evolution of the technohuman >> by jim pinto >> *spark-online issue fourteen

Evolution took millions of years to progress to the development of primates and then Homo Sapiens. It took humans only thousands of years to get to the industrial revolution, following which technological developments continued at an exponential rate--performance doubled in half the time. Towards the end of the last century, significant changes in the human landscape occurred in just decades. In this next century, technological advances will continue to speed-up with major evolutionary consequences.

History makes it evident that "man-with-tool" inevitably survived and conquered "man-without." Even spiritually advanced humans (India a few centuries ago, Aztecs and American Indians within the last two) were quickly subjugated by technological progress.

That was societal change--what about individual and personal? Are the tools of today evolving a new form of techno-human? More and more people are becoming walking conglomerations of various electronic devices. I never travel without my pocket-PC, its wireless connection, laptop, cell-phone, digital camera and GPS. Armed with these gadgets, I can do a lot of things that a few years ago would have been considered magic!

In the future, people will be constantly connected to the world through intelligent processors and communications. These devices will be everywhere--in our clothes, our beds, our homes, all over and even inside our bodies. Because we will interact with the world and each other primarily through electronic devices and communications, the distinction between reality and non-reality will blur.

The three laws of technology are bringing about an advance in civilization that has significant and far-reaching consequences. Moore's law (exponential increase in processing power), Gilder's law (exponential increase in communications bandwidth) and Metcalfe's law (exponential increase in connected intelligence)--the combination is producing results that are unfolding with awesome speed--bringing irreversible change to the human species.

In his book, The Age of Spiritual Machines--when computers exceed human intelligence Ray Kurzweil argues that synthetic intelligence will inevitably exceed human capabilities within the next few decades. As technology progess continues to accelerate, computers will attain human intelligence levels within about fifty years, and advance to the combined intelligence of all humankind by the end of the century. Some fringe-thinkers are already discussing trans-human and post-human societies.

In his article "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" in the April 2000 issue of Wired, Bill Joy, co-founder of and chief scientist at Sun Microsystems, argues that our current pace of technological progress poses a very real threat to the future of the human race. He proposes a new ethical standard to guide innovation and he even recommends that scientists halt potentially dangerous research. His apocalyptic vision of the future has provoked a debate about innovation throughout the high-tech industry.

I was stuck in this metaphor--synthetic versus human intelligence--until I suddenly recognized that the combination had the potential for tremendous good. That combination is already extrapolating rapidly today, with a vast and independent intelligence developing in and around us--the gadgets we utilize--connected through the amorphous and omnipresent World Wide Web.

The web-intelligence already exists, survives and grows, independently and inexorably. Today, when connected to the web, I can trade stocks very effectively without being a broker, provide at least a preliminary diagnosis of an illness without being a doctor and search out valuable knowledge, all at the click of a mouse. Sure, there is potential for bad and evil, but human society always seems to develop the antibodies that eliminate a virus and stimulate the cure.

I am optimistic about the synergy that can develop between natural and synthetic intelligence. In his book The Symbiotic Man - A New Understanding of the Organization of Life and a Vision of the Future Joel de Rosnay describes the developing “symbiosis” between man and machine. He insists, “We are witnessing the origin of a new life-form on Earth--a still embryonic macro-organism made up of the totality of human beings and machines, living creatures, networks and nations--trying to live in symbiosis with the planetary ecosystem.”

It is interesting that human DNA is 98.6% the same as the gorilla and 97.8% the same as orangutans, our original biological ancestors. It seems inevitable that sequencing of the human genome will bring knowledge of our biological makeup to a new level. As we begin to understand the subtle yet significant differences, the consequences are awesome. Technology will enhance biology through the virtual elimination of disease and significant increase in longevity.

A hundred years ago, the average human life span was perhaps 60 years. My grandfather seemed old and feeble at the age when many of my friends still swim and jog, play tennis and globetrot regularly. Within less than a decade, the human life span will increase beyond 100 years, and by the end of this century to a couple of centuries. And, at the age of 175, I may be moving into my fifth career--as a doctor, after having worked as an engineer, a lawyer, a rocket-mechanic and a clergyman. Then perhaps the biggest fatalities will come not from cancer or heart disease, but from accidents, and war.

And then perhaps, the new balance of life will allow humans to focus, not on technological advancement, but on spirituality and love.

Jim Pinto is a technology entrepreneur, investor, futurist, writer and commentator. You can meet him and look at his poems, prognostications and predictions on his website : www.JimPinto.com