Engines of Creation #8

"I teach you the overman. Man is something that is to be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?"
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

One conversation centered on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.

John von Neumann (to Stanislaw Ulam)

Have you ever wondered how the world would look like in 200 years from now? Or in 500 years? Or in several millennia? Has it ever occurred to you by how much the human civilization has changed over the last hundred years? Have you noticed that even though the world changes every day and billions of people work hard to make those changes happen, no one is actually thinking to what it might eventually lead?

Sure, you may say, prolongation of human life, control over diseases, raising living standards, consume entertainment to achieve yet another level of leisure and pleasure, liberties, proliferation of ideas, free speech; a society of artists, thinkers and inventors.

And, somewhat surprisingly, there is an ultimate goal to which it all leads. A world of ageless equals, a world in which science reached singularity. A world of posthuman beings who began to consciously shape themselves as they please. And the conception phase of becoming posthuman has just begun.

Science-fiction blah blah? Drug-induced visions of a geek? Far from it.

Take a look at science of today. On an everyday basis information technology meets mathematics meets physics meets chemistry meets biology meets medicine meets psychology meets sociology meets information technology. Whatever the discipline, whatever the topic of the research, whatever the progress and ensuing appreciation from the community, the Net has become the de facto layer of the universe where results of all human activities meet. And they get tagged, bookmarked, indexed, hyperlinked, back-tracked, blogged and commented. They mix, boil and mature in the cauldron of cyberspace, more and more frequently popping up with offspring, adding up to the ever growing web. Ideas and science roaming freely, and thus I'm not hestitating to say: we are a few steps from curing all diseases and eliminating the problems of famine, poverty and unequality. We are about to meet everyone's basic needs and thus start fulfilling our dreams.

And for that we are changing ourselves.

Knowledge and skills' hierarchies required from a human being are changing right here and now. The emergence of Google, being the most sophisticated of all digital support systems, renders the history-long value of factual information stored in one's brain less and less relevant. The value lies in the intrinsic skill of navigating the waves of this new, uncharted ocean of cyberspace rather than solving large-scale complex problems on your own. When you download and set up your Google Desktop, fire up your Google Talks, Skypes and Firefoxes, you suddenly become hooked up to the ultimate repository of human knowledge and to the ultimate social network of unprecedented momentum. You might feed yourself with news, views, ideas or entertainment of your liking and do it in an instant, become a specialist in any given subject, and once you consume enough you are able to leave a mark of your existence by feeding the Net with whatever you might want to say. The universal information society is born, the universal planetary society is within reach.

This is the present. And what about the future?

The advances of modern science and the wonder of the Internet give us an opportunity to enter and unchartered and promising path of self improvement, to feed our pride on one hand and to become capable of consuming what we created on the other.

If we can cure the sick why shouldn’t we strengthen the healthy?

Why shouldn’t we hardwire our feeble minds to the net? Why shouldn’t we join forces with the artificial intelligence systems to delegate all storage, look-up and computational tasks that our 200 MHZ brains cannot endure? Why should we restrain from thinking faster, experience the world more vividly and in its entirety?

Moreover, why shouldn't we let our bodies immerse in the omnipresent nanobots who will shape our surroundings and eventually ourselves to our requirements, or simply to suit our mood?

No one will punish us for opening Pandora's box, for equipping ourselves with wings of posthuman intelligence and agelessness. Yes, we need to step carefully in modifying our brain function, our genes, and our physiology, but let us not hold back out of fear or false admiration for nature as we find it.

There is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants overtake the evolution. Subsequently, they will become ever more perfect, but there is only one time when they are born.

You and I are alive at this moment. Let the engines of creation work full-steam.

And let a thousand flowers bloom.

http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/nano/

http://www.extropy.org/

http://www.posthuman.com/

http://www.human-evolution.org/

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/tech.html?pg=5&topic=tech

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/futurebody

Tags: posthumanism transhumanism posthuman transhuman evolution nanotechnology technology future

Darwin, Evolution & The Flying Spaghetti Monster #7

Hey Folks,
You may have not noticed by know, but a new religion was born! (again, for those of you who don't know, please do your homework first: religion according to dictionary.com).

