IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2016 - 67

concerted effort to make the world
safer, one in many ways less hostile
then the one you were born into.
One where competition for the most
outlandish beliefs consumed the
world in bloodbaths."
"Yes, but we had love, individual
liberty... we've lost all that. That
which made us human."
"So, are you saying we have surrendered free will?"
"You know, when it comes to
beliefs, I struggle between what my
central processor wants... and what
I want. I've lost so much autonomy."
"And, identity?"
"Yes, identity, autonomy, all
related to free will. Independent
thought, belief in a supernatural,
are now replaced by algorithmiccentric rules, built into anatomical computers. Identity flows, not
just from our rational side, but our
emotional, too. Hearts no longer
throb, because we don't fall in love,
because we no longer cry, we've
lost the means to cleanse the soul."
"But, wouldn't you agree that these
restrictions unburden us? We've eliminated ways of thinking, just as we
have eliminated elements of vulnerable physiology, cultures that accepted
war, poverty, and ignorance?"
"If post-humankind is unmoored
from its identity, its autonomy, how
will it know when it goes too far,
reaches the abyss, when it takes
that final step from the last remnant
of the Homo sapiens to post-posthumans, devoid of any semblance or
memory, of the emotions that once
made us human?"
"Isn't there something innate in
our being that keeps us evolving?"
"Yes, I think there is, but merely
evolving into another creature, or
another form, may someday, in and
of itself prove that the entity we once
regarded as human, lost the battle
against its extinction."
"What else do you think we've
put at risk?"
DECEmber 2016

"I fear we may have already lost it.
Mr. Sarouk, we have severed the modern world from all that preceded it, as
if it never existed, a culture fractured
into a million unrecoverable shards.
Gone are tradition and common wisdom. The culture into which I was
born, exposed me to beliefs, values,
needs. I once aspired to leave at least
a ripple on the wake of greater humanity. I aspired to love. In this process of
living life at its fullest, our forebearers brought to bear an inseparable
blend of intention, feeling, judging,
and morality concerning what they
did. Today's posthuman generation
worships technical progress, not
tradition. Common wisdom's been
replaced by a world order of interconnected internalized technology."
"How far has this moved us from
what had been mankind's former
trajectory?"
"When I was born, I knew the connections to my biological and cultural
predecessors. In form with them anatomically, intellectually, spiritually. We
were the same species from whom
we inherited a familial DNA, living
diverse cultures. What changed, and
made Adam and me and those that
followed different, was that we were
co-opted by invention, by programs
that introduced engineered constructs, new social realities, authored
by corporate programmers."
"I take it you are critical of this
new reality?"
"In ways yes, in other ways no. We
gained a greater potential for surviving, free from destructive passions
that in my day spawned wars. But,
unlike past revolutions, which failed
to bring conformity, political or
social, the posthuman transformation has resulted in a techno-human
culture that is one-hundred percent
homogeneous."
"You have to admit that we have
not completely destroyed the human
spirit. We continue to make strides
in engineering and science."
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

"True, although my processors
work hard to discourage my thinking
about the past, in part because the
past evokes tender memories which
it determines are illogical. Emotion
is deemed inefficient. We now have
a neat, reductive, techno-culture,
where few mistakes are made... A
culture not based on human feeling,
but programs that mediate and flatten the culture. We are no longer on
some eye opening journey."
"How so?"
"Nietzsche, wrote that 'What is
great in man is that he is a bridge and
not an end.' That bridge kept going
for our ancestors. They followed their
dreams, while pushing against a never-ending assortment of obstacles we
called the daily grind. But we no longer
look back, we push forward against
no apparent existential threat. Man's
imperative to survive and achieve
significance has vanished, no longer
serving as the drivers for procreation
or self-expression."
"Do you think that in the short
span of 200 years, technology has
irreversibly transformed us?"
"Technology is improving so rapidly that it replicates itself in every
bodily molecule of consequence.
We have long recognized this. Someday, only remnants of the Homo
sapiens will remain. Some predict
not beyond the twenty-fourth century. By then what was once a life form
that tracked its origins back 2.5 million years, will have completely disappeared. Obviously, our aboriginal
form has changed, but have we now
reverse transformed from the likes
of the ancient butterfly back into the
rootless caterpillar?"

Author Information
Joe Carvalko is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University,
School of Law and Partner, Patent
Attorney, at Carvalko and Morris.
He can be reached at carvalko@
sbcglobal.net.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2016