A messy, not perfect, but very human beard

And a few thoughts on Transhumanism as I gaze at the sandy shadows on the lakeshore.

I was walking along the shore of Lake Erie. Beautiful, practically a sea. It’s a place where you are overwhelmed with the desire to get in a boat and go for a ride. Or go swimming. It’s a place that makes you think, especially if you go there in the evening or in the early morning. The thing is, I’m working on a new science fiction novel. It’s about QM and transhumanism. I went to the lake with one of the books I’m reading (Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near: When Humanity Transcends Biology) to read it there, alone. But I stopped reading and started walking because I can never sit still for too long.

Great philosophers and cold beer

So I was walking along the shore, at one point I stopped and looked at the semicircle that the wave leaves in the sand. The brown shadow that disappears almost immediately as the wave recedes. And at that moment I remembered something Michel Foucault wrote. It goes something like this, “Man is a recent invention of our knowledge, destined to disappear like a face of sand on the edge of the sea.” Now, Michel Foucault is someone you read when you have a lot of cold beer on hand (I never say no to a cold beer), but his concept is brilliant and I felt it has something to do with transhumanism.

A matter of life and death

But the question that came over me after this was not about transhumanism, but about my son: “Is he also a face of sand on the shore of the sea?”
For a moment I felt immense pain: One day my son will die. I hope I will not be physically present at that moment, but he will die. Is death inevitable? In fact, the first question to ask is what is death? Because we are all sure that we know, at least from a biological standpoint (cellular decay in old age), from a social standpoint (your physical presence disappearing), from a religious standpoint (your soul separating from your body and going to another place). I am simplifying, of course.

Credit Mindy Anderson

Please Google solve the problem of death

That is, to quote Philip Dick, we know that no one gets out of life alive, and this is something we will have to face sooner or later. Transhumanists disagree. They want to solve the problem. How? By “upgrading” themselves with bionic or artificial prostheses and biomechanical transplants (If you have a smile on your face, remember that even prescription glasses are an upgrade); by suspending life in order to reactivate it a few decades later (cryogenics); by modifying DNA - in short, things like that. It’s not science fiction, they’re actually working on it, just travel to Silicon Valley and give a look around. I’ve recently learned that from time to time groups of transhumanist activists stage “protests” in Mountain View (where Google’s headquarters complex is located), calling on Google bigwigs to “solve the problem of death”.

A powerful weakness

Because death is a problem. Maybe not all of us are afraid, but when you think about it you get a little anxious:
What happens?
Do you shut down?
Do you fall asleep?
Do you go somewhere else?
Technology is a mechanical thing, and if something breaks or there is a problem it can be fixed or repaired. If humans become a machines, then like any other piece of hardware, you can fix them and you can troubleshoot their operation.
But damn it (and pardon the language), but really? People turning into machines? Am I weak because I will die one day? Does that make me a “species” subordinate to machines?
I’m probably wrong, but I think this horizon of death makes me strong. My imperfection is my strength. My imperfection is my propulsion.

Futuristic new year's eve celebration - Image by freepik

Facing the death

I think we are losing the sense of things. I do believe that too much power can lead us out of control but weakness can be a source of wisdom. It is the paradox of being made of flesh and blood and yet still aiming for the stars.
And what does it mean to be perfect? To have the perfect body? To have the perfect home? A perfect family? Perfect muscles? Perfect eyesight? A perfect job? A perfectly shaved beard? Mine is a mess, sometimes I forget to shave.
I don’t want to become perfect by using cybernetic implants. I want to strive for perfection through discipline, sacrifice, and will. I want to use the Time. My time. The time I have been given. I wanna see it on my skin. I wanna see it on my face. I wanna count my days, one by one. And I want to believe that in this whole fucking infinite universe, my voice has a unique and unrepeatable timbre, like my son’s voice is to me.
I want to believe that I am unique, that my son is unique, that my wife is unique; and that every time I whisper a prayer for them I can convince God that I love them madly and that I am grateful to Him for giving them to me. This is how I want to defeat death, as a vulnerable and heroic human being. One who faces the final challenge with a messy, not perfect, but very human beard.

Sorry for the chaotic post and thanks for reading!

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Readings

• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

• More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

• The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology and The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil

• Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime by Aubrey de Grey

• Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

• Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution by Francis Fukuyama

• Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence by Andy Clark

• The Prospect of Immortality by Robert C.W. Ettinger

And 4 transhumanist Sci-Fi Books

• Accelerando by Charles Stross

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• Nexus by Ramez Naam

• The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi