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Surpassing Man - Part II

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 5/19/2006

Dear Roberto,

This letter is an opening salvo. I will save the heavy amunition (mainly Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Fichte, Hegel, Weber, others) to later.

Mankind is at an unprecedented technological crossroads. The confluence of telecommunications, mass transport, global computer networks and the mass media is unique in the annals of human ingenuity. That Maknind is about to be transformed is beyond dispute. The question is: "What will succeed Man, what will follow humanity?". Is it merely a matter of an adaptive reaction in the form of a new culture (as I have suggested in our previous dialogue - "The Law of Technology")? Or will will it take a new RACE, a new SPECIES to respond to these emerging challenges, as you have wondered in the same exchange.

Mankind can be surpassed by extension, by simulation, by emulation and by exceeding.

Briefly:

Man can extend his capacities - physical and mental - through the use of technology. He can extend his brain (computers), his legs (vehicles and air transport), his eyes (microscopes, telescopes) - etc. When these gadgets are miniaturized to the point of being integrated in the human body and even becoming part of the genetic material - will we have a new species? If we install an artificially manufactured carbon-DNA chip in the brain that contains all the data in the world, allows for instant communication and coordination with other humans and replicates itself (so that it is automatically a part of every human embryo) - are we then turned into ant colonies?

Man can simulate other species and incorporate the simulating behaviours as well as their products in his genetic baggage so that it is passed on to future generations. If the simulation is sufficiently pervasive and serves to dramatically alter substantial human behaviours and biochemical processes (including the biochemistry of the brain) - will we then be considered an altogether different species?

If all humans were to suddenly and radically diverge from current patterns of behaviour and emulate others - in other words, if these future humans were absolutely unrecognizable by us as humans - would we still consider them human? Is the definition of species a matter of sheer biology? After all, the evolution of Mankind is biological only in small part. The human race is evolving culturally (by tansmitting what Dawkins calls "memes" rather than the good old genes). Shouldn't we be defined more by our civilization than by our chromosomes? And if a future civilization is sufficiently at odds with our current ones - wouldn't we be justified in saying that a new human species has been born?

Finally, Man can surpass and overcome humself by exceeding himself - morally and ethically. Is Mankind substantially altered by the adoption of different moral standards? Or by the decision to forgo moral standards (in favour of the truth, for example)? What defining role does morality play in the definition, differentiation and distinction of our species?

Sam


Hi, Sam

Good work with your first salvo. You have drawn the chessboard that will allow us to play that delightful game: to speculate.

I also like the four branches of your hypothesis with its different points of view: the technological, the physical, the cultural, the ethical and the biological. In fact, they are indeed an inquiry into human identity. What defines us as human beings? What could be different to and better than us? Those are, indeed, the same questions Nietzsche circled: what is beyond us? One source of comparison from which we can learn what humanity considers as superhuman are aliens, this strange version of angels and demons and overmen. Some are technologically superior: predators. Others represent life forces: aliens. Yet others have mental powers (with their hyper-desarrollated brains): ET, telekinesis, omnipresence are the favourite miracles of the supernatural.

Your excerpts are very pertinent indeed. In the chapter of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" you refer to, Nietzsche summarizes it all in a decisive question: "Shall we keep the song of the Earth" and we can add: but does the Earth want us?

It is interesting to note the transition of philosophers in the last few centuries, from Knowledge to Life, from Kant, Descartes and Leibniz to Nietzsche and Bergson, from mind to destiny, from being to becoming. From a perspective, its seems like a race which is reaching its end, the final question. Are we the end or a mere "process"? No doubt this is the final, unexpected consequence of Darwinism - Descartes' "school of scepticism" did the rest. As tai-chi fighters say: "once something moves, everything moves". The celebrated phrase of Galileo: "E pur si muove" is the sign of the times. As you have pointed out, Mankind has been set in motion. It is a "total mobilization". The Earth is no longer the centre of universe but a space ball cutting through the universe with a great velocity- a universe, which is itself moving, expanding. It is curious to see that the first ones to recognize this mobilization were skaters:-)

Galileo's telescope took the human mind out of this Earth. Humans are now universal beings. The race for knowledge ends in history (in some religions, illumination emerges when we reach the memory of our birth). In a strange reversal, Western philosophy went back to life. Darwin, using economic theories, drew a nature in motion. Nietzsche saw in Darwinism a hidden truth and put life at the top of all values. We love the change, the becoming..., paradise is now the jungle, with its exuberance and fertility.

And, to came back to identity, what did Mr. Darwin see? Is it that we are descendent from the ape? Oh, my god! :-) Is it that other animals will study us humans in a zoo? Or will we simply disappear like the pre-homo sapiens? How will the next Man be called? Will it be "homo-technos"? Or will the homo-technos call us primitives and commit us to slavery?

But, let us see what is happening now: from life to knowledge yet again.

Nietzsche dreamt up a brain-change, the next step in intellectual evolution, a cold, aristocratic mind mixed with some renaissance "hysteria of power": a Cesar Borgia. The technician was more radical, he wanted facts. So he went from biology to bio-technology.

Ah, and it is now when things get interesting! For we artists always like to regard life as a show. What a beautiful tragedy! The apprentice now has the tools and the elements, he has the "genies" in the bottle, so, what does he wish for? What kind of magic does he want? Does he know the words to stop the besom? Which are the sweet dreams of our dear "Promethechnicus"? What is our dirty little secret? Are we looking for the "philosophers' stone"? Or have we more Faustian desires? Do we want the whole prize? Even at the high price of life itself? What is the temptation of our kind? An old favourite?

Könnt ich Magie von meinem Pfad entfernen,
Die Zaubersprüge ganz und gar verlenen

(Grant me the power to put the magic of my way,
to forget at all my magic words)

Goethe (freely translated)


Awaiting with expectation your "storms of steel" (E. Junger term for the "material battles" of World war I - but I should confess that I have an ace down my sleeve, an unexpected joker:-) - so take the big guns:-)

best regards
roberto