You will not believe, when you're finished reading this, that I wrote this in my right mind. This is about how the extrapolations of our thinking and problem solving can border on the bizarre. This is a foray waaaaay outside the box.....
"A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" by Donna Haraway. You are neck-deep in third-wave feminism now, girlfriend. Lotsa scary words in that title. Most notably would (I'm guessing) be : cyborg.
Haraway is being ironic and playful, here, I must admit. She's kind of serious, but she knows she's totally pushing envelopes, buttons, etc. Her assertion is that we have accepted the weird blend of science in our world in ways that we already live with cyborgishness (and I'm pretty sure that's not a word). Modern medicine blends us with pig valves and pacemakers. We have genetically modified seeds and animals. You do know that most of the chickens you eat could never walk around if their feet ever hit the ground because they have been modified to be so breast-heavy, right? And they don't know how to mate either. That's a discussion for another blog, probably. We can't go back, Haraway says. We've hopped in bed with science, for better or worse. She even suggests our liberation lies in our reliance upon science.
Haraway posits that cyborgs are capable of total equality in ways that we are not. A cyborg has a blind eye to race, gender, class, and sexuality. There is no need for messy reproductive processes. No one to prop up patriarchal hierarchy. No unsightly fall out from silly emotions.
Science fiction? Way out? Not so fast. TIME, February 21, 2011,Volume 177, Lev Grossman's article" 2045, The Year Man Become Immortal" (yes, he said "man" only - booo Lev!) It's about singularity: that's essentially when computers are officially smarter than us. Current computing power is getting so rapid that our computers are going to cross into superhuman intelligence and then we no longer are in charge of our fates. Theoretically, we will someday be able to sync our brain with a computer. There is a promise of immortality here as well. You might be able to dump the contents of your brain into a computer and live forever.
Tower of Babel! I hear some Christians shouting. It is undoubtedly creepy to think about. (That AI movie - ew. Or maybe your husband didn't talk you into watching that one, lucky you. I should make him watch Steel Magnolias in a 24 hour never-ending loop as payback). We've cloned. We've ventured into deep space. We've wiped out some nasty diseases. We've created some powerful nuclear weapons. We can do a lot of stuff. Or, our technology can. Our technology can save us or destroy us. Or render us obsolete.
Is humanity worth saving if it is perfectly incapable of perfection?
If Jesus dying on the cross is an answer to that question, the translation is: yes. Humans will always live in the moral tension of the moment, but we have the capability of faith, hope and love. As long as we are human, that is.
I read this a couple of hours ago. My comment just came to me and, I didn't reread, so it might not be at all applicable. But here goes.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't everything be easier if we removed the human component? Hurt feelings, mistakes, ulterior motives.
But, I think at least, the elimination of those negatives also results in the inevitable elimination of the highs of being human.
Brian made me watch AI as well. :)