Digital Philosophy: What Is Posthumanism - Dissertation Example

Digital Philosophy - What is ‘Posthumanism’’? Critically explore the strengths and weaknesses of this concept for understanding our current and future relationship to technology. Introduction From ancient period, human beings had the desire of acquiring new skills and abilities. The boundaries of our existence (social, mental, or geographical) have been extended. A way to overcome the obstacles and limitations of life and achieve happiness had always been the tendency of the human race. From the time of invention of fire until the use of computer, human beings have learnt the use of science and technology in every aspect of their lives. Thus, the capability of a human being can be regarded as unlimited. From the days of human beings using technologies for betterment of their work process, we are now approaching towards the period when artificial intelligence might exceed human level. The rapid pace in which the technologies are changing in recent period will have huge impact on humanity in the recent future if the innovative trend persists. There have been shifts towards the digital technology in the recent decade. A new philosophical movement gained attention in the recent decade. With the development of the new technologies and the transformation of the world by its potentiality, the emergence of thoughts of posthumanists or transhumanists emerged. The scientists have found technologies that perform human works better than they do. There are two options left; one is to let the machines take every decision without the oversight of human beings and the other one is to let the human beings retain their control over them. The result of both might be complex and harmful for the society. If the machines are allowed to take decisions then human being will have to live in their mercy, and if that is not permitted then they will be so dependable on them (machines) in every aspects of their life that turning the machines off will be almost equivalent to suicide. The intellectual and the philosophical background of the digital technologies, digital media, and the digital culture of the contemporary period with their impact on the human civilization is the main aim of this paper. (Bostrom, 2005, pp 1-8: Joy, 2000) Post humanism The post humanists’ (or transhumanists) declaration was crafted by an international group of authors in the year 1998. It mainly involves dealing with the limitations of human form by radical use of technologies and other possible means. The human longing to advance is the core of post humanism. The rapid development of new technology and their potentiality in transforming the human world is what inspired the thought of post humanism. The terms ‘post humanism’ and ‘transhumanism’ are often treated as identical. Both the words describe the broad role played by technology in human life. Technology is expected to bring a new evolution of the human society beyond the definition of ‘human’ in traditional terms. However, the two terms are distinguished sometimes with transhumanism representing the movement that influences the new evolution of human beings to reach the phase of post humanism. The core of transhumanists’ hopes consists of a range of technologies, which involve advanced computing powers, and technology of cyborg in the short term. Nevertheless, for the long-term phenomenon they mainly focus on technologies that have cumulative impact of artificial technology, the use of nanotechnology and the technology of genetic engineering. The genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics revolution (GNR) will propel human beings into the realm of a new world. According to Kurzwell, humanity at present can only dream about the experience and the possibilities that are waiting for them in the changed new world of technology. It can be applied to physical strength, happiness, intelligence, and speed and any other aspects of human existence. The most important feature of post humanism is techno transcendence, which indicates the use of technology to overcome the obstacles (Ust, 2001: Dery, 1996: Transhumanism, n.d.). It involves development of technologies that provide assistance to memory, increase in concentration and provide mental energy. It also involves therapies for extension of human life, technologies for reproductive choices, and many other innovations that helps in enhancement and modifications of human life. Machines will reveal human understanding, talent and physical movement within a one fourth of a century to the complete effect. In the period following that, artificial intelligence of those machines will outdate that of human beings. A few days later, the machines would claim to have feelings like human beings. Thus with the passage of the time, distinction between machines and human beings will become faint. It involves the use of scientific technologies in order to become the masters of the nature for improving the living conditions of human beings. The new tool is being created on the basis of empirical investigations rather than prior reasoning that proposes a scientific technology. When Friedrich Nietzsche thought of transhumanism he had referred to a personal growth and refinement of culture in individuals and not technological up gradation or technological transformation. The word transhumanism was used first by an eminent biologist namely Julian Huxley in the year 1927. Then several authors modified it in different period of time. Transhumanism or post humanism also deals with the future of the biomedical science and its effect on the human society. The regulations of biomedical improvement are more or less severe and their merits have been an issue of debate among the biomedicine specialists. The biomedical innovations are dependent on the common discussion of market liberalism, which confines the