Pursuing Intelligence: The Cost of Civilization

Transhumanism is the notion that through technology, humans can be artificially enhanced. The ultimate goal for many transhumanists is to merge humankind with technology to create the optimal human, one that does not age, fall ill, or contain any human qualities at all.

(http://kennywastevseverything.blogspot.com/2012/07/intrafamilial-dissonance-in-don.html)

In Don DeLillo’s White Noise, the protagonist, Jack Gladney, obsesses over death and is compelled to commit murder to obtain a drug called Dylar, a pill believed to alleviate the fear of death. In his normal routine life, Jack hardly displays any emotion or reaction. However, when confronted with death, he is struck with fear and awakens from his dream-state of indifference and placid consumerism.

How does White Noise relate to transhumanism? Both Jack and transhumanists strive for a miracle pill, a scientifically- and technologically-advanced treatment for the fear of human deficiencies. Francis Fukyama writes in “Transhumanism” that “[transhumanists] want nothing less than to liberate the human race from its biological constraints” (Fukuyama).

However, how can humans liberate themselves from their own biological constraints? Technology and information has to be produced by a human hand, and perfection does not exist in the human. If Singularity is to become the “sixth epoch in the evolution of patterns of information,” it is not too far removed from the human brain, which is the third epoch (Kurzweil). Technology that is manmade can never reach perfection because of the imperfect nature of the human hand.

Bill Joy writes, “The systems involved are complex, involving interaction among and feedback between many parts. Any changes to such a system will cascade in ways that are difficult to predict; this is especially true when human actions are involved” (Joy). And the “systems” that he is referring to are antibiotics and DDT, hardly the makings of a technological singularity. When and if technology does advance to artificially-intelligent, nanotech robots designed to alter our DNA, what kind of glitches will these man-made technologies have, and at what proportions will they affect us?

Perhaps this is the cost of civilization that Friedrich Nietzsche proposes. He writes in the context of Oedipus from “Oedipus the King,” but his theory is still applicable to all information and knowledge systems. he writes, “Indeed, the myth seems to wish to whisper to us that wisdom, and particularly Dionysian wisdom, is an unnatural abomination; that he who by means of his knowledge plunges nature into the abyss of destruction must also suffer the dissolution of nature in his own person” (Nietzsche). Nietzsche argues that because the means in which to gain wisdom is unnatural, he who obtains wisdom is unnatural, and in result, the wisdom-bearer will suffer.

(http://www.kurzweilai.net/six-epochs-of-life-mural-by-nick-mayer-inspired-by-ray-kurzweil)

Frighteningly, Ray Kurzweil’s theory, the “evolution of patterns of information,” describes a universe that operates on intelligence (Kurzweil). “Looking ahead several decades, the Singularity will begin with the fifth epoch. It will result from the merger of the vast knowledge embedded in our brains with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our technology” (Kurzweil). By the sixth epoch, “the universe will be transformed into exquisitely sublime forms of intelligence” (Kurzweil). Combine Kurzweil’s theory with Nietzsche’s theory on the cost of civilization and we are presented with a doomed world in which we either cease to exist or exist in a perpetually unnatural state which will lead to our destruction.

What that destruction will be is unclear. It will forever be unclear. Joy writes that “we have yet to come to terms with the fact that the most compelling 21^st-century technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology—pose a different threat than the technologies that have come before” (Joy). However, it is clear that transhumanists are putting our human essence at stake. The very fact that Kurzweil suggest that a “precise digital mechanism” is similar to DNA is evident that humans in the physical form will cease to exist down the transhumanist path. Still, the lack of a physical body is not the extinction of the human race. “Underlying this idea of the equality of rights is the belief that we all posses a human essence that dwarfs manifest differences in skin color, beauty, and even intelligence” (Fukuyama). Transhumanism puts our “human essence” at stake, and that is the greatest cost to civilization that will paid.

Works Cited

Fukuyama, Francis. “Transhumanism.” Rpt. in Academic Writing, Real World Topics. By Michael Rectenwald and Lisa Carl. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. PDF file.

Joy, Bill. “Why the future doesn’t need us.” Rpt. in Academic Writing, Real World Topics. By Michael Rectenwald and Lisa Carl. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. PDF file.

Kurzweil, Ray. “The Six Epochs.” Rpt. in Academic Writing, Real World Topics. By Michael Rectenwald and Lisa Carl. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. PDF file.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Rpt. in “Sophocles, Oedipus the King—Some Interpretations. By Martin Reichert. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. PDF file.