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(2017
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2017 (Index) Essay 2: Personal / professional topic |
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Tanner House
11/6/2017
Artificial Extinction
The technological progress which humanity has made in the past 100 years
is nothing short of absolutely astounding, and the more our technology advances,
the more we begin to realize the seemingly limitless potential of human
innovation. The application of modern technology is also seemingly limitless, as
we create and develop artificial systems capable of everything from simple
functions like flipping a light switch to infinitely complex functions like
landing a spacecraft on a comet hurtling through space. As we learn and
progress, our machines learn and progress as well, and humanity currently finds
itself in a position in which machine learning grows and advances at an
exponential rate. The application of this machine learning is simultaneously
exciting and alarming, as we create a future in which artificial systems and
intelligences are both our greatest tools and our greatest reminders of our
limited abilities and potentials.
This
idea is reflected through the conception of transhumanism, or the idea that
human innovation and technological progress have advanced and grown at such a
rate that our own ability to build and create has rendered natural selection
obsolete. Things which once would have been considered disadvantages or
weaknesses can now be overcome through technology, and while this is largely a
positive thing, it carries with it some seriously heavy implications about the
future of humanity. How far into technology can we be immersed before we begin
to lose ourselves? If this synthetic integration is truly the future of
humanity, will we even remain human? Is seeing the world through a cybernetic
lens even seeing the world? At the rate at which machines learn and artificial
intelligences advance, human intelligence and innovation will be obsolete within
a hundred years. Billions of years of evolutionary progress are leading humanity
down a path in which it becomes so powerful that it becomes the master of
evolution.
This
idea is both fascinating and frightening, and it is reflected through a number
of the texts and themes we have covered in our course in addition to countless
texts which we have not. Personally, this topic concerns me, as it should
concern all of humanity, as it presents a scenario in which our own creations
render us obsolete, a topic we have been concerned with since our earliest days
(Prometheus). It also presents the idea that we become “more human than human”,
and begs the question of how far can we grow and advance before we become
something else entirely? Professionally, the limitless applications of
technology are an invaluable resource which can be used to better inform and
educate the youth of the world at an unprecedented rate.
“Stone Lives” examines both the good and bad aspects of the progression
of technology and artificial intelligence. On the one hand, advanced technology
allows the disabled and disenfranchised an opportunity to artificially gap their
misgivings and shortcomings, creating a society in which we all have the
capability to improve ourselves, our standing in society, and our quality of
life. On the other hand, “Stone Lives” acknowledges the serious concerns of
humanity dehumanizing itself and creating a new sort of artificial existence.
This idea is covered in a number of other texts and stories, and the results are
often not as pleasant as they are in “Stone Lives”, which itself is not all that
pleasant. Ridley Scott’s criminally underappreciated film
Prometheus, and its sequel
Alien: Covenant reflects the original
myth of Prometheus but instead paints humanity as the creator and artificial
intelligence as the creation which comes to realize that the powers with which
its creator has imbued it give it the capacity to render its creator obsolete.
The term “transhumanism” is originally credited to British biologist
Julian Huxley, and is essentially the idea that the human condition and human
physiology can be greatly bolstered and enhanced with the integration and
further development of technology.
Common applications of transhumanism are things like cybernetic implants,
prosthetics, and machine integrated/synthesized learning. The benefits of
transhumanism are plainly clear, as they allow the disadvantaged, disabled, and
disenfranchised an opportunity to gap their shortcomings and live better and
more fulfilling lives. I take no offense at the idea of giving the blind the
ability to see, or allowing a paraplegic to move of their own free will. This
are things that are tremendously beneficial to mankind, and should be supported
and endorsed by all those whom have the ability to do so.
The
problem with transhumanism comes when it is applied to the abled, advantaged,
and enfranchised. Exceeding human capability means ascending to something beyond
human, and while this could just be interpreted as the next natural step of
evolution, I contend that there is nothing at all natural about it. I am a
student of the humanities, and I am fascinated with the human condition, and
this ascension/evolution implies something that is strictly inhuman. Artificial
integration is not natural selection. There is inherently nothing natural about
it. When studying the future it is necessary to understand the past, and here I
would invoke the story of Icarus. In presuming to better ourselves, we go too
far, to such a degree that we become something that is no longer ourselves. The
evolutionary process takes place rather meticulously over the course of millions
of years, and we will (relatively) soon hold in our hands a power capable of
replicating that process in a matter of centuries. The record of history shows
us that humanity is tremendously irresponsible when entrusted with the greatest
powers which it knows, and there are some serious moral and ethical questions
that need to be considered in the field of transhumanism that either are not
being asker or are not being emphasized, and this irresponsibility could very
well lead to the destruction of humanity.
The biological argument for transhumanism is largely wrapped in the
concept of the “superficiality of species membership”, the idea that our
conception of humanity is a largely arbitrary idea, and may even be limiting our
potential for discovery and progress. German philosopher Michael Schmidt-Salomon
proposed the idea of “Evolutionary Humanism”, essentially stating that
evolutionary theory is open to and influenced by judgments of morality, and that
evolutionary theory needs to be considered with principles of humanism in mind.
This argument is more eloquently articulated by the character Dr. Ian Malcolm in
Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park,
as he observes of the unnatural process of evolution that the scientist of the
novel have created that “you spent so much time wondering if you could, you
never stopped and asked yourselves if you should”. As we move further and
further down the rabbit-hole of technology, these concerns become more prevalent
and more alarming, and as I expand this essay to include my research on and
concerns about artificial intelligence I will continue to refer to these
theories of transhumanism, evolutionary humanism, and the superficiality of
species membership.
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