Such projections are valuable. For one thing they prod people away from biological traditionalism. They help generate awareness of our emerging potentials.
We need to involve more and more people in this Biological Upheaval so we can jointly decide genetic improvements. Having always been creatures of evolution we are now becoming the creators. To make wise biological decisions we need to be well-informed and well-involved.
—The Cyborg (human/machine). Individuals with Dacron heart valves—transistorized pacemakers—electronic limbs—electronic bladders—silicone breasts—contact lenses—porcelain teeth...
We also have robots—teleoperators—computers—automated and cybernated systems performing more and more human functions—mental managerial and physical.
This is only a beginning. The fusion of the human and the machine is gaining momentum. We will shed more and more of our animal organs and incorporate more and more self-created replacements.
Will all this lead to artificial people? Absolutely not. All this is leading to human-created people. The more we remake our bodies the more we will transcend the animal/human.
I trust the cumulative wisdom of humans far more than the slow arbitrary workings of conventional evolution.
Are the millions of people who wear contact lenses or have new teeth or breasts—artificial? When does a person become artificial? What if you wear a hearing aid and have new teeth then suddenly need a new kidney to keep you alive and later need new heart valves and still later some bone replacements—should we let you die or give you new parts to help you enjoy an active life? When should we stop helping, afraid that you might become artificial?
What is so sacrosanct about this so-called natural body that we should leave it untouched? What is so beautiful about our animal liver or kidney—or any blob of flesh or piece of skin? A horse's ass is also skin.
What is so romantic about this natural structure that is a fire hazard—heavily polluted—poorly ventilated—badly insulated and handicapped with countless other structural defects. Any student of architecture knows that it is not even esthetic to place the playground so close to the sewer.
The hell with this natural body which is little more than a robot—a bad robot—limited gawky temporary. It is our animal/human body that is now artificial. It cannot even keep up with our new visions and dreams. We ourselves can create far more versatile durable beautiful bodies.
Let us encourage the present trend toward de-animalizing our bodies. Replacing our animal organs with human-created parts. Let us all become involved in planning radical improvements in our primitive bodies.
Let us for instance improve on our eyes not simply by implanting contact lenses but also microlasers microradars and sonars enabling us to see through objects through darkness and fog and across vast distances.
Let us improve on our ears not simply by implanting miniature hearing aids but also miniature antennas which can tune in to voices and sounds from anywhere on this planet and from far away in outer space.
Let us dispense with our stomachs and intestines to implant instead a miniature laser or TV connected to satellite stations so we can instant-communicate with anyone anywhere. Communication—not food—will be the nourishment of future-people.
Let us dispense with our lungs and graft instead gills and implant anti-gravity flappers helping us translive in the oceans and in the air. Walking is primitive. Posthumans will be Space-free. We will fly and glide and soar...
Let us implant electrodes under the skin so we can better self-control our minds emotions bodies, not be manipulated by them. Self-control our brain waves to instant-erase pain and suffering—instant-stimulate pleasures and ecstasies—visions and dreams and total recall of any experience in the past.
Let us also by implanting electrodes reinforce and expand telepsychic communication. To plug in directly without words or gestures to other telehumans. To plug in to fuse and defuse to merge and separate. To be one and to be many. To be alone and to be unalone. For me to be you and for you to be me. Here is a way to allay loneliness and biological isolation.
Let us implant microcomputers in our bodies so we can store limitless information enabling us to retrieve it at will and instant-solve complex problems anytime anyplace.
Let us dispense with the hair on our heads attaching instead a solar cap which can draw on solar energy, helping us remain energized (nourished) forever.
Let us insert a Dacron-like synthetic or a chemical insulation under the skin to protect it from burning freezing tearing corroding. If this is not feasible then let us dispense with our skin altogether and devise a new casing durable nonperishable and fluid enough to easily alter its color patterns shapes.
In countless other ways we can and we will redo the human organism. This very day in research centers around the planet bioengineers—biocyberneticists—pioneering medical doctors—space scientists and others are at work devising new body organs new techniques of transplants and implants and other ways of improving the quality of human life and its adaptability to radically new environments.
—Immortality. The greatest tragedy in the human condition is death. Death and its imminence has brought more sorrow suffering anxiety than all other forces combined.
Each person dies many times. We not only bear the imminence of our own death but die a little with the death of everyone we love.
The most urgent human problem facing us is death. We must start from here. All other social problems are secondary. When we speak of priorities what is more urgent than this all-encompassing problem of death?
Death is now a greater tragedy than ever. So far as we know today death is an end. There is no afterlife—no heaven no paradise no hell no rebirth. Death is final. Once you die you will never be heard from again.
More than ever therefore it is urgent to overcome death.
The conquest of death is the single transcendent triumph which in one sweep will defuse all other human problems. When we attain physical immortality we will automatically have defused such age-old problems as violence—crime—wars—disease—poverty—hunger—competition—alienation—anxiety...