The particular religion is called Pastafarianism and it's sole purpose is to hail The Flying Spaghetti Monster, also known as The Divine Creator, The Chef of the Universe or: That Ugly Thing In The Sky, Yeah, The One That Looks Somewhat Like A Gargantuan Spaghetti.

As many other religions in the past, Pastafarianism is a reactive movement that has recently been established by His Grace, The Truely Blessed In His Pursuit of Common Sense, Bobby Henderson. The direct cause for the formation of Pastafarianism was the decision of the Kansas State Board of Education to allow teaching of intelligent design back-to-back with the theory of evolution!

What Bobby Henderson basically did and the will be remebered for throughout eternity: he invented this funny belief in The Flying Spaghetti Monster and in an open letter to the aforementiond Kansas State Board of Education, he requested his theory of creation to be taught alongside darwinism and intelligent design. Thus, effectively rendering the KSBE a bunch of idiots, ignorants and zealots in eyes of the greater part of the civilized world.

By doing that, he started a big fuzz, that soon changed in to an internet phenomenon (10 mln hits to his website, a majority of blogosphere reviews at least mentioned the subject, a wikipedia entry on the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Blessed Bobby Henderson ans well, and so on and so forth...) that – courtesy of me – you can become part of.

No more talking this time, follow the links and enjoy!
Tags: pastafarianism desing evolution spaghetti

Deirdre of the Sorrows #6

As some of you probably know, and some probably don’t, I spent the last weekend in the green country of Ireland.

Ireland is very much out of the Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer’s scope, as – and again most of you should be aware of this fact – it is short of anything even close to ‘metropolitan’. But on the other hand, the biodiversity of the human population is definitely there. And the adundance of behavioural patterns along with it.

This short (4-day long) stay in Ireland reminded me of a peculiar state of mind, which - in turn - is described by a rather kinky word:

spleen ( P ) Pronunciation Key (splēn) n. A large, highly vascular lymphoid organ, lying in the human body to the left of the stomach below the diaphragm, serving to store blood, disintegrate old blood cells, filter foreign substances from the blood, and produce lymphocytes. A homologous organ or tissue in other vertebrates. Obsolete. This organ conceived as the seat of emotions or passions. Ill temper: vent one's spleen. Archaic. Melancholy. Obsolete. A whim; a caprice. [Middle English splen, from Old French esplen, from Latin splēn, from Greek.]

Have you ever wondered what 'spleen' is? Not in the medical sense, though, because we all know what this spleen is and what it does (those of you don't know, or have doubts, please take a look at the modern medical definition or the Traditional Chinese Medicine view).

The word apparently comes from the Greek splēn and for instance in French, it refers to a state of pensive sadness or melancholy. It has been popularized by the poet Charles-Pierre Baudelaire (1821-1867) but was already used before, in particular in the Romantic literature (18th century). The connection between spleen (the organ) and melancholy (the temperament) comes from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks. One of the humours (body fluid) was the black bile, secreted by the spleen organ and associated with melancholy. In 19th century England women in bad humour were said to be afflicted by spleen, or the vapours of spleen and there also is an expression 'to vent one's spleen' which more or less means 'to behave in an ill-tempered' manner.

At least that's what you can - more or less - look up in the dictionaries. But I've just recently learned what it meant for me.

For me spleen is the oblivion that I had been experiencing for the last... - God only knows how long. Three years, perhaps.

It's this troubling awareness of things in existence, compared to which the unbearable lightness of being is the least of your worries.

Spleen is what you see in the mirror every single forsaken morning if you were brave or dumb enough never to ponder on the meaning of today or the significance of tomorrow...

Spleen is the state of mind in which you are sometimes lost for words and you quitely wonder how amazing it is that telephone silence can convey emotions...

(...)

Ireland.

The gentle breeze filled my nostrils and brought the scent of the ubiquitous meadows scattered along the banks of the River Shannon. I sat on top of one of the turrets of the King John's Castle, watching a girl beside me, a girl whom I had only seen for the fifth time in my life, yet I felt as if I had known her for ages. Her face shone vividly, brightly as that of a morning star. Her curious, demanding eyes pierced me through, frantically trying to fathom the elusive.

