Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human

by Joel Garreau

  In The Age of Spiritual Machines: Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines (New York: Penguin, 1999). ISBN: 0-670-88217-8.

  He even collaborated on a book: Jay W. Richards, ed., Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong AI (Seattle, Discovery Institute Press, 2002). ISBN: 0-963854-3-9.

  In his narrative describing: Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, pages 189–201.

  Intelligent assistants with animated personalities: A well-reviewed book and CD package enabling the creation of virtual humans with a convincing illusion of personality was already on the market by 2003. See Peter Plantec, Virtual Humans: A Build-It-Yourself Kit, Complete With Software and Step-by-Step Instructions (New York: AMACOM, 2003). ISBN: 0814472214.

  Human musicians routinely jam with computer-generated musicians: On October 14, 2004, the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Carnegie Mellon’s renowned Robotics Institute culminated with a concert by the multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, who incorporates robotics and other leading-edge technologies into her art and concerts. “Carnegie Mellon Prepares To Celebrate 25th Anniversary of its Robotics Institute,” Carnegie Mellon Media Relations, August 23, 2004. http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases04/040823_robotics.html

  People generally communicate with [computers] . . . as in . . . Minority Report: Joel Garreau, “Washington as Seen in Hollywood’s Crystal Ball,” Washington Post, June 21, 2002, page C1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A20469-2002Jun20¬Found=true

  This turned on its head Andy Warhol’s line: Public Broadcasting Service, American Masters: “Andy Warhol.” http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/warhol_a.html

  “an undercurrent of concern”: Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, page 206.

  “standing in a room up to our knees in a flammable fluid”: Ibid., page 217.

  100,000 annual deaths: Ibid., page 230. See also Jason Lazarou, Bruce H. Pomeranz and Paul N. Corey, “Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients: A Meta-analysis Prospective Studies,” Journal of the American Medical Association 279 (1998) 1200–5; Dorothy Bonn, “Adverse Reactions Remain a Major Cause of Death,” The Lancet 351 (1998) 118: “Adverse drug reactions (ADR) are the fourth commonest cause of death in the United States, with more than 100,000 deaths per year, after heart disease, cancer and stroke. In a meta-analysis of 39 prospective studies, the incidence of serious and fatal ADRs was 6.7% among patients admitted to hospital because of an ADR. This impressive figure is higher than expected, and suggests that ADRs are considerably under-reported.”

  smile in every possible way: Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, page 227.

  “unable to meaningfully participate”: Ibid., page 234.

  “accused of preferring younger women”: Ibid., page 235.

  “This is quite a technology”: Ibid., page 236.

  Kurzweil introduces the idea of MOSHs: Ibid., page 228.

  To get to a point of peace: Ibid., page 251.

  She lives for moments of spiritual experience: Ibid., page 252.

  “I wasn’t trying to reverse-engineer a religious vision”: Kurzweil interview, April 14, 2003.

  Sorcerers would create: Michael Denton, “Organism and Machine: The Flawed Analogy,” in Are We Spiritual Machines?, page 78.

  In our earliest epic: Isaac Mendelsohn, ed., Religions of the Ancient Near East (New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1955), pages 47–115; translation by E. A. Speiser, in Ancient Near East Texts (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), pages 72–99, notes by Mendelsohn. See also http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/ 159.html

  “No! You will not die!”: Genesis 3:5 from Alexander Jones, ed., The Jerusalem Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966). Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 66-24278.

  Prometheus not only created humans: Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, (London: Moyer Bell Ltd., 1955); see also Sara Baase, “The Prometheus Myth,” http://www.rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/giftfire/prometheus.html

  Daedalus confounded: Graves, The Greek Myths.

  We could shape ourselves: I am indebted to Nick Bostrom of the Faculty of Philosophy of Oxford University for his presentation “Introduction to Transhumanism” at Yale University, June 26, 2003, that inspired many of the historical connections offered here. See also Bonnie Kaplan and Nick Bostrom, “A Somewhat Whiggish and Spotty Historical Background,” The Ethics, Technology and Utopian Visions Working Group, Yale University, 2002. It was prepared for a course they taught, “Ethics and Policy of New Technologies,” at Yale. “Whig history,” by the way, is a pejorative term for history writing that depicts the past as a march of progress to the current “correct” state. “We use it with self-irony,” Bostrom says. See http://www.transhumanism.org/resources/Syllabi/YaleHistory.htm

  Pico della Mirandola’s: Paul Brians, et al., eds., Reading About the World, vol. 1 (Pullman, VA: Harcourt Brace Custom Books, n.d.). http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/pico.html

  Indeed, in 1580, the kabbalistic Jews: See especially Rabbi Loew, 1525–1609.

  “Philosophy,” he wrote: Galileo Galilei, Opere Il Saggiatore, (The Assayer) (Rome: Accademia dei Lincei, 1623), page 171. Cited by J. J. O’Connor and E. F. Robertson, “Galileo Galilei,” School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, November 2002. http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Galileo.html

  elevated scientists over priests: Arthur Herman, The Idea of Decline in Western History (New York: The Free Press, 1997). ISBN: 0-684-82491-3, page 20.

  “clearing away of idols”: Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, XL. http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~jimi/450/bacon.pdf

  It was able convincingly to waddle: Sigvard Strandh, A History of the Machine (New York: Dorset Press, 1979). ASIN: 0894790250. http://music.calarts.edu/~sroberts/articles/DeVaucanson.duck.html

  “No doubt man will not become immortal”: Paul Halsall, “Condorcet: The Future Progress of the Human Mind,” Modern History Sourcebook, 1997. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/condorcet-progress.html

  In 1780, Benjamin Franklin wrote: I am indebted to Bruce N. Ames, who researches the mechanisms of aging at the University of California at Berkeley, for alerting me to this correspondence from Benjamin Franklin.

  “The Frankenstein Principle”: I am indebted to the network theorist J. C. Herz for memorably articulating the Frankenstein Principle at a Global Business Network WorldView Meeting on “The Causes and Consequences of Cultural Change,” Santa Monica, California, December 9, 2002.

  The still-controversial Origin of Species: Richard Dawkins, “An Early Flowering of Genetics,” The Guardian, February 8, 2003. http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4610613-101750,00.html

  With his series about extraordinary voyages: Petri Liukkonen, “Jules Verne (1828–1905),” Pegasos, Finland. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/verne.htm.

  In 1958 that vessel: “History of USS Nautilus (SSN 571),” Historic Ship Nautilus and and Submarine Force Museum. http://www.ussnautilus.org/history.htm

  Around the World in Eighty Days: The film was remade in 2004, to considerably less acclaim.

  A few decades after Verne: Petri Liukkonen, “H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells (1866–1946),” Pegasos, Finland. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm

  “more and more a race”: H. G. Wells, The Outline of History (New York: Macmillan, 1921).

  Three Laws of Robotics: From the fictional Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D., as quoted in Isaac Asimov, I, Robot (New York: Spectrum, 1991). ISBN: 0553294385. http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#series13

  Dick’s sensibility is all: Frank Rose, “The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick,” Wired, December 2003, page 198. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/philip.html

  The ones on the right: Jonathan K. Cooper, “The Complete Tom Swift Jr. Home Page.” http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/3712

  “There is no problem that you”: Kurzweil interview, April 14, 2003.


  “To expect the unexpected shows”: Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband, Act 3. http://www.online-literature.com/booksearch.php

  “Why make people inquisitive”: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (New York: Workman Publishing Company, 1990). ISBN: 0441003257, pages 345–346.

  “His high pitched voice already”: Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma of Intelligence (New York: HarperCollins, 1985). ASIN: 0045100608, page 251.

  a Washington policy document: Mihail C. Roco and William Sims Bainbridge, eds., Converging Technologies for Improved Human Performance: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science (Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation/Department of Commerce, 2002) and (New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003). ISBN: 1-402-01254-3. http://wtec.org/Converging Technologies

  “It is time to rekindle”: Ibid., page 3.

  “a golden age that will be”: Ibid., page 5.

  The bullet points in part say that in the next 10 to 20 years: Ibid., pages 4–5.

  “like a single, distributed and interconnected ‘brain’”: Ibid., page 6.

  “the spirit of the Renaissance”: Ibid., page 3.

  “biology’s bid to keep pace”: Gregory Stock, Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002). ISBN: 0-618-06026-X, page 33.

  “No one really has the guts”: Ibid., page 12.

  An earlier one is called: Gregory Stock, Metaman: The Merging of Humans and Machines into a Global Superorganism (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993). ISBN: 0-671-70723-X.

  “humans . . . as . . . divergent as ‘poodles and Great Danes’”: Redesigning Humans, page 34.

  “Homo sapiens would spawn its own successors”: Ibid., page 4.

  It’s a whole lot closer: Ibid.

  “We are not about to turn away”: Ibid., page 13.

  It’s intended to fix genes: Ibid., page 37.

  especially when that person: The September 17, 1999, death of Jesse Gelsinger was the first treatment-related fatality involving adenoviral vectors, which are viruses specially modified to carry genes into certain cells. Ibid., page 36.

  Even the Amish use it: Ibid., page 39.

  “Our blindness about the consequences”: Ibid., page 11.

  If, however, we add a new chromosome: Ibid., page 66.