Once we attain immortality everything will be possible. The Upheaval we are launching against death is therefore the most urgent.
Until the early 1960s immortality was still a metaphysical concept. Then it began to move to the domain of science. Today in research centers around the planet millions of dollars are spent yearly in the upheaval against humanity's gravest crisis. The drive to redo the human body is ultimately aimed at overcoming death.
This upheaval against mortality now gaining momentum can be divided into two phases.
Phase One. Stop-gap measures to forestall death. These include —
Anti-aging Measures. Control of diet and systematic fasting. Rejuvenating hormones. Molecular manipulation. Anti-aging pill. Rejuvenating ionized air. Low gravity simulation to decrease pressures on the heart and other organs. Organ transplants. Regeneration of body parts. Flushing out the accumulation of waste in the cells. Immunosuppressant drugs.
Suspended Animation. Freezing the body immediately before or after death to be revived in the future.
Long-term Hibernation. A technique to retard aging while awaiting a time in the future when immortality itself can be attained.
Cloning. Depositing body cells in a Cell Bank or with a doctor. In case of accidental death the cells could be cloned to reproduce the exact genetic duplicate of the deceased, insuring a kind of biological quasi-immortality.
Life Support Suit. (LSS) A skin-tight one-piece unisex year-round garment. Built-in heating and air-conditioning to insure comfortable body temperature at all times. Fire-resistant and tear-proof. Instant inflatability to protect the wearer from drowning or, in case of a crash or collision, protect from injuries and death. A light transparent headgear with two-way telecom. The LSS also includes a body-monitoring system connected to telemedical centers for constant surveillance of body functions. In case
of an imminent organ malfunction or other disorder the wearer is automatically advised to take the necessary precautions. In case of sudden death the temperature in the Life Support Suit is instantly dropped to the coldest level to protect the body and particularly the brain from damage while awaiting cryonic suspension.
The above techniques do not by themselves insure immortality. They are simply stop-gap measures to help us gain time. For instance much progress has already been made in anti-aging methods. Scientists are now optimistic that by the 1990s we will be able to postpone aging in a dramatic way. A great number of people will live to 150 years or more. But what if a person drowns is burned to death or killed in a crash? No anti-aging technique will help. Progress is also being made in cryonic suspension of life. But what if a person dies in an isolated area and the body cannot be frozen immediately? The damage to the brain will be irreversible and no freezing will help. What if the Life Support Suit malfunctions? Phase One therefore, while reassuring, is hardly the answer.
Phase Two. The actual attainment of immortality. This is a longer-range movement —
Genetic Engineering. It will be possible in the coming decades to make extensive genetic modifications in the human body excising many of our perishable organs, grafting or inserting instead entirely new body parts which will be self-regenerating or easily replaceable.
Cyborg or Telehuman. As I explained earlier we are already replacing many body organs for human-created parts. This trend will persist till we have remade the entire human body. We will create esthetically attractive versatile durable bodies for the brain. (Still later we may isolate the brain, entirely miniaturize it when desired into an ever smaller and smaller unit till it becomes a minute particle—a transmaterial life able to rematerialize in many forms and dematerialize again back and forth at will to belong to All-Time All-Space.)
* * * *
It is this second phase in our upheaval against death we must strive for. Immortality is now a question of how and when—not if.
The present drive toward immortality is beginning to raise questions in people's minds. Where will we put everybody? That is hardly a problem. Once we attain immortality we will no longer need to procreate. We will strive to regenerate and perfect the living. Moreover as I already noted in the coming years we will continue to spread out, inhabiting deserts and oceans—space stations and planets. Space is limitless.
What about boredom and stagnation? These problems are predicated on our age-old conditioning and limited existences. Immortality and Space will lead to entirely new premises and potentials which may bring new kinds of problems but not a perpetuation of the old.
What if I don't want to live forever? That is your privilege. Immortality must not be an imposition. Nor must death. We want to strive for our individual right to live as long as we want. Ten years one hundred years a million a billion—forever. Or to suspend life for an interval then go on living. We want to win the right to self-determination about life itself. We cannot make decisions about life so long as we do not make decisions about death.
* * * *
It is precisely this ancient orientation to death which hinders us from launching a global crash movement to overcome mortality. Humans are still too death-oriented too guilt-ridden too submissive and fatalistic to demand immortality. To even hope for it.
The Future will look back on our times amazed that humanity was so close to attaining immortality yet having done so little.
Political leaders and self-styled revolutionaries still exhort their followers to fight to the end. “If you have nothing to die for you have nothing to live for” they say. These leaders and the movements they launch are bogged down in the death-oriented oldworld.
They still cannot see that life itself is the greatest Revolution. That to lose your life is to lose all rights all freedoms—everything.