Ahh, and her lips were crimson.

Our eyes crossed every now and then, smiles cheered the gloomy sky and the by-standers could hear short, muffled outburst of our innocent laughter. We were on top of things, and the whole world seemed so far away, left down there, at our feet. For the taking...

I took a deep breath and I finally felt the spleen letting me go; slowly at first, but steadily. Until it was all gone.

We got up and I let the ancient tears be washed away... by this compassionate, and understanding, Irish summer rain.

Take it, grieving Deirdre of the Sorrows, take it all. You're on your own. I'm not running away anymore. I'm not chasing you.

The Mind-Machine Interface #5

In this episode of what is slowly coming to be known as the Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer, I would like to restrain myself from just simply pulling off another brilliant yet utterly abstact piece of writing. This time I would like to take a deep dive in what the future, not the present, might bring for us, and share some of my thoughts on the subject.

Ironically, as mentioned in the BBC's article here ('Thoughts read' via brain scans), the very idea of making an intellectual effort to 'share' one's thoughts may become obsolete one day.

First of all, I have to admit - I had to read the article twice before fully realising what its implications were. Then I decided to take a sandwich and a beer, hoping that the bad dream would be gone by the time I finished.

But - of course - it didn't.

I decided to be a little more proactive and reloaded my browser a couple of times but it didn't help either. The bloody news was still there, heralding that my worst nightmare might come true in the forseeable future:

All these stupid pricks' thoughts going public. Wireless. Blogwise. Searchwise. Newsfeedwise. Google-AdSensewise (creepy...).

No. I'm not saying that people are stupid in general, but I do imply that some people are definitely less witty than others, and therefore, their thoughts should remain truly theirs for eternity. Full stop.

Let's perform a short intellectual excercise:

First, assume that The Mind-Machine Interface (or whatever you call the device; the marketing approach would sugest something like BrainGoogle or - for the sake of simplicity - Broogle) is a common device implanted in our glasses, hats, teeth or wherever else one might feel it's convinient to have it (yep, I know what you're thinking...). That in turn would mean: about 90% of the civilized population of the planet would use it on a daily basis.

Now imagine that in a couple of years since its introduction, it - as the common sense dictates - assumes the role of what used to be your iPod, mobile phone, PDA and - eventually - your PC.

And lets assume that the cities (or perhaps even the whole globe, who knows?) are covered with broadband wi-fi networks.

And, last but not least, the most likely assumption: everyone will think that he's the smart-ass of the neighbourhood. Why not tell that to everyone? You know - just in case they haven't heard before (blogwise, serachwise, emailwise etc.).

Dr John-Dylan Haynes of the University College London who seems to be the head of this particular research project, reportedly said: "We are still a long way off from developing a universal mind-reading machine". But being a long way off doesn't mean "we are not on the way at all".

Dear Dr John-Dylan Haynes! I strongly urge you not to proceed with your project. For the sake of the human civilization, your invention if improved and applied, would prove to be a disaster ten times as severe as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaskaki, a hundred times more vicious than the American cable TV, and at least a thousand times more lethal than an Iraqi 'foreign combatant' with a purpose.

It would mark the end of the Information Era, and the rise of what the historians (that is, if any of them survives) would later on refer to as The Time When Everything Collapsed, Cities Crumbled, People Almost Died Out And All Of That Because Every Single One Of Them Thought That He Was Smarter Than The Rest Or In Other Words: The Era Of Major Shit (or Pandelirium for short).

I reiterate: please, don't!

For those of you who are still not convinced: An Example of The Things To Come [below]

Drifting into the abstract - an interlude #4

As I begun writing these short pieces of literary genius, I did not expect any substantial feedback: except from the people who usually pretend to be the life-time members my little fanclub. Plus, there may exist a soul or two whose devotion cannot be explained.

But there's also been some elaborate and thorough feedback. This one actually puzzles me a little, as the only method of my blog's syndication (so far) has been the on-line status message in my IMs. Thanks guys.