range at both ends. The scope of the analysis of the policies and the proposals are also limited henceforth. The policy imperatives on the biomedical innovations need to be evaluated properly. The evaluations have to be more refined in the background of the political economy and more utopian in the imagination. However, there is a need of giving more importance on the morality of human genetics and biopsychological engineering than the political ideology of the country. (Kurzwell, 2009; Fukuyama, 2002; Davis, 1988) According to Hans Moravec, a time may arise in the near future when the entire consciousness of human beings can be downloaded on computers where it will exist and operate from. Hayles (1999) defined post humanism from various perspectives. Firstly, the informational pattern is given more freedom than the material realization such as “embodiment in a biological substrate” is not seen as certainty of life but rather as a historical mishap. Secondly, consciousness that is actually a minor slide show of evolutionary upstart is claimed as the ultimate and complete show. Thirdly, body is perceived as the original prosthesis that human being learned to manipulate, so that any extension or replacement of it with other prosthesis will ultimately result in the continuation of a process that had its origin before the birth of human. Following this theory, all technologies of communication add to post humanism that extends evolution of the human species. Lastly, post humanism configures human being in such a way that they can be articulated with intelligent machines seamlessly. The absolute delineation or the essential differences that existed between computer simulation and physical existence get faded out in post humanism. There remains no difference between biological organism and cybernetic mechanism and also between human goals and robotic teleology. Moreover, the Cyber culture and the new media have changed the way of self-expression and communication and the human relations are transferred to online relations. The online world has now evolved as the space for articulateness, and aid to self-knowledge that is strengthened by its virtual connections. However, cyberspace lacks the trace of individuality and deviates the individual from their individuality (Computing the Human, 2005; Mazlish, 1993). Post humanism allows human beings to get familiar with two new concepts of The Spike and Singularity. With the growing technologies, time will evolve when each technology will have impact on the others and each one will push the other forward in an exponential manner. That particular point of time is called the spike as if the path is plotted in a graph it will show an upward curve. Singularity is defined as the point of time when the technological evolution will result in a change in everything and it has been the limit point of the present thought of the transhumanists, as they cannot even imagine about the outcome of the period after singularity is reached. Machine along in partnership with the direct transcriptions will be able to lead our heritage forward and it will result in long-term survival. (Moravec, 1986: Broderick, 2001) Exponentiality The information technology sector is experiencing growth at an exponential rate. With every decade, the rate of the technological innovation is increasing at a doubling rate. The rate of the progress of the information technology took up speed through out the twentieth century and at the time of the end of the century, “the rate was such that the sum total of the centurys achievements was equivalent to about 20 years of progress at the 2000 rate” (Kurzweil, 2005). Assessment by measuring techniques like price performance, bandwidth, capacity and others shows that the sector of information technology is doubling its power. Exponential growth indicates if the process started with achieving 1000 in ten years, in twenty years it will reach a million and in the next thirty years, a billion will be reached. This rate is slow as compared to the second level of exponential growth that implies that within a quarter of a century a billion fold improvement will take place. The exponential growth of the computing technology has its origin over centuries back in the history and covers in itself five main paradigms. Firstly, the government of the United Sates used Electromechanical computing in the country census of 1890. Secondly, in the early 1940s a system of relay based computing was applied to decode the cryptography of the Nazi. Thirdly, in the US president election of 1952, the CBS used the method of Vacuum Tube based computing to predict the election results of Dwight Eisenhower. Fourthly, when the first space was launched in the year 1960 a discrete transistor based method of computing was used. Fifthly, the computing based on integrated circuits that were invented in the year 1958 was applied in the late 1960s in mainstream computing. This background of the evolution of the exponential growth of computing technology made it clear that the realization of one paradigm to run out of stream apparently increases the pressure for research on creation of the new paradigm. The innovation of the sixth main computing paradigm that involves computing using three-dimensional molecules (like using carbon nanotubes) have with it enormous progress from the previous paradigms of more than a decade ago. The fact that the developmental pace has increased can be easily verified from the example that it took almost 14 years for the technologists to form a sequence of the HIV genome, but in discovering SARS, it took only thirty-one days. According to Kurzwell (2005), the rates of advancement over the period of 2000 to 2014 will be equivalent to 20 years’ growth at 2000 rates. Then the same rate of progress can be achieved by a time span of only seven years. By the year 2030, the non-biological