Technopotheosis
is my answer to a very big question: What Next? What is the next
evolution of humanity as a species? Essentially, What Are We Becoming?
In
order to imagine that future in a useful way, it's helpful to examine
the present as compared to the past. We live in an age of unprecedented
Scientific understanding that is drastically changing the way we
experience and interact with the universe. Like all organisms we do not
simply exist within the universe, we alter it for our own purposes. That
is fundamental basis of Technology: purposeful alteration of the
physical universe. There's little fundamental difference between wasps
building a nest by processing wood into paper, and hominids building a
city by processing stone into concrete, only a difference of scale and
complexity. Technology is the
imposition of our will and intellect upon the structure of the universe,
and it's a concept that's been around since the first primate used a
sharp rock to make a sharper rock.
Where
things get interesting is when we take this idea and apply it to
ourselves; altering not just the universe around us, but within us as
well. As biological organisms, we have many hard limitations on our
capability to act on and perceive the universe. For example, a basic
model human cannot run at 60mph for a sustained period of time. Even if
it were possible for the muscles to move that fast, and the nerves to
coordinate them, and the cardiovascular system to support them, the
physical materials that the body is constructed from simply can not
survive the mechanical stress. However, through the use of Technology
such a task can becomes trivial; the human organism's biological
limitation can be transcended though the use of an external machine, or
by altering the body with internal machinery. That's basic Trans-Humanism,
and it begs the question: how far can the the human organism alter it's
self and it's relationship with the external universe before it becomes
something other than human?
The word Trans-Humanism is a very modern one, but the concept
of humans overcoming their fundamental limitations is as old as
Gilgamesh. It's arguably most well known in the buddhist and hindu
concept of Enlightenment, but the ancient Greeks called it Apotheosis:
the glorification of a mortal being to the divine level. In either
case, the human organism becomes something new and mighty; gaining both a
greater knowledge of the universe, and a greater power with which to
apply that knowledge. Now consider this: stripped of all the mysticism
and mythology, that is exactly what we are already doing; what we have been doing since we were monkeys sharpening rocks. Through The Scientific Method we expand our knowledge and understanding of the universe, and through Technology we enhance our power over it.
We now have theability to re-write the basic code of life, and even write it from scratch. We have defeated diseases that once killed millions of our ancestors. We are currently trying to replicate the power of the sun. And we've recently had to seriously debate whether a man with nofeet has an unfair advantage in a footrace.
How long then, before we fully defeat death and fully create life from
scratch? How long before can create stars, and design superior bodies to
what evolution devised?
Technopotheosis (Technological Apotheosis) describes that process and answers the the question: What are we becoming?
We are becoming gods.
Until then,
Stay Alive
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