feature storyfrom | Forbes2018Human 2.0 is coming faster than you think.
January 1, 2025
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publication: Forbes
story: Human 2.0 is coming faster than you think.
deck: Will you evolve with the times?
section: innovation
date: October 2018
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An introduction.
Ray Kurzweil — futurist, inventor, and best-selling author — said: “Our tech is part of our humanity. We created our machines to extend ourselves, and that’s what is unique about human beings.”
In the past few years, there’s been considerable discussion that we’re slowly merging with our technology — that humans are becoming trans-human with updated abilities: including enhanced intelligence, strength, and awareness.
Considering Kurzweil’s words is a good place to begin this talks. It’s no secret Google has trans-humanistic aspirations. In 2011 author Steven Levy made this bold statement about Google in his non-fiction book In the Plex: “From the very start, Google’s founders saw the company as a vehicle to realize the dream of artificial intelligence (AI) in augmenting humanity.”
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name: Steven Levy
bio: A journalist + non-fiction book author.
web: home
bio:
company: Condé Nast
publication: Wired
web: profile
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company: Alphabet
division: Google
web: home ~ about ~ channel
banner: text
about ::
Google is a computer software + digital tools company. It builds web services and products: advertising platforms, internet browse + search, cloud computing, business apps —- and mobile software + hardware.
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Pushing the conversation.
It makes sense Google would bring on Ray Kurzweil to be a Director of Engineering in 2012. For years, Kurzweil has been pushing the cultural conversation toward the idea of human transcendence with his thought-provoking books.
Kurzweil has gained notoriety for the proposing provocative idea: “The singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking + existence with our tech — resulting in a world that’s still human but transcends our biological roots.”
But the term “singularity” originated in a 1993 essay: the Coming Technological Singularity — by academic + science fiction author Vernor Vinge PhD.
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name: Vernor Vinge PhD
bio: A science fiction book author, and computer science + math educator.
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essay: The coming technological singularity.
author: by Vernor Vinge PhD
date: 0000
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A super-human intelligence on the horizon.
To grasp the significance of Vinge’s thinking: it’s important to realize where we were as a society in the early 1990s. Back then, smart-phones and social media websites were years away. The web — so vital to all aspects of our life: communication, commerce, entertainment —- was in its infancy. But Vinge boldly proclaimed: “In 30 years we’ll have the tech to create super-human intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will end.”
Now 30 years from Vinge’s prediction, the reality of trans-humanism has caught-on with the general public as a possibility. Writer Michael Ashley — co-author of my book — and I sought to tap into the cultural zeitgeist on this topic, by interviewing Ben Goertzel PhD.
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book: Uber Yourself Before You Get Kodaked
deck: A modern primer on AI for the modern business.
author: by
author: by Michael Ashley
genre: non-fiction
year: 0000
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name: Michael Ashley
bio: A screen-writer, and book author of fiction + non-fiction.
web: profile
https://cognitiveworld.com/our-team/michael-ashley
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name: Neil Sahota
bio: A journalist, book author, and business development consultant.
web: profile
https://cognitiveworld.com/index.php/our-team/neil-sahota
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name: Ben Goertzel PhD
bio: founder + CEO
publication: SingularityNet
web: home ~ channel
banner: text
Goertzel is the right person to speak about human potential in the age of AI. He’s founder and CEO of the company + magazine SingularityNet. Along with robotics engineer David Hanson of the company Hanson Robotics, Goertzel co-created Sophia — the first robot to gain national citizenship.
Like Vinge and Kurzweil, Ben Goertzel PhD is fascinated by the idea of trans-humanism. He explains it’s not pie-in-the-sky conjecture — trans-humanism has been happening for awhile in analog form. Goertzel said: “It’s happening bit-by-bit. If you take my glasses away, I’d become heavily impaired and couldn’t participate in the world.”
He points to subtle ways humans are already merging with computers. He said: “If you take the smart-phone away from my wife or kids, they go into withdrawal and become heavily impaired.”
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name: David Hanson PhD
bio: founder + CEO
company: Hanson Robotics
web: home ~ profile
banner: text
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company: Hanson Robotics
web: home ~ channel
:: page ~ the robot Sophia
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http://206.189.210.131/meet-the-team
http://206.189.210.131/our-robots/sophia-the-robot
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Is trans-humanism friend or foe to humanity.