  It just holds plug-in points: Ibid.

  “Parents will want the most up-to-date genetic modifications”: Ibid., pages 69–70.

  ethical argument, offered by the Council of Responsible Genetics: Ibid., page 70. See also Council for Responsible Genetics, “Position Paper on Human Germline Manipulation,” 1992, updated Fall 2000. http://www.gene-watch.org/programs/cloning/germline-position.html

  “People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty”: Shaoni Bhattacharya, “Stupidity Should Be Cured, Says DNA Discoverer,” NewScientist.com news service, February 28, 2003. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993451

  But he also sees his own Heaven Scenario as “tame”: Redesigning Humans, page 18.

  Rudimentary artificial chromosomes already exist: Ibid., page 67.

  “we should have a fair idea of the size of the task”: Ibid., page 63.

  “traditional reproduction may begin to seem antiquated”: Ibid., page 56.

  He sees his projections as not at all out of touch: Ibid., page 67.

  “huge leap of faith”: Ibid., page 21.

  It is the length of five carbon: Ray Kurzweil, personal communication, July 7, 2004.

  the distance your fingernail grows: Chris Phoenix, director of research, Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, personal communication, July 7, 2004.

  If a nanometer were the size of your nose: Adam Keiper, “The Nanotechnology Revolution,” The New Atlantis, summer 2003, pages 17–34. http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/2/keiper.htm

  By 2003, hundreds of tons of nanomaterials: Rick Weiss, “For Science, Nanotech Poses Big Unknowns,” Washington Post, February 1, 2004, page A1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1487-2004Jan31?language=printer

  Such nanotechnology is expected to be a $1 trillion business: California House Representative Mike Honda, quoted in R. Colin Johnson, “Nanotech R&D Act Becomes Law,” EE Times, December 3, 2003. http://www.eetimes.com/printableArticle?doc_id=OEG20031203S0025

  the gross national product of Canada: 2002 estimate, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, The World Fact Book. http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html

  On December 29, 1959, . . . Feynman gave: Richard P. Feynman, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom: An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics,” Engineering and Science, California Institute of Technology, February 1960. http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html

  At a time when the audience: For this and other aspects of the history of nanotechnology I am indebted to Adam Keiper, managing editor of the marvelously level-headed yet provocative The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society. Much of the history cited here comes from Keiper, “The Nanotechnology Revolution,” The New Atlantis, summer 2003, pages 17–34. http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/2/ keiperprint.htm

  In his lecture, Feynman described a world: Chris Phoenix, “Of Chemistry, Nanobots, and Policy,” Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, December 2003. http://crnano.org/Debate.htm

  Buckyballs and their cousins: Richard E. Smalley, “The Smalley Group,” http://smalley.rice.edu. See also “Nanotechnology: Molecular Manufacturing: Buckyballs in Support of Nanotechnology.” http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2000/03/front.030300.nano.jhtml

  General Electric, Motorola, DuPont: “The Next Small Thing: A Bright Little Idea Comes to Market,” The Economist, January 17, 2004, page 52. http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=S%27%298%20%29P1%5F%25%20%20%20D%0A

  Nano may be the basis of half of all pharmaceuticals: Mihail C. Roco, cited in Jack Uldrich, “‘Exponential’ Thinking for the Future,” Tech Central Station, edited by James F. Glassman, January 21, 2004. http://www2.techcentralstation.com/1051/printer.jsp?CID=1051-012104D

  This could be the breakthrough to the stars: “Audacious and Outrageous: Space Elevators,” Science at NASA, September 7, 2000. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07sep_1.htm

  It is conscious.: John Searle, professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, is credited with coining the phrase “strong AI” in his 1980 article “Minds, Brains, and Programs,” in The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 3. (Cambridge University Press, 1980). There he wrote: “According to strong AI, the computer is not merely a tool in the study of the mind; rather, the appropriately programmed computer really is a mind, in the sense that computers given the right programs can be literally said to understand and have other cognitive states. In strong AI, because the programmed computer has cognitive states, the programs are not mere tools that enable us to test psychological explanations; rather, the programs are themselves the explanations.” See http://members.aol.com/NeoNoetics/MindsBrainsPrograms.html

  Weak machine intelligence can: Don Phillips, “For Some Airline Pilots, Flying Gets Boring,” Washington Post, December 17, 2003, page A1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6368-2003Dec16.html

  Marvin Minsky is the grand old man: John Brockman, “Consciousness Is a Big Suitcase: A Talk with Marvin Minsky,” Edge: The Third Culture. http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/minsky/index.html

  In fact, he was present when: Hans Moravec, Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988). ISBN: 0-674-57618-7 (paper), page 8.