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What Will it Mean to be
Human?
We are at a point of evolution where the spectrum
of species from animals to humans to machines
is blurring. The Institute for Genomic Research
is identifying a minimum number of genes necessary
to create life. Animal activists insist that apes,
whales and dolphins, among others, have comparable
or superior intelligence to humans. We have more
designer children by requesting specific traits
in egg or sperm donors. We are evolving to a stage
where we will control our evolution by deciding
and selecting which genes our children will have.
This applies to materials as well: scientists
decide what properties they would like in a substance,
and design it to do the job. Soon quantum mechanics
and molecular dynamics will be able to create
a large variety of "smart" materials.
While mainstream computer science is comfortable
with the concept of "intelligent computers,"
an unanswered issue is whether computers are becoming
more human-like or humans are becoming more computer-like.
Jaron Lanier poses the possibility of computers
becoming a successor species to humans. He observes
that "medical science, neuroscience, computer
science, genetics, biology - separately and together,
seem to be on the verge of abandoning the human
plane altogether."
Raymond Kurzweil suggests several possibilities
emerging from brain mapping. One is the design
of neural nets that operate like the human brain.
Another is scanning a brain that will be downloaded
onto a computer, resulting in recreation of the
human brain on a neural computer. He speculates
that human knowledge can be stored in a database
and that death could disappear. In the future,
our identity will be based on our evolving mind
file - humans will become more like software than
hardware.
The Dissolving Boundaries of Personal and
Private Identity Technology
• On-line networks that allow people to pretend
to be someone else, or even several people at
the same time.
• Avant-garde explorations in quantum theory
that challenge the role of a person's mind (interactions
between consciousness, matter and energy) in time
and space.
• The meanings of "mechanical"
and "living" stretched and combined
to the point where each complicated system can
be seen as a machine, and self-sustaining machines
are increasingly viewed as biological in structure.
• The use of implanted microchips to learn
an animal's identity, portending eventual applications
in humans (i.e., to replace fingerprints, prisons,
green cards, Social Security numbers, telephone
numbers, etc.)
Brain Research
• Isolation of the neurohormone PEA, an amphetamine-like
substance which regulates one's emotional highs
and lows.
• Studying sleep disorders caused by impaired
neural systems, and their impacts on behavior.
• Studying the mu rhythms of the brain -
the electrical pattern that controls sensory and
motor functions - to allow minds to control computers.
• Discovering what "smart" brains
do, and further analyses of the differences between
males and females.
• Consideration of the prominent role of
brain functions in "consciousness" and
"free will."
• Discovering the brain-related underpinnings
of addiction.
Genetic Research
• Finding genetic defects predisposing people
to cancer, pointing to lifestyle management (e.g.,
high fiber, low fat) for persons at higher risk,
and possibly eugenics. The notion that one deserves
care only if he or she has behaved according to
his or her genetic risk table.
• Criminal alterations of computer DNA records
that could give new identities to gangsters and
their clients.
• Studying linkages between genetics and
IQ.
• Pressures for testing for insurance, employment,
reproductive and criminal purposes.
• Grafting DNA and/or brain cells onto chips.
• Crossbreeding species - first in plants,
then in animals (and, ultimately, combining either
or both with humans?)
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