Decision Time: Genetic, Robotic and Nano-Opportunities: There is an abundance of technological threats and/or opportunities that mankind has before him. Whether or not there is an ethical basis upon which we might effectively utilize these technologies is something that worries many serious students of our species. The head of
Club of Rome says we do not even have terminologies for common concepts or words that cross ethnic and cultural borders. (1) Hobbes and other Platonic hierarchy types throughout history would argue that there is no good reason to think mankind can be responsible enough to get over ‘beating his chest’ in headlong pursuit of his ego driven or Machiavellian ‘appeals to base human urges’. (Il Principe)
We can wirehead masses and make them all quite happy but we seem more interested in giving them pharmacological lobotomies according to Breggins and Cohen. We could do what movie The Day The Earth Stood Still showed alien species had done with robots to enforce peace. We could ensure free access to gene therapy and extend life of all people till they can live to be as old as nine hundred years without parts replacement. According to some researchers this goal will be achieved by year 2070 but it would necessitate changes in reproductive rights unless we are to make a concerted effort to start colonizing space soon. The decisions carry many downsides as well as upsides but discussions don’t seem to be happening and we continue to train people for harmful or soon to be outmoded jobs. This article cannot address all facts or factors but we must start process. Bill Joy Killjoy:
The March/April 2000 issue of Wired Magazine article by noted expert in technology who developed Java and was a founder of Sun Microsystems made more than a little impact in editorial coverage for a few weeks in my local newspaper. He warned us about genetic engineering that could end life on earth without pointing out that Israelis are trying to target their enemies with a genetic ethnic bomb. Perhaps he was not aware they are working on that but he was a part of SALT talks. The most important thing he brought to attention of readers was prediction that by 2035 humanity will be redundant in performance of most jobs.
He quoted experts in many fields of endeavor and I agreed with him that dumping of human memory into sentient robots will not include soul as people like Gary Hillis think. His sometimes debating partner Ray Kurzweil goes further (2) and speaks of even more rapid acceleration of technology. Not long after Joy’s article hit stands we had NEC labs in Princeton, N. J. tell us they measured 300X light speed in a cesium chamber. Then came US Army letting out faster than light information transfer contracts through Mr. Everitt in Durham, N. C. by November of that year. (3) The European attempt to reach Mars includes Ion Propulsion which can accelerate infinitely past speed of light. Quantum Teleporting was a cover story in Scientific American around same time and yet uninformed so-called ‘experts’ often deny many possibilities that relate thereto. I personally believe that a combination of Virtual Reality technology, Holography and nanotechnology will allow a form of time travel for complex systems despite what Hawking said. Hawking said they know time travel exists in small particles.
There are many exciting potentials just around corner in many diverse fields that Joy and Kurzweil are not even expert in. Neurotechnology and implants or prosthetics heads list of my personal concerns. When I was an active participant on a Neuroscience forum recently I discovered these people have no moral idea of implications of their work. Transhumanism (4) and Bostrom’s association that is relatively new already is fraught with fraud charges by other directors. Many of these people actually think it would serve universe best if robots replace humans entirely. I can’t argue logic against that perspective when I look at power-mongering and mud-slinging in bureaucracies called democratic in media owned by Synarchists. But I implore people to wake up before it is too late. We must participate and insist technologies and future use of them are done for Greater Good of all life on earth. I agree with George Bush:
I found myself agreeing with George Second of America when he pulled out of Kyoto Accord. This raised eyebrows of more than a few people I know. I believe he saw that salting skies with chemicals which would lessen apparent pollution would not kill more people in short term and saving billions of dollars required to implement Kyoto would not take into consideration use of nanobots which soon will be able to clean up pollution and maybe even make money harvesting minerals in process.
