Conserving Humanity at the Dawn of Posthuman Technology

Springer Verlag (2019)
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Abstract

This volume examines the latest scientific and technological developments likely to shape our post-human future. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the author argues that we stand at the precipice of an evolutionary change caused by genetic engineering and anatomically embedded digital and informational technologies. The author delves into current scientific initiatives that will lead to the emergence of super smart individuals with unique creative capacities. He draws on technology, psychology and philosophy to consider humans-as-they-are relative to autonomy, creativity, and their place in a future shared with ‘post humans.’ The author discusses the current state of bioethics and technology law, both which policymakers, beset by a torrent of revolutionary advances in bioengineering, are attempting to steer. Significantly, Carvalko addresses why we must both preserve the narratives that brought us to this moment and continue to express our humanity through, music, art, and literature, to ensure that, as a uniquely creative species, we don’t simply vanish in the ether of an evolution brought about by our own technology.

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Chapters

Time to Return to the Sea

The final chapter makes personal observations regarding how we have experienced new social connectivity through the Internet and smartphones, better medicines and medical technology, such as imaging devices and electronic prosthetics. Progress comes in many forms and on many fronts and in some cases... see more

The Inner Eye

We turn to closing thoughts about humanity and human creativity, where as humans, we become aware when we make an effort to observe, that is to see the inner workings of something, even humanity. It takes an inner eye to see what the artist or inventor sees, standing at the edge of originality or no... see more

Lost in Time

A dialogue between Sarouk and Mensa, where she remembers that once she heard music, saw color, each as it was naturally, engineers and their technological advances separated humans from direct contact with real-world phenomena. Technology intercepted nature, as it reprocessed and repackaged sensatio... see more

Crossing Point: Respect for Form

We close the ethical considerations with a discussion of “personhood,” “human,” and “life,” each which differ in their legal, social, scientific, religious, and philosophical implications. For example, “personhood” stands in both the juridical and moral categories. These distinctions are crucial in ... see more

Middle Fields of Moral Force

This chapter raises a question advanced throughout the book: whether we ought to place limits on what we permit by way of our supposed anatomical improvements, that is the innovations and inventions discussed, and the degree to which we allow ownership vis-à-vis a patent monopoly to lay claim to ele... see more

Runaway Utility

This chapter drills down on where ethics and patents intersect. Technologies have utility in virtue of their physical form or attributes. It assumes its social position depending upon the interpretation we assign to its function. In this context, the word “utility” is a general word that relates to ... see more

The Ethical Claim

The 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights acknowledged the “inherent dignity” and “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” Dignity implies autonomy and the right to self-determination. But, because patents grant monopolies, personhood itself is put at risk as we entang... see more

Virtuous Deliberations

In this section we cover current governmental regulation and think tank policy proposals concerning gene editing. We indicate that no consensus has been forthcoming among scientists regarding the imposition of prohibitions or moratoriums to germ line editing. In March 2019, eighteen scientists and e... see more

Patenting the Transhuman

We now turn to the idea of patenting biological process and structure. American law has no inherent limitation in considering patents related to transhuman innovation. As such we might look for legislation to ban patenting these types of products. We look at current intellectual property policy, and... see more

Wheels and Genes

A dialogue between Sarouk and Mensa about how technology objectifies life. The conversation centers on the metaphor “Wheel” a word applied to how we used those things. It only meant something in the scheme of human endeavors, made for human consumption. The conversation moves into how posthumans are... see more

Inevitable Integration

We discuss a model the entirety of which influences four domains of social existence involving the individual, and society: phylogenetic , ontogenetic , sociogenic , and technologic , collectively labeled with the acronym POST. Each domain is interconnected to exchange information, process, and subs... see more

Information Colossus

Continuing the thought introduced in the last chapter, we suggest that society is a nonlinear system, which is subject to the feedback contributed by an exponential rise in technology, information, and gene/AI instantiated in humans to increase intelligence, will accelerate something along the lines... see more

Timeless Borderless Creativity

We change directions to discuss the implications of a society where a portion of its creative output begins to increase significantly. Although we associate creativity with particular individuals more times than not, especially in the Pro-C category of creativity, rarely does the creative product re... see more

