Transcendent Consciousness for Transcendent Technologies: Part II

Human beings must understand that much of their grandeur and achievement pale in comparision to the other organisms on this planet. We must come to terms as an organism or as a species and realize the importance of ensuring our survival. How can we transcend our present status with technology, improve our consciousness and our bodies while maintaining harmony with our planet and beyond? Part I looks into how one realizes the importance of this "species" state and comes to understand the need to attain transcendent states with transcendent technologies.

Our greatest fear is that the technology we develop could one day come back to challenge the collective worth of our existence. This is probably why there are so many efforts to develop friendly forms of artificial intelligence programmes, or "friendly AI". But in designing such a conditional form of intelligence, are we practicing a form of techno-eugenics in order to preserve our security?

At the outset, the desire to design "friendly" AI is important, but it also challenges our cultural memes of equality and liberty. If artificial intelligence is indeed capable of attaining consciousness, then are we denying the liberty of a radically new form of life? It is a real challenge to choose between an anthropocentric view or an ecocentric point of view. Here is where we go back to the tipping point where we distinguish ourselves from being a boon or a disease on the planet.

The anthropocentric view dictates that we can choose to redesign nature to suit our existence. However, this is very much similar to what a virus does. The virus manipulates the very core of the host cell and forces the cell to use it’s resources to produce more viruses which ultimately bursts out, destroying the host. A parallel could easily be drawn between a virus using the cell’s resources for replication and our own exploitation of our planet’s resources to survive and multiply.

If humanity is truly a viral infection of the Earth, then one day we will exhaust all our resources and attempt to colonize other planets in the solar system and beyond. As we contemplate this process, we must ask ourselves if our planet is no longer inhabitable, would we seek to overpower another species in order to colonize a habitable planet? Surely, there are going to be intergalactic wars in the future, and we may not always be the victors nor the heroes. So, why continue this basal existence and eventually destroy our home planet when we can choose to transcend ourselves, ascend our consciousness and live in harmony?

Article Author: V.R.Manoj

V.R.Manoj is currently pursuing his research (PhD) in Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, India. He is also an Intern with the Institute for Emerging Ethics in Technology (IEET). Manoj wishes to understand and encourage the social,philosophical …

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