Robot Remains

What defines a human being? A collection of individual cells that scientifically create a walking bag of organs? How about an instrument of labor or a creation designed for one purpose? What if the definition of human beings wasn't about being an individual walking among civilization, but just being there never to fade away? Technology, as explained by Raymond Kurzweil, will turn us into those fearless, perfect subjects within a matter of years. But is being omnipotent a bad thing or a good thing? It is depends on which way you see technology: an assistance or an alteration.

Human beings aren't meant to be shaped like clay models in a ceramics workshop. They are meant to be formed through life's experiences. From childhood, to adolescence, to adulthood, to parenthood, life has its cycles that it must run through. Obstacles throughout the stages of life, such as disease or impairment or even lack of knowledge, are common to a person. If all of these things were to disappear, what would truly define a "life"? Kurzweil's idea that of the singularity, where humans and technology will merge as one, brings skepticism in my eyes. Removing the human portion from people, despite what the possibilities are, is inhuman in itself. Without human nature, people are nothing more than just animals. Give them technological augmentations, and now you've only created robots. Humanity of people cannot be artificial, it must be genuine.

Kurzweil is only doing what he believes is right for humanity: preserving it. But the way it seems, saving humans from imminent death involves taking away what is human. Technology grows exponentially, according to Kurzweil, so the rate at which we discover methods of healing or destruction will only grow faster faster. Soon we'll be able to "reverse-engineer the human brain by mid-2020s", one of the most complex organs, and next thing you know we'll be making human beings out of factories like toys (3). If we're going to take it that far, might as well remove all reproductive organs from human beings as their born because we won't need them anymore. Making humans will be like printing books, you'll know every single thing from cover to cover. Taking it a step further, just eliminate instincts from the humans such as hunger or self preservation because immortality where "we'll scan our consciousness into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually" will be provided (1). Might as well kill everyone at birth and just let the robots take over.

However, the figure known as Death is someone almost everyone fears. If there were some way for a person to delay, or possibly eliminate, the date on which a meeting is due with the Grim Reaper, I'm positive almost everyone would take it. Kurzweil even uses his personal ideals to preserve his life by taking "up to 200 pills and supplements a day", and even claims that his "biological age is about 20 years younger" (3). If somehow that science were to be simplified and given to the public, our efforts as a human race could be pointed elsewhere, essentially making humans into more efficient machines. Additionally, what if a person could have a computer in their brain? Long division wouldn't be impossible to do anymore. Instead, it would only take microseconds to finish. Humans would be able to process information and solve problems a hundred, maybe a thousand, or even a million, times faster. But where is the fun in that? The sense of satisfaction from working tirelessly on a problem and finally completing it would be gone. Everything would be a mundane task since every problem or obstacle in a person's way would be dealt with in seconds. Replace the complex, inefficient organs with machines that process everything as efficiently as possible and now what are we left with? Nothing.

What can be defined as beautiful if we lose our sense of being human? The art painted onto a canvas would be seen as merely paint splattered into shapes and patterns. The music played from the hands of a pianist would only be heard as noise that satisfy the laws of acoustics. The words written from a book would be generated by the attempt at expressing one's thoughts, only to find it already countless times over. If gaining immortality and intelligence meant losing what makes us people, then why bother doing it? Kurzweil probably never read Brave New World and saw how "humanity" was, nor did he read 1984 probably. The man was too busy inventing music writing computers to see what others saw years ahead of their time.