The Impossible Dream

We discuss that eventually we will unravel the inner workings of all that is natural, perhaps what stands in for intelligence. We point out that in a posthuman era, diverse structural and functional revisions of the human form will exist, where life-forms at each update improve physical or mental pr... see more

Preternatural Life

In this chapter we set out four possible modes of ontological existence for humans and posthumans. This relates to how we distinguish humans from transhumans. For example, humans-as-they-are, tangible identifiable artifacts, manifest in neurological activity, such as consciousness. In turn, consciou... see more

The World Is a Chess Game

We point out that engineering can be thought of as the art of combining and manipulating naturally occurring phenomena into assuming a particular state or dynamic. We discuss how when we design something like a computer program, a bridge, or process for making steel, we do it according to a specific... see more

Assigning Rulebooks

We now turn attention to humans-as-they-are and posthumans to consider the ontological differences that may lead to a bifurcation of the species. We point out that a difference exists between things that naturally occur and things invented. Human activities can be mapped onto a tripartite set of cat... see more

Planning the Journey

This chapter discusses in vitro fertilization and how embryos will be selected, for example an intelligence trait. We have reached a crossroads where IVF can be used, not only to assist in helping an otherwise impossible pregnancy, but to assist in changing the traits in the fetus, such as intellige... see more

Far from Red and Black

A dialogue between Sarouk and Mensa, about how gaining immortality was at the expense of the idea of humanity. Gene editing could be used to cure diseases like cystic fibrosis. Doctors performing IVFs began to see that they had the answer between life, death, and human suffering, so their instincts ... see more

Storytelling

One of the defining characteristics of our species is storytelling. It is partly abstract, sometimes dependent on actual experience and at other times completely fictional, But, all storytelling engages a human experience in some way, requiring that the teller be “in the world.” We discuss that amon... see more

Programmed in Our Head

In considering the potential of computer to assist humans in the production of music, we turn to the form that some music takes in the mind itself. This initiates a lengthy discussion of memetics, which will be important in latter chapters dealing with the affect of AI and the exponential expansion ... see more

Blending Dances and Dancers

We delve into computability theory and self-reference, which places limitations on systems more generally to prove themselves self-consistent. This leads to a discussion on the limitations of music generated AI to assemble more complex works involving musical productions. Actual genre of musical pla... see more

The Intricacies of Mastery

We turn to artificially produced computer music that is hardly distinguishable from music performed by professionals. Music composition technology routinely creates Chopin-like mazurkas and Bach-like concertos, which are then played through music synthesizers or assembled orchestras. Many of the maj... see more

Music to Mind

We discuss further differences in genes and brain physiology between humans and their “evolutionary cousins” as it relates to music. No other creature creatively expresses themselves on the scale humans do, and certainly not in the domain called music. We discuss arts and literature, and how this ma... see more

The Aesthetic Machine

Continuing to expand the ideas developed in the last chapter, a difference exists between what AI-driven machines as currently constituted, and what a human mind can achieve. These two entities are each limited by respective architectural/anatomical specifications. The analogy we might draw is betwe... see more

Who Is the “Sence” in Essence

We draw upon the differences in what may be regarded as the essence between Homo sapiens and Homo futuro. In some respects, the difference presumably includes potentialities, where categories of thought and sensory experience matter. We analogize this to a blind person, who would not have the capaci... see more

Spiritual Self-Affirmation

Only humankind has the power to create from the raw materials of ideas and emotion. As breath is to the body, creativity is to the soul. It is not of substance; it comprises process energized by the uniqueness with which we each deal with our conditions, events, aspirations, passions, devotions, and... see more

Who Are We

We turn our attention to existentialism, and what it means to find the “I” of our creative core. Unlike the essence of who or what, “I” represents, the existence of the genetic code is not subjective. It does not depend on human agency. It provides for naturally occurring reproduction, mutation, and... see more

