Transhumanism  

As Ted Chu, and others have argued, our human brains are currently a major impediment to scientific and technical progress.  Will augmenting our biological intelligence yield a new scientific revolution?

In Ted Chu's incredible book Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential, he analyzes how limiting our current biology is.  In the chapter titled, "All Too Human," Chu discusses how scientific advancement is held back by the lack of our capability to deal with masses of data and form the interdisciplinary connections that lead to breakthroughs.

"Is it time to look beyond human science?" asks Chu.

As John Horgan argued in The End Of Science: Facing The Limits Of Knowledge In The Twilight Of The Scientific Age, the biggest bottleneck in science we face is the human brain.

Not since Francis Bacon has any one individual been able to master all of human knowledge.  The number of research papers published each year continues to rise, well beyond the limits of any one individual can manage, even within areas of specialization.

Growth in the number of neuroscience papers - Source: Nature

Using computer systems such as IBM's Watson to deal with the computational and data needs of science is common, but they may limit the creative requirements of innovation and breakthroughs. Using these systems forces may scientists to be more data managers than users.  These challenges were pointed out by Edward Tenner in Why Things Bite Back.

"Civilization's most recent burst of scientific progress, the one that started during the Renaissance, is fast reaching its denouement if we do not create better minds."

An other example of the effects of accumulation of scientific papers is the exploding amount of papers that are essentially just surveys of other papers in a given field.

The other main tool scientific research employs is collaboration.  It is now for scientific research journal publications to have many authors.  In many cases honorary authorship, and inclusion of well-known authors not directly associated with the work in publications is done to increase the readership and social prestige of the piece. However, the fact that advancements today can require massive capital spending, and diverse specializations make collaboration an essential tool, and potential stumbling block of progress in science. Finding publications with single authors is very rare today.

Chu argues that overspecialization has caused tunnel vision for scientific research. "There is a critical difference between knowledge stored in different brains and a single brain in terms of understanding and creativity," argues Chu. "Regardless of how much effort we put into communication and collaboration, the best breakthroughs still emerge from one creative mind."

Two alternatives may help overcome these limitations, development of a global brain, and brain augmentation. The Global Brain is a metaphor for the worldwide intelligent network formed by people together with the information and communication technologies that connect them into an "organic" whole. Depending on its implementation the Global Brain may or may not account for the single-mindedness characteristic of the individual human brain.

Brain augmentation, on the other hand may be the answer.  Whether it lead to Chu's consciously evolved CoBe (Cosmic Being), or simply provide an advanced memory and recall amplification for our brains with neuroprosthetics, extending our capabilities will yield Singularity-level consequences.

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Augmentation of brain function is no longer just a theme of science fiction. With advances in neuroscience, it has become a matter of reality that a person may consider at some point in life, for example as a treatment of a neurodegenerative disease. Currently, several approaches offer enhancements for sensory, motor and cognitive brain functions, as well as for mood and emotions. Such enhancements may be achieved pharmacologically, using brain implants for recordings, stimulation and drug delivery, by employing brain-machine interfaces, the development of nanomedical implants, or even by ablation of certain brain areas.

Chu writes:

The core I argument I will put forth here is that each of our brain's capabilities has limitations and drawbacks in both technical and motivational terms, and these limitations cannot be overcome as long as we remain "human' in the conventional sense. To understand this argument, must first recognize that the human brain is a historical product of natural evolution, a big patchwork providing partial solutions, rather than an engineered masterpiece. The brain is a passable solution to the problems at hand, not an optimal solution.

For scientific progress to continue, and continue to accelerate, the bottleneck of the human brain must be overcome. "Civilization's most recent burst of scientific progress, the one that started during the Renaissance, is fast reaching its denouement if we do not create better minds," states Chu.

How do you think our science and technology will be advanced by brain augmentation?  Should we proceed?

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 Futurism  

Ted Chu recently conducted a talk about his new book, "Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential," and why the creation of Cosmic Beings should be our goal for the future.

Recently Dr. Ted Chu, author of Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision of Our Future Evolutionspoke to a small group about his cosmic vision for humanity, and beyond.  The video, in three parts is available from Chu's YouTube Channel.

The lecture gives an overview of Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential, and keys in on what the famous futurist Alvin Toffler may have misinterpreted as the Third Wave in the 1980's.

"What we should aim for is not happiness of humankind, but to really justify human existence by identifying human beings' position and responsibilities in the universe."

Toffler first wrote that the The Third Wave was represented by the I.T. revolution and was preceded by the agricultural and industrial revolutions, but Chu disagrees. Pointing out economic indicators he instead places Toffler's Third Wave as just a continuation of the industrial revolution.

He evaluates that the advent of computers did not have the kind of Singularity effects that were seen by the agricultural or industrial revolutions, but provided the economic stimulus to continue the industrial revolution through the past few decades. The real Third Wave Chu states is post-Human.

