Noosphere Posthuman A hypothetical concept and technological preconditions for its implementation
Valerija Pride for consideration for TransVision 2010
NOOSPHERE POSTHUMAN
VALERIJA PRIDE
Noosphere Posthuman A hypothetical concept and technological preconditions for its implementation
Introduction to the topic N. Bostrom [1] considered the space of possible forms of living creatures selecting among them animals, humans, transhumans and posthumans. Just as animals and humans has long been classified by numerous parameters into various types so can the hypothetical phenomena "transhuman" and "posthuman". There are already some versions of transhumans in the popular imagination: cyborgs, genetically modified humans, uploaded minds, persons augmented with nanotechnology, and others. Good descriptions and even visualizations of various types of transhumans were produced by the authors of a role-playing game "Eclipse phase"[2]. Posthuman is defined as someone "whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards" [5]. Currently we foresee, for example, the following varieties of posthumans:
• AI that can be based on different architectures • Uploaded human brain, modified and accelerated • AI based on enhanced human intelligence • Noospheric (planetary) posthuman • Hybrid (composed from above types) • Something not imagined by me This report discusses the concept of one type of posthuman - noosphere (planetary) posthuman (NPH). I want to say that the NPH is fundamentally different from such entities as the society (in all its variations) or "intelligent anthills" by the presence of a single consciousness and identity. From other types of posthumans it differs mostly in the history of its creation (a factor, which may possibly define the type and the essence of posthumans) NOOSPHERE POSTHUMAN
VALERIJA PRIDE
and the degree of autonomy and rationality of its subsystems. I propose the following working definition of a noosphere (planetary) posthuman: Noosphere (or planetary) posthuman is an intelligent system composed of a number of people and/or transhumans somehow integrated into a single creature with selfconsciousness, self-identification, memory, desires, will and other properties usually attributed to a human person - admitting the fact that by the time posthumans emerge, the meaning of all these concepts will be expanded. We can envision different types of NPH. As already mentioned, its essence will in the strongest way depend on the history of its creation, on the basic ideas that underpin its design. It may be a voluntary union under certain "rules", where the supersystem is useful for its elements. It may also be experienced as a "terrorist", dictatorial structure where the most inhumane methods may be used for exploitation of subsystemhumans by supersystem-posthuman.
Background The history of the idea about planetary (noosphere) posthuman has existed in a vague form for many centuries, if not millennia, of religious tradition. A vivid example of how one could conceive of NPH is the image of the Trinity in the Christian tradition. Trinity - with its inseparability existing as three persons, but one being, consists of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But to the question about corelation between the whole and its parts - probably the most interesting in the philosophy of generalized personality - we will return later. In western philosophy, perhaps the most vivid image of the merging of souls is found in the "Human phenomenon" by Teilhard de Chardin. Philosophers have argued that "... evolution must reach a culmination in the form of some higher consciousness" [3] and that "the universe-future - can be suprapersonal at Omega" [3]. And "in Omega the consciousness slowly evolved through noogenesis on Earth will be summed and collected in its perfection and integrity" [3]. Unfortunately, the religious concept of Chardin is not much use for us to move towards studying the possible phenomenon of a noospherical posthuman, because it has never been practically oriented with the technology taken into account. Interestingly, some ideas about how could an NPH be organised appeared in the19th century in the Russian philosophical thought. It was the Orthodox Christian concept Sobornost (Togetherness). It was introduced (in relation to the Russian village NOOSPHERE POSTHUMAN
VALERIJA PRIDE
community) by the Russian philosopher A. S. Homyakov (1804-1860) [4]. Homyakov defined Togetherness as "<...> organic, living principle which is Divine grace of mutual love". Hence a very special attitude to the personality of another person in this type of culture, since the personality of Another in some way reflects the face of God. Originally deduced from the religious principle of togetherness, this concept has subsequently become more widely interpreted, covering the entire way of life, the complex moral and ethical standards within the community. I can give more examples of how the human mind tried to explore the notion of generalized suprapersonal, but i only wanted to show that this idea is deep-rooted in our culture. In philosophical thought, a large contribution to the development of these ideas has been made by science fiction writers: Vernor Vinge ("A fire upon the deep"), Isaac Asimov (novel "The gods themselves ..."), John Dickinson (novel ÂŤWEÂť), and even Stephenie Meyer in her vampire saga, where we can see the beautifully crafted example of a packs of wolves with the shared part of their thinking. It is conceivable that the prototype of these characters were intelligent pack of "wolves" from "A fire upon the deep". Interestingly, in Asimov's novel when 3 persons connect and form one being, it has very little resemblance to its predecessors.