segment of our intellect will dominate and we will ultimately merge with our innovative technologies. Moreover, by the year 2040 the non-biological part of human aptitude will be billions of times more competent than the organic part. Information technology will be of utmost consideration and it will grow at an explosive rate. With the passage of time everything that has value like our biology, our thoughts, our manufacturing and other fields will become equivalent to information technology. In order of analyzing the statement, the example of nanotechnology can be considered. In future, manufacturing on the basis of nanotechnology will allow us to mechanically accumulate intricate products by applying automated techniques at the molecular stage. Thus by the mid 2020s the inexpensive nanotechnology can be used in meeting all our energy needs. The energy level present in the 0.03 % of the sunlight will get captured by the solar panels guided by nanotechnology based that are expected to satisfy all our projected energy needs by the year 2030 (Kurzweil, 2005). The rapid pace of the technological growth has deep impact on the lives of human beings and it will experience an irreversible transformation. There have been rapid growths in the sector of information technology and an exponential growth in computing. In the ultimate living, everything that has value will become information technology. To understand the key to the future needs of human beings it is necessary to understand the features of the exponential progress of technology. From a linear form of growth of the technology in the past decades, the exponential progress lead to a dramatic change in the scale over long term. Considering the project of the human genome the pace can be understood clearly. In the year 1989, the scientists had been able to sequence only a thousandth of the genomes. In the year 1990, the project on human genome was looked upon as debatable in many areas. Nevertheless, the sequence of the amount of the genetic data almost doubled year by year from 1990. The rate of the sequencing still continues and it completed the transcription of human genome in the year 2003. Examining the data of the technological progress in different ways and clarifying different variety of technologies ranging from electronic to biological it can be concluded that the change of technology is not linear but it is exponential. The chronological and the spatial resolution of scanning of the human brain are also progressing at an exponential rate (almost doubling each year). Moreover, the IBM technology is producing a simulation of about 10,000 cortical neurons that are extremely elaborate and comprise almost tens of millions of connections. It can thus be concluded that the technologists will be able to build an effective model of the entire brain by the mid of 2020s. Understanding the human brain will help in understanding the human nature and the human characteristics but it will also help in creating artificial intelligence. Non-biological systems will match human intelligence and with the passage of more time and more advancement of technologies super intelligent computers will be able to share knowledge and skills at electronic speeds that will be next to impossible for human brain to achieve. However, there has to be certain limitations of this exponential growth. With this exponential pace of growth, the 21st century will be typified by three technological revolutions - one of genetics, the second is nanotechnology, and the third is robotics. Changing of genes will be provided by the revolution of biotechnology or genetics. Using only information process human will be able to produce any physical products from inexpensive materials with the help of the revolution of nanotechnology. Last but not the least with the robotics revolution artificial or machine intelligence will equal or surpass human intelligence for certain specific tasks. The exponential process started slowly but the pace of the process increases extremely rapidly following the Moore’s law and the laws of accelerating return, according to which the technology of the earth that created human being will ultimately merge with the technology created by them. (Kurzweil, 2005; Kurzweil, 2009; Burns, 2002) Singularity According to Transcend (2000), singularity is like a black hole in the worldview of the extropies with such an intense gravity that the part lying beyond the dark hole is unpredictable and unseen. However, there has been no clear definition of singularity but generally, it refers to a period of time in the near future when the changes in the society, the economic and scientific conditions of the world will be so fast that it is beyond human imagination from the present perspective. It is often defined as the period of time when the technological progress of the world economy will be the fastest. The Extropy Institute, which closed in 2006, was the pioneer in propagating transhumanism by contributing to ideas regarding future technologies bringing about positive and advanced consequences in the social scenario (Rotkop, 2008) Technologies of the recent period have super human intelligence and its acceleration is the central feature of the century. The rates of progression of the technology have been so fast that they are often compared to the rise of human beings on earth. The creation of entities with greater human intelligence is precisely the main cause of the change. With the innovation of greater human intelligence, there will be more rapid progress of the economy. Developments of the society that was previously expected to occur in million years will be achieved in the century followed. It will mark the period of discursion of old models with new rules of reality. Since singularity involves intellectual escape, it may be faster than any technological revolution of the past. (Vinge, 