Long time followers of this blog may remember the first time I posted, like two months ago. In the opening line from that article I said I was terrified. Boy howdy, does reading about technological possibilities not help that anxiety. Caffeine has also probably not helped. Anyway, this week I decided to read a bit about Transhumanism. This is the idea of augmenting the human body through scientific achievement. Transhumanism could take the shape of implanted system in the body or advanced pharmaceuticals. In the article I read by Alexander Thomas, he mentioned performance enhancing drugs. Specifically, in the context of an educational setting. They could help maintain focus so you could study harder, did one specifically come to mind? Well I sure came up with one which reportedly already does that. Would it not be in the student’s best interest to take that drug to get ahead of their peers? We live in a strange world where we are so competitive that it gets in the way of our human relations. How many humanitarian crises have you heard about recently, how many have you not heard? To those reading this, do you feel this? Maybe I’m just a Doomer who revels in the thought of despair, or maybe I just tend to run into articles which have a Doomer disposition. The reason to this talk of doom and gloom, which I alluded to earlier, is the thought of that competitiveness increasing through Transhumanism. The initial releases of these products will undoubtedly be massively expensive, but if they increase your performance shouldn’t you buy? Thomas argues that this buying power of the new ‘Transhuman Technology’ will work to separate the haves and the have nots even more. By outcompeting the poor, the rich would have all the wealth and influence. While an extreme thought experiment, we can see the wealth gap steadily increasing. This would surely leave a lot of people in a state of near worthlessness. That worthlessness would increase the suffering of those who didn’t have the means to augment themselves. Thomas pulls a quote from David Pearce which ends like this
“only hi-tech solutions can ever eradicate suffering from the world. Compassion alone is not enough.”
But where does technology and compassion intersect? This is based on the idea that we can use technology to be compassionate. To truly eradicate suffering we would theoretically need all humans to become Transhuman, but what about those who can’t afford it? Would those who could be generous enough to foot the bill? We already can’t feed everyone properly and yet can output enough food. Compassion alone might not be the answer but surely technology alone isn’t enough either.
Now I can’t say it’s time to break out the pitchforks but I am concerned. If we continue to automate jobs faster than we can create new ones, a lot of people won’t be able to buy this competitive edge that is Transhumanism. We already seem to enjoy dystopia enough with Hunger Games being a cultural touchstone and Squid Game recently rocketing right to the top of everyone’s Netflix queue. While everyone starts getting in shape for whatever bloodsport becomes minimum wage, I think I will take up the fiddle.
HOWS MY TYPING? I want to know, are my articles boring? Are they too depressing? Does it seem like I think I’m some big shot when my opinion has as little merit as some random person on Reddit? I want to know what you think. Maybe next week I can try something positive.