Re: Transhumanism and Macro Human Behavior
Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Tue, 24 Dec 1996 23:26:19 -0500
James Rogers wrote:
>
> Here are some observations and ideas I have had regarding macro human
> behavior and its relevance to extropian transhumanism:
>
> Whenever I am around a crowd, I like to observe its behavior and motions. I
> don't observe individual people, but the crowd as a single unit. One thing
> that has always struck me about crowds is that if evaluated as a single
> unit, it behaves almost identically to a simple organism, like a protozoan.
> Most of the behaviors have direct analogs to the pondwater world. This has
> led me to a couple thoughts regarding the human mind and society.
>
> 1) Despite that every human is an intelligent, sentient being, much of our
> behavior appears to stem from the oldest parts of our DNA. In spite of our
> evolutionary advancement, our net behavior is more or less identical to that
> of the oldest organisms.
>
> 2) If the net behavior of humanity is really that basic and simple, then it
> should be possible to predict with great accuracy the reaction of the human
> population under a given set of conditions and circumstances. Given a good
> enough model of macroscopic behavior, one should be able to predict with a
> high level of certainty the organization of the future world, and outcomes
> in the present one. A "perfect" model remains to be created however.
>
> 3) Technology has not had any significant net impact on behavior. The
> advance of technology has not yet allowed people to overcome our behavioral
> DNA, only mask it.
>
> One thing that kind of bugs me about this is that I have a suspicion that a
> group of the most dedicated extropian transhumanist would behave the same as
> the rest of humanity if evaluated as a group via hidden observation. I
> realize that it is not easy overcoming millions of years of evolution, but
> at some level, I think we are fooling ourselves into thinking that we are
> progressing beyond our basic biological imperatives. If evaluated from afar
> as a group, I have a suspicion that Extropians would appear to behave with
> the same net imperatives as everyone else, even if on an individual level
> there were some differences.
>
> We may have reached a point where evolution is hindering, rather than
> helping, the development of transhumans. The fact that we don't notice that
> we are following these behaviors indicates how fundamental they are. The
> timescales we are using for the evolution of transhumans is too small for
> evolutionary development. While our DNA may be appropriate for modern
> humans, it is not appropriate for transhumans, and the influence is
> observable in a larger context, no matter how well extropian transhumanists
> hide it as individuals.
>
> Perhaps it is impossible for humans in our current state to achieve
> extropian transhumanism. Maybe attempts at transcending beyond our current
> selves is nothing more than superficial; a candy coating on old DNA.
>
> -James Rogers
> jamesr@best.com
I would say that the only error is your assumption that technology has
had no impact on our behavior. The easiest proof of the opposite would
be to examine the impact of weapons technology on social structures. The
introduction of the gun for example, made armor, swords, spears, and
castles obsolete, thus heralded the end of fuedal aristocracy which
arose out of such technology. The industrial demands of gun technology
necessitated industrial chemistry, mass production, efficient power
generation technology, and efficient urban centers. This is only one
example.
Human behavior is shaped by the technology that is used. just look at
the past few decades. Living at the brink of nuclear extinction for so
long has had enough of an impact to make people really see the
usefullness of worldwide peaceful cooperation as opposed to
imperialistic rivalry. This is one of the greatest behavioral changes
ever and it happened right under your nose.
We extropian transhumanists are as individuals becoming more and more
evolved behaviorally compared to people around us who have not been
associated as we have due to the amount we have steeped ourselves in the
technology of the internet compared to the average person. Living up
here in the sticks, I find myself day by day becoming less and less able
to relate to the people in my community, as they are less and less able
to comprehend the sort of concepts that you and I take for granted as
obvious. As we see more and more technological advancements happening,
or are working on them ourselves, we are becoming less and less human,
and more and more transhuman simply by our concepts, relationships, and
that which we see as given rather than mere possibility.
It is like the concept of the rich getting richer and the poor getting
not so rich. They aren't getting poorer, they just aren't geting more
rich as quickly as the really rich are. The bell curve of humanity is
expanding to a greater and greater technological and memetic spectrum,
where we will soon have on one planet individuals whose entire existence
will occur on a computer, and individuals who have never seen a digital
watch. Individuals whose personal net worth will be calculated in
planets alongside people who only own the rags on their backs and the
camel they ride.
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael Lorrey
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