With the telekinetic monkey and 24/7 soldier, and whatever other enhancements for humans that may become available in the future, I wonder what the true benefits to humankind these will offer. We focused on this in class–will people willfully subject themselves to these ‘improvements’ to gain new powers and abilities, or will they simply try to preserve what it means to be “human”?
The concept of evolution and especially Darwinism addresses the concept that a single species will try to perpetuate their own kind for an indefinite period of time. This includes the concept of survival of the fittest. Inevitably the best-fit individuals will outcompete the ‘weaker’ individuals so that the better genes will be in the gene pool, continually making the population more fit for survival. We see that as time goes on, when you compare states A and B, chances are you’ll see a drastic change in the environment, climate, competitors, food sources, and other things. Social Darwinists took this concept with respect to superiority of people and to legitimize slavery, etc. Similarly, evolution can occur with respect to technology, as we have seen happen since the medieval ages, and even before.
Heilbroner argues that the advancement of technology also facilitates the evolution of people in terms of skills and knowledge, and as a result our interactions with one another also change. The entire social structure changes. It may be a slow transformation, as are most things in the natural world. Comparing the organic to the synthetic is interesting because anything that we create came from the natural world, no matter how one tries to argue it. So, with this development of new products, in particular the two that I mentioned, we are essentially creating a new type of human sub-species. These enhancements surely affect how effective, efficient, and innovative we will become, but I wonder where will be the point/when will this change from Homo sapiens to Homo sapiens technologica (really creative, I know) occur? And will our species be replaced by the new incomers?
Perhaps I am thinking way in the future, but nonetheless it is evident today the ‘new’ type of athletes that compete with the ‘normal’ ones that do not undergo any doping or enhancement treatments. These are basically the new athlete (sub?-)species for which new rules for competition like drug testing have been implemented =sociocultural change.
I feel like what has been fabricated in scifi may actually become real somewhere in the near future and I’m not sure if I am ecstatic or just scared by the fact though, it would be interesting to see some of this technology to be in its near-final stage of development…