Then too some social scientists and philosophers still urge that we accept death. “Alone among the living man knows that he will die” say the existential psychologists.
Alone among the living we humans now know or ought to know that we can overcome death.
In all their exhortations to accept pain and death I hear echoes of oldworld resignation. Perhaps even a desire for death. They have made a virtue out of what was a necessity.
We Up-Wingers are building a New World which is resigned to nothing—no pain suffering or death.
We want to overcome death. Do not ask us to accept death. We are prepared only to accept life.
The day will come when the death of one single human will be so rare and tragic that the news flashed across the planet will stun humanity.
Let us hasten that day when death will be something of our past—ahead of us only Life.
* * *
beyond utopia
Contemporary philosophers state that we humans are striving to be god. Others, more critical, admonish us for arrogantly “playing god.” They warn of dire consequences.
These critics are absurd. We humans do not want to be god or to play god.
We aspire to much more.
God was a crude concept—vengeful wrathful destructive. We humans want to evolve beyond god.
Is all this utopian? Unrealistic? This is what pessimists and other detractors of humanity are quick to charge.
But what is Utopia? What is realism? In 1950 the very concept of living with a new heart or kidney was considered unrealistic utopian. So too the idea of actually visiting another planet.
In our times realism means keeping pace with our rapidly changing situation aware that what is unrealistic or utopian today is reality next month or next year.
The modern world has already evolved beyond utopia. For centuries utopianism has been predicated on the puritan conditions of hard work and the simple collective life. As I have already explained we renounce the mystique of hard work and the simple life. We aspire to Leisure and Creativity and the Fluid Universal Life. Above all we strive for new dimensions in human existence—we want to extend ourselves through infinity and eternity.
This cosmic dimension is just beginning to unfold. It could not have possibly been anticipated by any thinkers—utopian or other.
Utopianism is now too modest. We Up-Wingers are beyond utopia—beyond the most utopian dreams of the most utopian philosophers.
We are Cosmic.
* * * *
Are we moving too fast? Some social critics think so. They contend that people are having difficulties coping with rapid change.
What amazes me is not that a few people have difficulty coping with some aspects of change but the ease with which most people adapt to change—even to monumental breakthroughs.
In just the last two decades the entire world has undergone phenomenal upheavals. In rapid succession we have sailed through several ages. We have coped remarkably well. Once change has taken place most people adapt. They then resist new advances.
The overriding phenomenon today is not the problem of coping with rapid progress. But the clamor for more and more progress. This is clearly evident in all the spreading youth movements—women's movements—the drive to regionalism—the biological upheaval—the technological breakthroughs—the rapid emergence of universal values and institutions...
We humans are remarkably adaptable and resilient.
This adaptability itself is daily spreading as people grow up conditioned to rapid change. The more we advance the more we want to advance.
It is neither possible nor even desirable to slow down progress. We should strive instead to guide our forward thrust.
This is not a time to hold back to slow down to waver or to flounder in despair. We want to move on. We want to get on with it.
We have too many old problems to resolve. Too many new visions to fulfill.
This is a glorious time in human evolution. An age of exploding potentials. We are only now beginning to test our wings.
In this late twentieth century we Up-Wingers are launching an upheaval greater than any
movement greater than any revolution in our entire past. This is a Cosmic Upheaval which will not simply catapult us to a higher history as the visionary Nietzsche had anticipated—but to something far more transcendent—a higher evolution.
Let us not be afraid of vision and hope. It was the daring of visionaries that has brought us this far—from gloomy primordial marshes to where we are today—reaching for the galaxies, reaching for immortality.
* * *
glossary
Terms I have used in Optimism One—Up-Wingers—Telespheres
AntiFuture: Resisting the future. Pessimistic. Reactionary.
Astrocolonies: Inhabited communities in Space.
Biological fundamentalism: A new conservatism that resists asexual reproduction—genetic engineering—altering the human anatomy—overcoming death. Biological fundamentalists resist the evolution from the human to the posthuman.
Cosmic Upheaval: The sudden radical change in our basic situation in Time and in Space. This late 20th century upheaval is proceeding mainly through the Biological Revolution and the Space thrust.
Deanimalize: Replace our animal organs and body parts with durable painfree non-flesh implants. Any parts that enhance rapid evolution we will keep. The rest is dispensable.
Deflesh: Replace flesh with non-flesh.
Earthnicity: Planet Earth provincialism. As we continue to spread beyond this planet we outgrow Earthnicity. We grow more and more Universal.
Freefly: Using a rocket belt or other technique to fly at will. Freefly will totally revolutionize all our age-old concepts of body—transportation—communication—houses—communities. Why ever walk or run when you can freefly? Why legs? Why any ground vehicles? Why any ground habitations or communities when people can fly in through windows or wing in and out of suspended habitations and communities?
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