Chu uses this background to explain what he thinks should be the new goal of humanity: "What we should aim for is not happiness of humankind, but to really justify human existence by identifying human beings' position and responsibilities in the universe."

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Because the global economy was doing well, Chu states that the clear ideological underpinnings of a new goal for humanity did not have any incentive or attraction.  He says that the transhumanism and Singularity thinkers also lack ideological clarity on how to move humanity forward.  Now, however as the reality of technological obsolescence is taking hold and the economic picture is not so rosy, the time is right to look at what humanity's purpose is.  Looking at it from an objective standpoint, humans are a bottleneck to economic growth in a future of smarter-than-human artificial intelligence or genetically modified super-intellligent entities.

The future, according to Chu is create Cosmic Beings, or what he calls CoBe. This is really just a continuation of evolution, what he calls the most important idea in history.  We must experiment and we must eventually create a new species to succeed us according to Chu. "Call them transhumans or cyborgs, but I like to call them “CoBe” (the Cosmic Being)," says Chu.  Along with this, Chu proposes a new version of religion.

Lawerence Wollersheim, executive director of UniverseSpirit.org says Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential is a motivating and inspirational overview of what it means to embrace the best of evolutionary transhumanism and be a responsible universe citizen. The author also presents the "next generation" specifics on what the "new" concept of conscious or intentional evolution in alignment with evolutionary science looks like.

According to Chu, we now know how to create our successors with the help of robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and biotechnology; and we need to begin this work now to prevent technological obsolescence and race with the machines or the role of humans in the global economy will gradually diminish in favor of these more efficient advanced devices and autonomous entities.

Chu was formerly chief economist of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and was also chief economist at General Motors. He has spent the last 15 years in the intensive study of posthuman evolution. He currently lives in Abu Dhabi.


SOURCE  Ted Chu's YouTube Channel

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 Transhumanism  

Economist Ted Chu has been researching the future of humanity for nearly two decades and has compiled his thoughts into the new book, Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential.  The goal of the book is to provide ideological clarity about the posthuman future by looking at our next stage of development from a cosmic perspective.

For thousands of years, great thinkers have contemplated the meaning and purpose of human existence; but while most assumed that humanity was the end point of creation or the pinnacle of evolution, Ted Chu makes the provocative claim that the human race may in fact be a means rather than an end—that humankind will give rise to evolutionary successors.

In his new wide-ranging and authoritative book, Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision of Our Future Evolution, Chu reexamines the question of human purpose in light of the extraordinary developments of science and technology.

In Chu's vision of the future, the human race is not the highest nor is it the final product of 14 billion years of cosmic evolution. "We alone are not the sole or ultimate purpose of the universe. Yes, we are a noble product of the evolutionary process, but humanity is also a means to a greater end. We need to discover and joyfully embrace this higher end, this new purpose."  Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential explores this future.

"Ted Chu's elegantly written and well-researched book is the finest in this field since Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near," says Michael E. Zimmerman, Professor of Philosophy, University of Colorado at Boulder

Arguing that a deep understanding of our place in the universe is required to navigate the magnitude of the choices that lie ahead, he surveys human wisdom from both East and West, traces the evolutionary trajectory that has led to this point, and explores the potentials emerging on the scientific frontier.

"In terms of developing human resources we are still at a hunter-gatherer stage, we don't know how to produce and generate better human beings; but this is about to change."

According to Chu, the idea of the technological Singularity is too simplistic and too easy.  "When you look at evolutionary history, nothing is so smooth," he says.  Chu sees difficulties and bottlenecks in the path of the future.  For Chu, in terms of cosmic evolutionary history, the Singularity is nothing new.

"As a macroeconomist and futurist, I have long sensed that the human era is coming to a close and that this posthuman era is upon us," writes Chu. "In my role as a chief economist, both for General Motors and for one of the world’s largest investment funds, I have learned that I must go beyond economics. In the same way, in order to express the pinnacle human spirit, we must now go beyond humanity."

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However, in terms of the global economy, Chu thinks we are in a critical stage in terms of development.  He says most economists have ignored technological progress and the potential of technology to change human nature.  

"Human beings are becoming a bottleneck of economic growth," he told Singularity Weblog's Nikola Danaylov.  "In terms of developing human resources we are still at a hunter-gatherer stage, we don't know how to produce and generate better human beings; but this is about to change."

Chu makes us fully aware of the many risks ahead, but offers an original “cosmic vision” that provides the courage and the perspective we will need to explore the potentials of our posthuman future.

Chu was formerly chief economist of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (the Middle East's largest sovereign wealth fund) and was also chief economist at General Motors. He has spent the last 15 years in the intensive study of posthuman evolution. He lives in Abu Dhabi.



SOURCE  Singularity Weblog

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