What struck me though, when I briefly read the incoming mails and comments, is that most of your remarks focus on the form rather than the content. And I would rather like to have some content-related tips from you. In order to help you a bit I decided to short-list subjects that I'm personally interested in and from which you might freely choose:

• The Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer - the core topic continued, or how I percieve the life of / in a big city
  
• Vanity fair - or the current standpoint of the international politics
• When crushes crash - everything you wanted to know about my love life and were always afraid to ask
• Peregrinations of a stranded mind - or a collection of reading tips and some comments on what's hot and what's not in whatever I come across on the news or what I sometimes stumble upon in the blogosphere

Please, help. And please - leave me a sign of being here - comment.

The Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer - Introduction #3

As many of you probably know, every major city consists of layers.

Like an onion.

And like an aged onion - they are covered dust, they smell, and they are often covered with webs of all sorts that effectively give them shape, integrity, continuity and flow.

Unlike onions though - cities don't work very well, when chopped to pieces, and no - you can't add them to your soup.

But let's get to the point. Modern cities are complex, multi-layered structures. If you ever plan to functon effectively in an environment as unwelcoming as that, you need to have a basic understanding of how it works and who are you very likely to interact with once you're there. And for that you need to have a comprehensive guide which will walk you through all the dos and don'ts, pros and cons, tips & tricks. You will be able to find all that, and - believe me - much, much more, just right here - in the Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer. Later on I will elaborate on what the Primer is in itself, and perhaps I will try to explain and teach you how to apply all the priceless information that it consists of, but for now - let's take a glimpse at what the Primer is about.

Now, go back to the first sentence of this Introduction, read it aloud, try to understand the message it conveys, and read on:

The very upper layer is usually the world of the on-the-roof swimming pools, 400 sq. m. luxurious condos with helipads, and driving ranges for the senior (actually so senior that you could probably call them senile) executives whose big fat leather armchairs are just one floor below.

Then, if we happen to fall from grace, we might have a chance to experience the mid-upper layers, which - again - consist of some luxurious condos, offices with windows for the senior (but not-yet-senile) execs, plus a handful of occasional restaurants, sightseeing terraces etc., usually with telescopes for the ubiquitous tourists.

Under the mid-upper layer there is of course the mid-mid layer - not much intelligent life ever observed there - which consists mainly of whatever you want, and its very sheer purpose is to give cover to the ground floors beneath.

These, in turn, thrive with commerce and entertainment, and to some species are by far the most important of all earthly habitats.

The abundant flora and fauna of the ground floors makes up for what is usually referred to as the human civilization, which basically means that whatever you may find there, it is supposed to be civilised - one way or another.

Not-so-unexpectedly this opinion is often exaggerated.

But the omnipresent life knows no boundaries, respects noone's limitations, obeys nobody, and spreads frantically. It spreads upwards, outwards and... yes.

It also spreads downwards.

As most of you probably know, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, the abundance of species observed today on Earth is a result of eons of natural selection, ages of adaptation and centuries of sex. Over the years this simple triad of processes has given us such unique marvels of biology as the mighty spielbergsauria, the homicidal hitchcock birds or the suicidal lemmings. Moreover, according to Darwin, and contrary to the common sense of the citizens of Utah, the human being is itself a rather goodlooking and fairly reasonable byprocess of the aforementioned phenomena.

What many of you - evolutionists, and none of you - creationists, might have forgot about, is the basic principle of evolution: it is an on-going process, and even though many species disappear from the surface of our beautiful Planet every day, hundreds of new ones appear to claim their place.

In order to prove it to you, I will try to describe (in detail, if necessary) a handful of examples of the homo sapiens sapiens subspecies that have recently come into existence in various places of the globe. As indicated before, the primary habitats of these fascinating creatures are located deep under ground, hidden from greedy eyes of zoologists as well as from the sunlight, yet - in the middle of one's everyday routine...

The Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer is meant to be your ultimate guide to the intricacies and peculiarities of a big, modern city. In the upcoming chapters of the MBP we will take a closer look at at a handful of interesting species, such as:

• shape-shifters
  
• quarterbacks
  
• slip-sleepers
  
• elvises and shakiras

Ah, and returning to the onion thing: the big cities make you cry a lot if you move too close...

Stay tuned.