Utopia

Utopia is Inevitable!

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I feel that Steve Morris’ criticism of utopia in his recent article Utopia?! Get Real! demands a response.

For starters let’s consider the following quote from the article: “It’s all too obvious that humans simply aren’t equipped to build a Utopia or even to live in one.”

Yes humans do have lots of failings. A big failing is the inability of some humans to see the almost certainty of utopia, which we’re approaching. Technology creating utopia is essentially inescapable. The logic for utopia is compelling. The likelihood of technology not creating utopia is so implausible we can state utopia is inevitable.

Typical human flaws are a brilliant reason why humans are being redefined via terms such as “H+” or “Transhuman.” The point is we are leaving behind the outdated human baggage regarding racism, homophobia, idiocy or any other human failings. We are becoming more than human. The Singularity is all about Transhumanism, it is about transcending limits. We are transcending human flaws, or more precisely we’re surpassing inhuman flaws, we are enhancing our humanity, we’re becoming more civilized, thus H+ is a common term within futurism circles.

Steve Morris is correct when he states humans aren’t equipped to build or live in utopia, likewise we must note humans aren’t naturally equipped to communicate instantly with anyone around the world. My point is one of augmentation. From phones to the internet, or aeroplanes to Space-stations, or reading-glasses to microscopes, humans utilize technology to become more than human. Artificial Intelligence will soon represent a truly explosive augmentation. Certainly it’s clear many humans aren’t equipped to contemplate utopia, but technology will solve this via augmenting humans who are otherwise ill-equipped to do so on their own. Our future is not one where humans are ill-equipped, it is a future where Transhumans are perfectly equipped to tackle any problem. The wonders of nanotechnology, synthetic biology, or Stem Cells clearly demonstrate our progress towards becoming more than human. I do recognize there is a long way to go, but I also note how the speed of progress is accelerating.

It is also pertinent to note how intelligence is a relatively new phenomenon for the human race. The idea of civilization is not very old. The Stone Age only ended sometime between 4,500 BC and 2,000 BC. Humans in our current form evolved no earlier than 200,000 BC. We are a young species. It is only recently humans have largely abolished slavery, or given equal rights to women. The mistakes humans have made and continue to make are purely due to our intellectually immature state. We are mere children, we are learning. Metaphorically regarding our intellects we stumble when trying to walk. Initially we could only crawl. Now we are learning how to walk therefore we often fall thus grazing our knees, but we are progressing. One day we will walk without stumbling and then we will run; shortly afterwards our intellectual capacity will become supersonic. It is a mistake to think the current culture of humans is the sole representation of intelligent civilization forever. We are changing, we are evolving, intelligence is increasing.

Steve Morris presents a typical argument about people disagreeing regarding the definition of utopia, thus he states: “Even if we had a Utopia, it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste.” This is a common fallacy, the idea of people not agreeing about what actually constitutes utopia, it is based upon a failure to understand how scarcity causes all wars and violence. Every crime, every form of dysfunctional behavior, every disagreement, and every religion is based on scarcity. Technology relentlessly pushes us towards a Post-Scarcity situation. All forms of scarcity will be eradicated thus everyone will be perfectly satisfied. Logic in the future will be utterly dominant, all irrationality will be obsolete. The Singularity is about intelligence millions of times greater than human intelligence, we are contemplating at least 20,000 years of progress (based on the rate of progress in year 2001) condensed into only one hundred years. It is a future where everything is free, nobody dies, everybody is eternally young, all governments are abolished, crimes are abolished, and everyone is utterly self-sufficient therefore free to zoom off independently into Space, whereupon people will create strange worlds according to the desires of each individual.

If the preposterously insane situation of people disagreeing about utopia does occur in the future (it really won’t but let’s consider it), then it will be very easy to create a new universe, for each individual, therefore you can escape into infinity. It will be possible in the future for anyone to be utterly separate from anyone who possibly disagrees with you. The level of intelligence we are contemplating is utterly awesome thus we will leave childish worries very far behind.

Finally we should note there is a difference between Utopia the novel or place (capitalised) and utopia the concept (lower-case). The concept refers to a perfect system, a perfect way of life. When I state “perfect” I mean utterly flawless for all people. This is not fiction we are dealing with.

About the Author:

Singularity Utopia writes for Singularity-2045, a Post-Scarcity orientated website dedicated to increasing awareness regarding the coming technological utopia. The goal is to make the Singularity happen sooner instead of later.

 

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Utopia?! Get real!

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For centuries or even millennia, people have dreamed of Utopia. It’s understandable of course. Who wouldn’t want a better life for themselves and others?

The technological singularity seems to hold out a tantalizing possibility of a Utopia here on Earth sometime in the twenty-first century. But hold on a minute. Get real!

It’s all too obvious that humans simply aren’t equipped to build a Utopia or even to live in one. We just can’t handle perfection. We’ve evolved to live in an imperfect world – one that’s not really suited to our needs. When you’re made out of dirt, perfection is always going to remain out of reach.

Humans do manage to achieve greatness from time to time. But then we mess it up.

We discover how to split the atom, then spend the next 60 years pointing nuclear missiles at each other and shouting “You’re an idiot!” – “No, you’re an idiot!” We launch the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit but have to patch it up with duct tape to get it working properly. We build a global computer network that enables instant communications and then devote half of it to advertising Viagra and the other half to showing Gangnam Style videos.