A Person consisting of many persons? But what is a person and especially a person that is composed of other individuals? How can she exist, what features could she have? First of all consider two analogies that will help us to understand this.
ANALOGY 1. HUMAN AND ITS ORGANISM Let's imagine a human organism, where not only could all subsystems work coherently and perform their functions, but also have some rudimentary intelligence. An immune system would monitor itself (e.g. with nanobots and nanosensors), pass over requests for supplying molecules from outside, develop programs of enhancing itself and even feel sad when something isn't right. It would show sad smilies on its owner-user's computer if the supplies are delayed. All other human organs could be similarly developed, be smart and have a personality. At
NOOSPHERE POSTHUMAN
VALERIJA PRIDE
the same time this person would have his own separate consciousness and is thus a higher-level person. What holds together these entities? The complex organization, where the parts are interdependent, irreplaceable, where there is certain rather sophisticated control system of the overall essence - the human body. And there is a certain hierarchy of management, which leads me to my second analogy.
ANALOGY 2. LARGE ORGANIZATION I have asked Danila Medvedev, who has a PhD in economics if it is possible to find an analogy between the NPH and the organization? Indeed, despite the fact that some of organization's elements, people, have their own consciousness there is no certain super-consciousness? But Danila believed that the director of organizational development in each organization is the super-consciousness of the organization. This is an interesting example that reminds us: even the superconsciousness of an NPH may converge into a single relatively independent element.
We see that a posthuman can be understood in different ways, with different internal organization, degree of hierarchy, and degree of interdependence. But what is he? Let's dream. NPH will remember everything remembered by every one of its elements, it will know all that they know. He will remember what you ate for breakfast today and what you dreamed about, what were your human values. His desires? Noosphere posthuman can simultaneously have plenty of desires. But perhaps these desires will have hierarchical organization. Can an NPH want something which will harm its part? In theory yes, it may want to commit suicide or "amputate" a part. To prevent that some measures will be needed. Transparency of desires is one such measure. Can the subsystems have their own wants? Based on the analogy with the human organism, they can. Emotions? May be something which has no name yet will replace emotions for NPH. We can also consider NPH's will, its intellect, basic values, etc. But we must always keep in mind that by the time it is created, our understanding of these concepts is sure to change and expand. NOOSPHERE POSTHUMAN
VALERIJA PRIDE
Even though the image of the NPH is only starting to emerge, I must admit that the idea is attractive to me. It is humane, democratic, can have a great chance to be successfully implemented by collecting various resources and creating synergies between its elements in a successful design. I would also like to note that NPH-lite can be conceived - a posthuman, developed from a limited number of people, smaller than all the planetary population.
Technological background Immediately I note (and I am not the first one who noticed it) that the chaotic process of creating generalized super-persons is already in progress. This is happening through the emergence of communities of interest in the Internet (just one example of integration among many), and many other technologies. But what will give the real boost to the creation of NPH?
• This may begin with creating software for Emotiv headset for synchronization of emotions
• Implantable microchips for sharing emotions • Brain-to-brain interfaces • Intelligence amplification through • Collaboration services • Systems for joint decision • Software for intelligence amplification Through collaboration. In conclusion I want to say that the timely consideration of the possible ways that different types of posthumans may emerge gives us more opportunities to stay in the boat and keep the boat afloat. Let's not drown in the tidal wave of the Singularity.
References 1. Nick Bostrom, Introduction to Transhumanism, 26 June 2003, Presented at the Intensive Seminar on Transhumanism, Yale University. 2. Eclipse Phase RPG, http://www.eclipsephase.com 3. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1987. The Phenomenon of man. Moscow: Science NOOSPHERE POSTHUMAN
VALERIJA PRIDE
4. Sobornost', Wikipedia, http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Соборность 5. World Transhumanist Association (2002-2005). The transhumanist FAQ
NOOSPHERE POSTHUMAN
VALERIJA PRIDE