Beyond Humanity

Read this book if you what to understand where our society is headed in the near future. Gregory S. Paul and Earl D. Cox have put together some extremely well thought out theories of where the computer revolution is taking us. They base these theories on a wealth of facts from the past and present.The biggest revelation for me was realizing that the advancement in knowledge and computing power is a result of the driving force of information exchange. There are many underlying similarities to thermodynamics, and this book hints at this. Evolution, Thermodynamics, Biology, Material Science, and Information Technology are all discussed in the book. If this book is right, the next fifty years will be illuminating.

Foretelling the future, once the realm of mystics and entrail pullers, is now a subject of serious scientific study. Paul and Cox offer us a rational and plausible scenario of what the future holds for humanity. With backgrounds in biology and computer engineering, they've combined to bring competence to an enduring question: Where are we going? You may not like their view of the road ahead, but it's impossible to ignore their forecast. Their arguments focus on developments in neurosciences and computing power. They foresee a merger of these two disciplines resulting in the creation of a new humanity capable of engineering new, immortal physical brain carriers - bodies. Bodies themselves, as any gene can verify, are of minor importance. They are in essential agreement with Richard Dawkins that the selfish gene, in replicating itself, casts off the brain/mind of its host and losing whatever that mind has accumulated during its life. Their forecast is that the brain, using cybernetic technologies, will be able to avoid that waste by taking control of what DNA does during its thoughtless replication activity.This is a momentous proposal, worthy of serious consideration. The so- called 'moral' issues of whether humanity should engage in such activity, aren't shrugged off. Paul and Cox contend that there will be Rejectionists who will refused the option of cyberevolution and remain mortal. They suggest the Rejectionists will remain the chief source of art, music and other more diverse roles in life. We are left unclear as to how diverse the cyberhumans will become. The authors argue that the cyberhumans will be the ones to populate other planets, finding their diversity in response to new environments.The only real flaw in this book is ignoring the power of DNA in driving our lives and society. Whether we will ever understand the workings of DNA sufficiently to actually create a wide range of individuals remains problematic. The individual who first successfully transforms into a cyberhuman will set a pattern more likely to be repeated than modified. To create discrete cyber-individuals will be tremendously resource extravagant. This is likely lead to a narrow range of available DNA to launch the cyberpopulation. As we have already experienced with the shrinking gene pool of crop seeds, such a reduced variety is highly vulnerable to virus assault. An organism that succeeds in infecting such a limited diversity can quickly wipe out the whole cyberhuman population. Modifying the gene pool to resist such an infestation will take more resources and the Rejectionists will again be successful survivors through their genetic diversity.This flaw, however powerful, doesn't detract from the significant questions raised and developed in this compelling book. If you wonder about the future, if you think computers are only for entertainment, if you think humans are th

This book is at the pop end of pop science. Its not tightly argued or particularly well written. I suspect it will also only alter the minds of people disposed to the sciTech outlook of the world rather than the faithful. Though the constant jibes at religous beleifs are amusing. clearly the authors are rightly somewhat embarassed by the religousity of their compatriots. However the book is a wonderfully audatious attempt to plot out the potential future of the universe. The questions are so big and important yet almost totally ignored that any book that has a stab at sketching a future is to be warmly congratulated. For me it has been clear for some time that humanity is very near the endgame - that the exponential increase in technology will lead to a break point pretty soon ie 50-100 years. I had been of the view that the instability of high tech ie the vastly increased capacity for individuals to introduce self replicating pathogens of some sort or another would very likely thrust us back into the pre human stages of life on Earth. Paul and Cox paint an in some ways more optimistic scenario in which our soon to be built robot Mind Children will take up the evolutionary batton and charge at lightening pace towards the colonisation and sentientisation of this and potentially other universes. Which of these two types of scenarios pans out is too my mind perhaps the most important question facing the universe. The Cox+Paul sketch skates over several crucial questions such as 1 Is consciousness just a fortunate and wonderful byproduct of a computational system of sufficient but not excessive complexity\speed. ie is our consciousness something of a Goldilocks phenomenon - in which case migration to a an advanced inorganic substrate may not seem such a compelling prospect. In any case the leap into a cyber being does look awfully like suicide for most people.I can imagine a cyberbeing finding Hans Morovec's mind worth retaining for a while, but really cannot imagine a sophisticated cyber being too interested in retaining much of the average Aunt Agatha or indeed of the rest of us.2 More thought needs to be given to how the evolutionary process will drive things forward.The book also raises but does not really deal with - no criticism of the authors as they cannot be experts in everything - questions as to how economics will work out in an era of nanotechnology and superabundance.The book, like every other ontyhe subject is alos a little to US scentric. Having been travelling the 3rd world for some time now, it is clear that to most of hunaity, ideas which more or less make sense in PAlo Alto look completely crazy in a civilsation which has stagnated for thousands of years. Anyhow It's absolutely fascinating stuff and I only wish there were more books and people attempting to tackle these vital issues.

Paul and Cox present intriguing ideas and insights covering broad territory ranging from cosmology to social commentaries on politics and religion of the late 20th century. The authors focus on what appears to be the likely path for human evolution in the next century. Although Paul and Cox indulge in some heavy-handed treatment of contemporary social and political issues, they snipe equally at all political parties and conventional belief systems without prejudice. They really drop a bomb on religion in general - seems they have some personal ax to grind here. The authors overestimate the intellectual maturity of our species on this issue ignoring the important stabilizing affect of religion in a society recently descended from the trees. Humanity is not ready to cast off the warm blanket of religion and face the cold nausea of a morally inert universe. Overall, an excellent and thought-provoking text that should stimulate a lot of dialog in the future.

I like to read books about what will happen in the future. However, a lot of these books never mention nanotechnology, which is the science of the atomic scale manipulation of matter. Nanotechnology is almost inevitable and promises to keep us young forever and improve our bodies with enhancements and produce products, including food, very cheaply, or even free! BEYOND HUMANITY delves into nanotechnology deeply, and the book portrays the future in a extremely positive light, and I agree. This may begin to happen in only about 50 years from now, according to the authors. If you only read one book this year, read this one, the vast majority of people have no idea what the future holds in store, this book is a great roadmap to it.