Still, many people fear trans-humanism. Critics warn of designer babies and chips implanted in our minds. Theologians fear we’ll denigrate the soul’s sanctity by achieving immortality.
In the early 2000s, the editors of Foreign Policy magazine asked policy intellectuals: “What idea if embraced would pose the greatest threat to the welfare of humanity?”
Francis Fukuyama PhD —- professor of international political economy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins Univ. —- pointed to trans-humanism. He called it “the world’s most dangerous idea.”
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name: Francis Fukuyama PhD
bio: text
web:
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group: Graham Holdings
publication: Foreign Policy
story:
date:
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http://www.au.dk/fukuyama/boger/essay
The next evolution.
Writing for Psychology Today magazine, Massimo Pigliucci said: “There are several problems with the pursuit of immortality, one of which is particularly obvious. If we all live (much, much) longer, we all consume more resources and have more children — leading to even more over-population and environmental degradation.”
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name: Massimo Pigliucci
bio:
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publication: Psychology Today
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date:
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https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/rationally-speaking/200907/the-problems-transhumanism
No matter the intellectual misgivings surrounding this controversial topic, the fact remains that if we view trans-humanism the way it’s conventionally defined, people have been evolving toward an updated version of humanity for some time.
“In some ways, we already operate as human machine-hybrids,” said Goertzel. “If a caveman came into the modern world, he’d be astounded at how symbiotic we are with the various machines we use. We use cars to get from point A to B. And air conditioners to regulate our temperature. In Hong Kong at least, you never see anyone who’s not holding a mobile phone in their hand and staring at it.”
But there may be other, more pragmatic reasons why we need to become trans-human, if only to stand-up to the intelligent machines that are coming. Early on, entrepreneur Elon Musk sounded the alarm about humans being usurped by artificial intelligence (AI) in a series of publicized warnings.
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broadcast: NPR
story: Elon Musk warns governors …
date: July 2017
read :: story
Since then, he suggested the only way not to be overtaken by computers is to merge with our creations. His experimental bio-med company Neuralink is developing brain-computer implants for this purpose. Meant to combine human brains with digital computers, it’s his attempt to symbiotically join our minds with machines.
“The merger scenario with AI is the one that seems like probably the best,” he said on the podcast theJoe Rogan Experience. “If you can’t beat it, join it.”
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show: the Joe Rogan Experience podcast
episode: text
date: text
genre: talk show
host: Joe Rogan
guest: Elon Musk
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The practical stage.
A visionary himself, Goertzel has long foreseen Musk’s vision coming, yet he urges caution in its implementation. “The next step to take is to wire these machines directly into the brain + body rather than have them held in our hands. Clearly, this takes time and thought, because you need to be careful with sticking wires into human brains and bodies. But that work is being done, and it’s not going to take more than a decade.”
Returning to Vinge’s prescience at the end of the 20th century, we can see he was imagining a future that would occur even sooner than he predicted. If we take Goertzel at his word, we’re through Fukuyama’s and others’ hand-wringing stage. We’re now at the point to think about practicalities.
Tech never slows down. Whether we like it or not, there’s a before smatmrt-phone and a post smart-phone world. Presumably, we all know someone who was loathe to adopt the new tech. It’s likely their business suffered until they began using an Apple iPhone or Android mobile phone — or got swept aside by adapters willing to change with the times. Are we at the precipice of a similar phenomenon? Are we staring down the gulf at Human 2.0?
To put this dilemma in clearer focus, Goertzel says look at the question from your child’s point-of-view. He paints a picture: “Imagine it’s 8 years from now. All the other kids in your daughter’s 3rd grade class are way ahead of her because their brains are connected directly to Google and a calculator. They’re texting back + forth by Wi-Fi telepathy between their brains. While your daughter sits there in class being stunted, because she must memorize things the old-fashioned way and can’t send messages brain-to-brain.”
Goertzel suggests you consider what you’d do if your daughter’s teacher brought you in for a parent conference, and explained your daughter can’t keep-up with her classmates. Imagine she suggested some form of upgrade. You love your daughter. You want the best for her. What would you do?
At this point, the prospect of trans-humanism stops being an intellectual exercise — and becomes a question of subsistence.
AI = artificial intelligence
Wi-Fi =