up their hands at the task and concentrate on having the most fun they can now. But there’s some chance that what you do will matter, even if just by allowing a few more lives access to a “posthuman utopia”. And if we ever get to such a pleasant place, which life would you be more proud to have lead?
Please, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t leave the future up to unfeeling trends and social phenomena. Allow yourself to be the very best you can be, allow yourself to be great. And yes, save the world.
Comic by Ryan Armand. Click the picture for his comic, it’s pretty cool. Thanks to uionioph for filling me in on the author.