Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds and Our Bodies--and What it Means to be Human was a huge book for me. I still remember where I was when I read it in one sitting, unable to put it down. In this non-fiction book that read too much like fiction, the author Joel Garreau laid out the GRIN technologies (Genetics, Robotics, Information, and Nano) in a simple way, then projected them out 30 years to show the promises and perils. Reading about human genes fused with bird genes to create X-Men characters seemed completely far out--this was the year 2006. I remember telling people about this book and about the strange things I had read, and their looks of concern for my mental health.
Now, a short time later, my imagination was struck by an article in the Daily Mail with the headline:
A powerful generation of 'X-Men' SUPERHUMANS will be here in less than 100 years, claims expert.
The expert is Michael Bess, author of Our Grandchildren Redesigned: Life in the Bioengineered Society of the Near Future. In this book, Bess argues that under the guise of healing the sick and extending life and defeating death, human beings are being given the tools to completely redesign themselves. And this, as with Garreau mentioned above, will lead to a promise vs. peril reality. For instance, humans in this future of a few decades will be able to fine-tune their moods, communicate anywhere in the world in 3D, and have myriad relationships with artificial intelligence; however, those who have the money to enhance their bodies and brains will be given an immeasurable advantage over those who don't, thus creating an insurmountable gap between rich and poor, unless enhancement comes with equal opportunity.
The enhancement technologies Bess lays out are pharmaceuticals, prosthetics, and genetics. But we are already using these technologies: we are using pharmaceutical already to enhance our moods and brain function; and some are wondering already if such enhancement is fair or simply cheating.
Through prosthesis, implants, and other bioelectric devices, we are enhancing ourselves physically, as well as increasing our abilities to communicate with robots, computers, and the internet. Look at the biohacker movement--people who are hacking their bodies through chip implants--and you'll see this world of superhumans emerging.
And through genetics we are not only understanding disease prevention, but also enhancing human potential through engineering. These are early stages of development, but they will expand rapidly over time. What will cause this great expansion of human potential through technology is exponential growth: that technology builds on itself by using the latest breakthrough to create the next one. Hence, technology doesn't extent incrementally but exponentially--in explosive waves that are often untraceable.
I agree with Michael Bess: these expansions of human potential will happen within the next few decades. We are indeed at a tipping point of what it means to be human. And there are many people, some I've written about in this blog, who have the money and the smarts and the gall to create the next superhuman race. Indeed, with modern technology humans would already look superhuman to the people of the past. When the Spanish Conquistadors under Pizzaro entered the Incan Empire, the Incan's thought they were gods riding on strange animals and bearing flashing weapons. Imagine what humans of today would appear to a Spanish Conquistador.
Bess's concern is a salient one: that we are literally redesigning the next generation of humans. And yet, Bess claims, this redesign could be important to try to become requisite with the rise of artificial intelligence. And this isn't only the concern of Bess, but others such as Bill Gates, Bill Joy, and even Elon Musk. Those who have the ability to see into the future can see the writing on the wall: unless humans enhance, the race itself will be in peril to the technologies it is creating--
an ominous irony isn't it?
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