Observation 1: Viruses exploit a fundamental property of the organism at the level of the cell.
Conclusion 1: Disease is an inescapable consequence of our humanity -- even if we were to eliminate all viruses, that does not eliminate the fundamental weakness in our armor available for malicious agents to exploit.
Observation 2a: Cells either terminate at some point or else divide ad infinitum.
Observation 2b: Those cells that do divide infinitely are not conducive towards making a multicellular organism with specialized cell types handling different roles, i.e. cancer is not desirable.
Observation 2c: Because the multicellular organism requires complacency of its cells, it follows that aberrant cells must be able to be killed off -- or even willing to kill themselves off -- for the greater good of the organism.
Conclusion 2: Death is an inescapable consequence of our humanity -- whereas single cellular organisms can technically live forever, capable of doing all that they need to do in order to survive, cancerous cells are often (a) not well-suited to their original task and thus detrimental to the multicellular organism, (b) not sufficiently self-sufficient to exist outside the organism as a new entity, or (c) both. In order to avoid cancer, multicellular organisms long ago lost that precious aqua vitae that would promise cells eternal youth -- telomerase and various other oncogenic enzymes.
Ultimate conclusion: humanity is incompatible with a disease-free, death-free existence.
Conjecture 1: We expend great resources to discover how to convert the human race at these fundamental levels, if at all possible. Included in this line of work is cybernetics, nanomachines, and even the concept of transferring human consciousness from the body to an outside entity (e.g. a robotic body).
Conjecture 2: We scrap efforts to "salvage" the "lost cause" that is humanity and we begin work, from the ground up, on a completely new race or technology to inherit our dreams and hopes for the future. Perhaps we go the multicellular path again but only after having changed those fundamental weaknesses in the cell that permit disease and death; or perhaps we go a different route, say, the creation of robots with advanced AIs or some such. This is arguably "the MegaMan path," the idea of permitting a superior race of robots to inherit our society, our knowledge, and our ideals and to strive towards a better future in our stead.
Conjecture 3: I go resume studying the human head. :p
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5 comments:
Number 2 is very similar to the points expressed in Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō.
Note: As we discussed on AIM, Blaise meant to write Conjecture #1.
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I want to clarify for my readers, since I think there may be some confusion ...
- Conjecture 1 is analogous to saying, "My car died. Mechanic says the engine needs to be replaced. Well, let's do it."
- Conjecture 2 is analogous to saying, "My car died. Mechanic says the engine needs to be replaced. Fuck it. Let's just buy a new car, this old hunk of junk's not worth repairing anyway."
In life, we often make either of these two decisions depending on the level of decay -- we either choose to repair what is there, or to scrap it entirely and replace it with something new. So my conjectures are that, in order to conquer disease and death, we will either need to:
1) develop ways for the human body to overcome these obstacles, or
2) abandon the human body altogether (which, if we were to do it today, in the year 2007, would also equate to abandoning the human consciousness and all of our personal identities) in favor of creating a new species to "inherit the wind" for us
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As for me ... I dunno. I'm becoming more and more partial to #2. Maybe it's the part of me that finds it tragically romantic in science fiction where humanity actually does die out, and some future alien race or (even more tragically romantic) creation of our own design reflects on our existence. Maybe it's the part of me that has always been incredibly fascinated by the MegaMan universe, a universe which depicts a scientist creating robots to help make human life more livable but whose end result (by MegaMan ZX) is a world populated largely by robots with the impending erasure of what we once knew as "humanity." (All the remaining humans at some point in the chronology choose to become cyborgs so mechanical they are indistuinguishable from robots. Sort of creepy imo.)
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I do want to clarify: I love humanity and I think our imperfection is actually one of our greatest assets. (I see imperfection as a double-edged sword -- it is at once the source of our greatest insights and our worst setbacks.) I'm simply positing that, if we prize perfection above all else (as many humans often do), then does this not possibly entail the abandonment of humanity as a "failed specimen"?
I don't know. I think there's a kind of unhealthy obsession with rapid extinction, be it natural or supernatural. I imagine it's more likely humanity will slowly slip into its next form. And only after looking back across a great expanse of time will our descendants appreciate the differences (and similarities.)
I like the word "humanity." I'm not sure I could whip out a definition that I like, but I'm starting to think it is an attribute that is earned, not awarded, and entails compassion, sentience and love.
Actually, what I meant was that my preferred choice is #1, but that #2 reminds me of YKK.
I just saw this:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/135774.html
And to finish a thought: if humanity is something that is earned, then I think absolutely computers may one day either stand along side homo sapien, or gradually replace us.
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