Here is an excerpt (first 3 paragraphs) of my essay:
Looking at the evolution of the ways in which we use technology, it is clear that we have come to a point where it is an enhancement of biology. In support of the use of science and technology to extend human mental and physical aptitudes, transhumanist thinkers wish to overcome disability, disease, aging, and involuntary death, while continuously pushing technologies’ development and potential. While it is obvious to see the benefits of enhancing our abilities and health,we must also be critical of the posthuman in its socio-economic implications. We live in a society that expects us to keep up, and if we continue progressing at this current rate, those who cannot keep up will be simply left behind. Those whose basic capacities radically exceed those of present humans will inevitably create a new standard which is unnattainable for many, thus allowing technology to define our future class structures. Just as technology can free us, if we do not have access to it or if we choose to protest its uses, then technology can oppress us too.
Before looking at the dangers that technological progression could potentially present for both our society and our economy, it is important to understand the development in the ways in which we use our technologies to enhance our bodies. Although it is now over ten years old, the ideas that Raymond Kurzweil discusses in “The Age of Spiritual Machines” are still relevant. The predictions that Kurzweil makes are eerily accurate, making his arguments far stronger today compared to when they were first published. In his text, Kurzweil uses examples of modern scientific advancements to show that our uses for technology are becoming more and more invasive. Arguing for its benefits to our physical being, Kurzweil explains that while technology started off as something that could fix what was wrong with us, it will eventually make us better than we were in the first place. While its initial challenge was to be as good as human and render itself invisible, new technologies are transcending the capabilities of our bodies. Using the example of our sense of sight, there is a clear lineation of progress. While glasses and contacts were introduced to fill a lack and improve our vision, we have come to a point where lazer eye surgery can be performed to enhance even the best 20/20 vision—an ability which we would have never thought could have been improved without a tool or device. Considering that technology is giving us “superhuman” abilities, there are bound to be several complexities and concerns about enhancing the human body to a point where it is “better” than before. Society's acceptance of new technologies is quickening exponentially, and there is a seemingly unstoppable penetration of technology into the “natural” human condition, which raises the concern of a widening gap between the biological and the robotic.
Going beyond the relationship of technology and or bodies, Kurtzweil seems most interested in studying the brain, which he believes “strikes closer to home,” as we identify more with our brains than with our bodies (121). Specifically, there is much to be said about the complex phenonmen of intelligence, and a human brain’s capacity with and without any form of enhancement. In his chapter “Building New Brains,” Kurtzweil begins by stating: “As we approach the computational ability to stimulate the human brain—we’re not quite there today, but we wll begin to be in a decade’s time” (120). Published in 1999, it is a decade later, and we are in fact here today. With recent developments of neural implants and scanning devices, we will soon have the capabilties to go inside someone’s mind, and discover the algorithms which determine the ways in which our brain processes information, similar to the ideas embodied in William Gibson’s 1984 novel, Neuromancer. According to Kurtzweil’s predictions of where technology is headed, he states that in the second half of the twenty-first century, there will be a growing trend toward making this leap. As Kurtzweil explains, “initially there will be partial porting—replacing aging memory circuits, extending pattern-recognition and reasoning circuits through neural implants” (126). Going even further, Kurtzweil speculates that well before the 21st century is completed, people will port their entire mind file, ultimately turning our brains into software that can outlast our bodies. As software, our mortality will no longer be dependent on the survival of the computing circuitry(129). Reviewed by Silicon.com, a website dedicated to driving business through technological advancement, the key to understanding Kurzweil's philosophy is what he calls “the law of accelerating returns.” This argues that technological change has an exponential not linear progression and thus information technologies which today seem to be inching forward slowly will actually reach a tipping point much faster than expected, and accelerate ever more rapidly thereafter, enabling disruptive change in the relatively near term (Lomas 1). Kurzweil argues that there will be no mortality, at least as we now know it, and just as we transfer files to new computers, we will be able to port ourselves to another hardware. There will still be hardware and bodies, but the essence of our identity will switch to the permanence of our software (Kurzweil 129). As we “port” ourselves, we are extending our capacities, increasing our computational abilties, creating a new mortality.