1993) Impact of post-human era This profound advancement of science and technology is expected to affect humanity adversely. Human beings have much more potentiality that remained unrealized and that can wonderfully and exceedingly improve the conditions of human life. The misuse of technology bears serious risks on human beings. Progress of the society is undoubtedly a change but not all changes in the living of human beings can result in the progress of the society; so one should not confuse changes with progress. These prospects of the technological advancements need to be researched thoroughly so as to save the disaster human being is likely to face in the near future. Research efforts should expedite the applications of the beneficiaries and look for the best way out for reducing the risks. There is the need to form forums where people can discuss thoroughly over the issue. Moreover, there is the requirement of social orders so that responsible decisions taken can be properly implemented. Urgent priorities should be allotted for developing means to preserve life and health of individuals of the society. The risk that exists for the society should be reduced. Moreover, the wisdom and the foresight of human beings should be improved through proper developmental programs. All these activities require a proper source of funding. Both the opportunities and the risks associated with the increased dependence over technologies should be considered seriously at the time of policy formulation. Responsible and comprehensive moral vision should guide the policymaking with respect to autonomy and individual rights. The policy should take into account the interest and the dignity of every individual of the society and not the concern of a particular group. Moreover, not only the present generation but also the ethical accountability towards the future generation should be considered. Techniques that assist human memory to increase concentration and mental energy; therapies for life extension should be encouraged because these allow individuals’ to exercise personal choice of living their own life. Moreover, the well being of not only human beings but also every non-human species, other modified life forms and intellects of the future should also be advocated. (Transhumanists declaration, 2009: Moravec, 1992) In the words of Butler (2009), “There is no security against the ultimate development of the medical consciousness.” According to him, the impact of the rapid mechanization may lead the world to exist for less than twenty million years. The machine has been linked with the daily life of human beings in infinite number of ways. The innovations of the biomedical technologies also possess huge risks. A debate was held at the Institute Of Ideas in London, on the potentiality of the biomedical technologies in transforming the existence of human beings radically. The debate focuses on the probable consequences of the transformation on the society and its implication on the moral assessment of the possible worlds. The ultimate verdict of the debate was that the biomedical transformation has the potentiality of bringing huge relief to the human society but they possess several risks. The risks consist of a challenge towards human nature that consists of human dignity and human rights and secondly it provides a threat towards the political economic stability of the society and posses the potentiality of increasing violent conflicts. The discussions on the debate held also focused on the proper steps that are required to take for avoiding the risk associated with the new technological transformation. However, the problem already exits but it is predicted that the transformation may worsen the situation. (Ashcroft, 2003) Moreover, the use of technologies like Internet, and cell phones in excess may result in loss of memory, impulsiveness among the users and increase in impatience. (Kurzwell, 2005: More, 1994) Singularity, exponential rate of technological growth and development of more and more technologies with super human intelligence may ultimately result in the extinction of the physical existence of human being. There might be things without flesh and blood but resembling human and they will be the entity closest to human beings in the new environment. (Kurzweil, 1999) Conclusion The future of the world in the post human era when viewed from the angle of positivities it resembles the era of happiest dreams of never ending life and an easy process to solve every mystery. However, when reviewed it resembles the worst scenario human could ever expect. Fukuyama (2002) provided a solution for limiting the adverse effect of the transformation focusing mainly on the technologies of biomedical transformation. According to him, there is a need of improving the national and the international regulations in order to focus on technological efforts that permit the treatment of illnesses. Again, restrictions needed to be imposed on applications that hurt the dignity of human feelings and human rights. There exists hope among the technological experts that with the development of technologies human beings will also undergo transformation into a smarter and better-developed species, more suitable to the world of technological evolution. References Bostrom, N, (April, 2005), A history of Transhumanists thought, Journal of Evolution and Technology, Vol-14, no-1, available at http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf, (accessed on March 12, 2011) Joy, B, (April 2000), why the future doesn’t need us? On Newsstand now, issue 8.04, available at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html, (accessed on March 12, 2011) Ust, D, (2001), what is Post humanism? Available at http://mars.superlink.net/~neptune/Posthuman.html, (accessed on March 12, 2011) Dery, M. 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