If humans were invited to a meeting of intergalactic intelligences, then we’d turn up late in a used spaceship, borrow someone else’s pencil to take notes, then blow a raspberry at a crucial moment in the discussion. Everything about human society is cobbled together at the last minute and held together with sticking plasters.

Even if we had a Utopia, it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste. Someone would still be writing rude words over the walls. After all, one person’s Utopia is another’s Dystopic nightmare.

In my opinion, it’s time for us to grow up as a species and admit that Utopia is never going to happen. Even if the Singularity arrives as predicted it’s going to create just as many problems as it solves. Every opportunity brings a new problem and every silver lining has a cloud, if you look hard enough. And with increased leisure time and longer, healthier lives, there’s going to be plenty of time for looking.

We could have abundance, immortality and super-intelligence and still wish for things to be different. The truth is that being human (or transhuman) means spending the rest of eternity blundering in the dark, cobbling together and muddling through. Personally, I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

About the author:

Steve Morris is looking forward to the coming Singularity, but can’t help wondering if lawsuits, patent disputes and health & safety legislation are also accelerating exponentially to a point at which they will negate any technological advancement. When not worrying about this, he reviews tech products at S21 and rambles aimlessly at Blog Blogger Bloggest.

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Michio Kaku: Can Nanotechnology Create Utopia?

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Dr. Kaku addresses the question of the possibility of utopia, the perfect society that people have tried to create throughout history.

These dreams have not been realized because we have scarcity. However, now we have nanotechnology, and with nanotechnology, perhaps, says Dr. Michio Kaku, maybe in 100 years, we’ll have something called the replicator, which will create enormous abundance.

 

Transcript:

Michio Kaku: Throughout human history people have tried to create utopia, the perfect society.  In fact, America, the American dream, in some sense was based on utopianism.  Why do we have the Shaker movement?  Why did we have the Quakers?  Why did we have so many different kinds of religious movements that fled Europe looking to create a utopia here in the Americas?  Well, we know the Shakers have disappeared and many of these colonies have also disappeared only to be found in footnotes in American textbooks, and the question is why?

One reason why is scarcity because back then the industrial revolution was still young and societies had scarcity.  Scarcity creates conflict and unless you have a way to resolve conflict, your colony falls apart.  How do you allocate resources?  Who gets access to food when there is a famine?  Who gets shelter when there is a snowstorm and all of the sudden you’ve eaten up your seed corn?  These are questions that faced the early American colonists, and that’s the reason why we only see the ghost towns of these utopias.

However, now we have nanotechnology, and with nanotechnology, perhaps, who knows, maybe in 100 years, we’ll have something called the replicator.  Now the replicator is something you see in Star Trek.  It’s called the molecular assembler and it takes ordinary raw materials, breaks them up at the atomic level and joins the joints in different ways to create new substances.  If you have a molecular assembler, you can turn, for example, a glass into wood or vice versa.  You would have the power of a magician, in fact, the power of a god, the ability to literally transform the atoms of one substance into another and we see it on Star Trek.

It’s also the most subversive device of all because if utopias fail because of scarcity then what happens when you have infinite abundance?  What happens when you simply ask and it comes to you?  One of my favorite episodes on Star Trek is when the Enterprise encounters a space capsule left over from the 20th century, the bad 20th century.  People died of all these horrible diseases, and many people froze themselves knowing that in the 23rd century or so they’ll be thawed out and their diseases will be cured.  Well, sure enough, it’s the 23rd century now.  The Enterprise finds a space capsule and begins to revive all these people and cure them of cancer, cure them of incurable genetic diseases, and then one of these individuals, however, was a banker.  He is revived and he says to himself, “My God, my gamble worked; I’m alive; I’m in the 23rd century,” and he said, “Call my stock broker; call my banker; I am rich; I am rich; my investments, they have been sitting there in the bank for centuries; I must be a quadrillionaire!”  And then the crew of the Enterprise looks at this man and says, ”What is money; what is a bank; what is a stock broker?  We don’t have any of these in the 23rd century,” and then they say, “If you want something, you simply ask for it and you get it.”

Now that’s subversive.  That’s revolutionary because if all utopiansocieties vanished because of scarcity and conflict, what happens when there is no scarcity?  What happens when you simply ask and you get what you want?  This has enormous philosophical implications.  For example, why bother to work?  Why bother to go to work when you simply ask for things and it comes to you?

Now, some sociologists think that if drugs, for example, are totally legalized, absolutely legalized then maybe three to five percent of the human race will become permanent drug addicts.  That’s the price for total legalization of drugs.  I don’t know, but that’s a number that people talk about.  What happens when we have this society based on replicators?  Then will we have three to five percent of the human race become permanent parasites?  This is a possibility.  The whole nature of the human psyche is based around producing things, doing something, making a contribution.  What happens when you don’t have to do that anymore?  What happens when there is infinite plenty?  What happens if there is a utopia?

The detractors will say, “Bah-humbug! There is no replicator; it violates the laws of physics.”  Well, actually that’s not true.  There actually is a nanobot that can replicate, actually take apart molecules and rearrange them in fantastic ways.  Mother Nature has already created it.  It’s called the ribosome.  The ribosome can take hamburgers, milk shakes and turn them into a baby in nine months.  That is a miracle.  The ribosome takes hamburgers, French fries, potato chips, breaks apart the molecules and reassembles them into DNA.  Mother Nature has created the replicator.  It replicates humans, but what happens when humans create replicators by which we can replicate everything?  This is a very subversive idea.

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