Between Eternities of Light

A dialogue between Sarouk and Mensa outlining the acceleration of evolution on a scale which seems long, but which is changing nonlinearly. Mensa remembers what life was like before technology changed the species into Homo futuro. It took billions of years before the all-pervading light of the unive... see more

Knowledge-About

We introduce a fourth type of creative activity, branching off in two directions vis-à-vis perception: toward a cognitive mode depicting the objective reality of what something represents and toward a volitive mode, where we represent how we want the creative object to materialize. In this case, we ... see more

Three Ecospheres

We delve into the realm of problem-solving, and where invention is concerned, we take one of several paths to find solutions, referred to conceptually as: combinationism, expansionism, and transformation. The individual or AI that desires to combine creative ideas can engage in any number of stratag... see more

Framing What We Mean

Individuals contribute to science, technology, and the humanities within one or more specific-domains, general-domains, and multiple domains. We discuss how the construct of intelligence, as defined by the IQ or g-factor is frequently associated with intellectual achievements related to general and ... see more

Signs of Mimetics

Mimetic isomorphism in organization theory refers to the tendency of one organism to imitate another in substance and structure, This concept may prove useful in fact, or at least as an apt metaphor, for how our ancestors mimicked nature to evolve into a creative species. Early inventions and artist... see more

Power of Imagination

We move away from computers to consider the creative process itself. Unlike computers, humans are agents of both input and output creativity, forming mental constructs that lead to artistic undertakings, productions or products, the latter often in the utilitarian sense. We associate input creativit... see more

The Struggle for Perfection

A dialogue between Sarouk and Mensa, about the inherent limitations imposed by anatomically embedded AI. Homo sapiens were different from their earlier Homo erectus relatives. In a way, Homo futuro are quite different from Homo sapiens. The latter were the first species to free themselves from menta... see more

What’s the Matter with Hal

A discussion of high powered computers, and also the inherent limitations to emulate human behavior, especially certain creative activities. Over 200 years ago, Lady Ada Lovelace, known for her contributions to Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, opined that computers could not originate anything n... see more

Automata Artificial and Otherwise

We take a deeper dive into two kinds of AI referred to as automata being used to produce music and art. Initially, automata theory was viewed as a model for behavior of neural networks, which were regarded as the mechanistic substrate of intelligence. Some considered the possibility of an artificial... see more

Fantastic Voyage

This chapter discusses nanomedicine, nano-electronic-biosensors, molecular-computers and micro-mechanical devices, all which exist in managing disease in the modern era. Other projects are underway range from designing nano-robots to perform repairs at the cellular level, and allow AI technology to ... see more

Bioengineered Computers

This chapter focuses on the organic chemistry and molecular biology technology used in developing synthetic forms of DNA for producing a wide variety of products, such as new life forms and biocomputers. Researchers are also experimenting with various sources of DNA, such as the E. coli genome, to d... see more

The Techno Mind

This discussion relates to the synthesis of new and replacement parts for the brain, including using synthetic biomolecular computers. Researchers developed an implantable biomimetic electronic device comprising a computer processor, programs and an interface, and installed it into the hippocampus o... see more

Imaginative Construction

This chapter explores consciousness and the development of artificial constructs that someday will interface to the brain and assist humans in exhibited both conventional and new forms of creativity. Neuroscientists have discovered neural correlates of subjective phenomena by manipulating neurons, v... see more

Pathways to the Brain

In reengineering parts of our anatomy that no longer function or are missing for one reason or another technologists focus on machines that are biomechanical as well as bioelectrical to transform the outer world into signals that penetrate the brain and move parts of a disabled body. Individuals, pr... see more

Machines, Computers, Software

The word “machine” often refers to a device that transforms energy into work, and within this definition we could include a heart that functions as a pump. The word machine has morphed from mechanical devices of springs and levers to natural things like human organs, and has become synonymous with w... see more

Machines to Molecules

A premise of the book is that artificial intelligence instantiated in biocomputers, will find applications in the human anatomy. AI will allow humans to think quicker and have access to greater amounts of information. In other instances, AI may assist in the creation of music, art, and literature em... see more

