(Non-)Human Evolution -- Part II -- Attack of the Cyber-Chickens -- Bio, Cyber, Tech
Dr. James Auger proposes augmenting animal species through technology. The pictures in this article are particularly amusing.
Strangely enough, some people in favor of radical human enhancement/ evolution don't draw the line at evolving humans. Some transhumanists and others seriously talk about uplifting animals -- modifying complex animals such as apes and dolphins until they possess at least human intelligence and letting them decide whether or not they want to keep those augmentations. And of course, a few people don't want to draw the line anywhere, and would like to spread intelligence anywhere from virtually all animals to all multi-cellular organisms.
While this position, like that of the radical immortalists ("I want to live forever, along with anyone else who wants to") may seem radical, it really isn't if you take into account the philosophy of those who embrace it. If you don't believe humans are particularly distinct from animals, particularly not in a spiritual sense -- possessing a soul -- why shouldn't they be treated no differently than human beings? We help people who are mute or mentally limited all the time, why should animals be different?
The hard-core immortalist position is similarly explicable. If you don't believe human beings have an immortal soul, or an omnipotent Deity enforcing certain "facts of life" Who we are obliged to obey, then why shouldn't you try to live forever? This is all that there is, after all.
Many seemingly bizarre positions make a great deal of sense if you simply break them down and look at their core assumptions (unstated or otherwise). Which is good to keep in mind when dealing with people from dramatically different worlds (both mental and physical). The human enhancement debate is filled with traditionalists, futurists and others who often have no idea how unreal they seem to everyone else.
If you want to talk to these people, it helps to speak their language. Especially if you're trying to convince them to fund your experiments in teaching intelligence-boosted, voicebox-modified killer whales how to speak.
Future Imperative
Strangely enough, some people in favor of radical human enhancement/ evolution don't draw the line at evolving humans. Some transhumanists and others seriously talk about uplifting animals -- modifying complex animals such as apes and dolphins until they possess at least human intelligence and letting them decide whether or not they want to keep those augmentations. And of course, a few people don't want to draw the line anywhere, and would like to spread intelligence anywhere from virtually all animals to all multi-cellular organisms.
While this position, like that of the radical immortalists ("I want to live forever, along with anyone else who wants to") may seem radical, it really isn't if you take into account the philosophy of those who embrace it. If you don't believe humans are particularly distinct from animals, particularly not in a spiritual sense -- possessing a soul -- why shouldn't they be treated no differently than human beings? We help people who are mute or mentally limited all the time, why should animals be different?
The hard-core immortalist position is similarly explicable. If you don't believe human beings have an immortal soul, or an omnipotent Deity enforcing certain "facts of life" Who we are obliged to obey, then why shouldn't you try to live forever? This is all that there is, after all.
Many seemingly bizarre positions make a great deal of sense if you simply break them down and look at their core assumptions (unstated or otherwise). Which is good to keep in mind when dealing with people from dramatically different worlds (both mental and physical). The human enhancement debate is filled with traditionalists, futurists and others who often have no idea how unreal they seem to everyone else.
If you want to talk to these people, it helps to speak their language. Especially if you're trying to convince them to fund your experiments in teaching intelligence-boosted, voicebox-modified killer whales how to speak.
Future Imperative
posted by Ralph Cerchione | Thursday, May 05, 2005
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