Democracy, Violent Sunsets,
Transhumanism and the Wiggle
One of the things I love about getting my mind
re-centered and relaxed is that I start to view the things happening in my
life a bit more objectively, instead of just feeling and reacting to them. I
start to see connections between things, things beyond and within me, and
enjoy the thought processes that brings on.
As I was flying home last evening, I sat in my window seat facing west
watching a gorgeous sunset from about 30,000 feet. In the foreground of the
sunset, right outside my window was also a bank of clouds with the most
mesmerizing lightening show. The puffs of clouds would light up as if they
were blinking holiday lights embedded within cotton. As the sun set, the
skies above the clouds turned to an azure blue, and the stars and planets
appeared above. When the clouds would briefly break, the sky was painted
with oranges and reds on the horizon. It was violent. It was awe inspiring.
It was surreal. It was amazing.
When I first noticed what was happening outside my window, I put down the
book I was reading - Citizen Cyborg. The book is about how the
bioethical concerns of the transhumanism movement need to be embedded into
the democratic process, and how we as a society will need to decide how we
grant citizenship to all the possible combinations of the human genome and
technology. While the author has not yet explicitly stated this, it's
contemplating the root ponderence of how much of evolution has been a
natural biological based process versus how much it is becoming a process
that we, as conscious beings, have control over our own evolution. For me,
it's a merging of the meme and gene as the catalyst for evolution. Two
wiggles in the process of coming together, and right now we're in the
friction of that eventual confluence as two extremes find their balance in
warmth.
The chapter I had just finished when mother earth decided to refocus my
attention was how the author was contemplating the possible role that the
Harry Potter books might have on the future of these ideas. How the books
are implanting ideas in today's young generations of granting equal rights
to non-human species... morphs of human/werewolf, elves, etc. As I sat
watching the visual display, my mind was racing a million miles a minute,
firing synapses at the same rate the clouds were lighting up with electrical
charges. Having just completed a couple of research projects on the role of
science fiction on alternative relationship models, this was a topic that
particularly prompted thoughts. A generation of youth reading science
fiction has led to thinking outside the box in terms of technology. When
those young impressionable minds were triggered with thoughts of reaching
beyond what is readily seen - they grew up, pursued education and literally
reached for the stars. The technological advances of our society have been
exponentially profound in the last century or so. But relatively
proportional to the rate of ideas that have been made accessible through
various mass media distribution. Books, TV, movies, internet... these all
contribute to spreading ideas. Increase the ways in which ideas can travel,
and the rate of advancement increases. The wiggle at work.
There will always be those who resist change. It is a built in control
mechanism to keep the rate of change somewhat stymied. Living on the fringe
of society, I am frequently aware of new ideas that may become reality in
the future. It is my role in society, after all, being an idealist. But it
is democracy that will eventually find the balance between the ideas and
reality.
I attended a UU Congregation service yesterday in Fayetteville, in which the
topic was Learning in Democracy. The topic was presented as a contemplation
on the role of educated people being important to the success of the
democratic process. How appropriate for the book I am reading, and of course
my mind draws connections. We're seeing a school system right now that is
largely being influenced by those resisting the changes, the future shock,
that is coming. A system created out of an emerging industrial society meant
to crank out cogs for the system. But if we are to advance and take
advantage of the fringe ideas being presented in today's sci-fi and fantasy
media, we as a society must offer more opportunity for education that allows
and encourages critical thinking. For an educated society who can see beyond
the fear of future shock is more able to adapt their ideas and technology in
a democratic process that betters us all, and the new posthuman we are
evolving to create.
We, as humans, already are far along on a path of enhancing life through
technology and meme based advances. We have developed medical and
technological advances that prolong and improve quality of life. Despite
what those who resist the changes coming may think, they are already firmly
embedded in this path; benefiting from their climate controlled
environments, pills that control their blood sugars or whatever ailments
they have, MRIs that diagnose them, satellites that help predict dangerous
weather patterns to provide warning to protect their lives, etc. We, as
humans have already taken over some aspects of evolution to better our
living lives on this planet and beyond. What is being evolved and resisted
is just a furtherment of this path.
And that brings me back to my incredible, awesome, violent sunset outside my
window. I was witnessing this very earthly and natural wonder, from a
perspective that was only possible because of humans thinking of technology.
If it were not from some human mind pondering the idea of flight, bringing
together other people who could see the idea and developing the tools and
technology necessary, I would not have been able to be part of this magical
moment in which I was never more aware of my place betwixt the meme and the
gene.