Different Outcomes

A dialogue between Sarouk and Mensa about biocomputers integrated into the sympathetic nervous system to slow down the production of adrenaline, and thus channel the affects of arousal and how it in turn altered perceptions and dispositions. At some point Mensa began to notice a gradual change in in... see more

Confluence of Technologies

Geneticists are attempting to fix DNA errors that cause diseases, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. Big data analytics’ platforms have constructed in genome-wide association studies , that use DNA sequencing, to do comparative studies between individuals and popula... see more

Fashioning Life Forms

We are familiar with genetically modified food, referred to as GMOs, but genetic researchers and scientists are now breeding animal species that have particular functionality, such as mice having the propensity to contract forms of cancer. These are used in medical research. Other “super” species ar... see more

The Making of Homo Futuro

Transhumanism deals with the science or technology related to the evolution of the human species. The label “posthumanism” considers similar ideas, but looks outward as to how the successors to the modern human will impact our planet and achieve harmony within the framework of ecologically complex n... see more

The Platform

Evolutionary biologists trace our beginnings back thirty-six million years ago, but about 20 million years ago we split into two lines: chimpanzee and hominid. Several versions of hominids flowered stretching over a period from 15 million to 2 million years ago. Homo sapiens, or modern humans, emerg... see more

Thin Edge of the Wedge

A dialogue between Sarouk and Mensa about how technology advanced for therapies following the 2020 timeframe. Germline editing, stimulators for pain management, depression, regulating bioprocesses like the heart, skeletal prosthetics, and artificial organs, hearts, kidneys, and the impending digital... see more

Crannies and Stacks

Creative people singled out for innovation tend to have several things in common: high levels of specialized knowledge; employ divergent thinking; and as mediated by the cortical frontal lobe, dispense neurotransmitter modulators, such as norepinephrine. The frontal lobe appears to be the part of th... see more

An Astonishing Specification

The brain has approximately 86 billion neuronal cells, and when we add supporting material, such as scaffolding and insulation for brain cells, it brings the cell count to one trillion, enough to hold three million hours of video in a typical computer. Beneath the cerebral cortex important limbic st... see more

The Form of the World

Neuroscientific theory of creativity looks at a hemispheric lateralization model. The left cortical hemisphere provides for language, focus, and our analytical abilities. The right cortical hemisphere is more holistic. Temperament has more to do with the emotional activity of a person, while persona... see more

Neurobiological Correlates

Biological mechanisms that account for variations in individual g-factors range from brain size and density to the synchrony of neural activity and overall connectivity within the cortex. Researchers uncovered evidence for the molecular genetic background of music related phenotypes such as composin... see more

Revising the Bell Curve

Related to intelligence is IQ, the heritability of which is 45% for children, and rises to 75% for late adolescents and adults. IQ is related to g-factor, which includes subsets of mental abilities related to fluid intelligence , crystallized intelligence , visuospatial processing , working memory ,... see more

A River of Humanity

The genotype is the genetic composition of an organism, our DNA, responsible for particular traits. The phenotype determines the physical appearance of an organism. The DNA is composed of single nucleotide polymorphisms that represent biological diversity. A difference in a single DNA basic pair, re... see more

The Narrative

We are self-referenced by and reflections of technology at the same time. Few of us would survive but weeks, if the world’s industrial infrastructure stopped working in any significant way. On the other hand we are the designers of this technology, and as such act as an element in a closed system, w... see more

Irrepressible Creativity

In exchange for living less strenuous lives, what we regard as “free will” is at risk of being determined by technology. We face a future where anatomically embedded processors will communicate with cloud computers, selecting what we see or hear. Additionally, genetic engineering will favor a certai... see more

A Bridge and Not an End

A dialogue between Sarouk and Mensa about whether something innate in our being keeps us evolving. Mensa thinks there is, but she is doubtful that evolving in the manner prescribed by technological specification is in the best interests of humankind. She pines for the time when people followed their... see more

Introduction

In 2018, a geneticist breached a forbidden norm, when using CRISPR gene-editing technology, he altered the genome of a pair of twins. On a related front, researchers across the world are using genomic studies involving thousands of subjects, to search for the intelligence genes, presumably to enhanc... see more

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