A Summary of Radical Evolution by Joel Garreau Essay

Radical Evolution by Joel Garreau has chapters on two scenarios of the future of tenders. Both Heaven and glare Scenarios go through The Curve involved, precisely the dangers of the smiling technologies get up the Hell Scenario more likely. Rise of technology will mavin to the downfall of human beingsity due to Bioengineered Disease Agents/Weapons. funding ideas for this topic are threat of humans creating dangerous weapons such(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as pox with cobra venom, biotechnology such as the Australian slip pox calamity being dangerous, and the rise of technology may enhance a plague and kill more people than a natural plague.Garreau is worried about humans being changed so much we wont be able to tell who is who. Also, we might end up missing typical human characteristics. To Garreau, human nature is the join of the behavior and characteristics that are typical of the human species, arising from genetic rather than environmental factors (Garreau, 159). A couple early warning signs were entranceway The Hell Scenario are Almost unimaginably bad things are happening, destroying large chunks of the human race or the biosphere, at an accelerating pace, and technologies continue to accelerate as mortal nations, continents, tribes or movements jockey for position in a hostile world (Garreau, 184).Chapter four mentions the GRIN technologies. Gregory Stock is the G, nanotechnology is the N, and computer intelligence is the I. Gregory Stock is the director of the course of instruction on Medicine, Technology, and Society at the School of Medicine of the University of California at Los Angeles. correspond to Garreau, Stock thinks humans will transcend because of genetic engineering and not because of computers which is what Kurzweil thinks. There are two kinds of nanotechnology. The first reduces big things to sizes so astonishingly little that their behavior changes dramatically (Garreau, 118). Promising godlike powers, immortalit y and unimaginable wealth (Garreau, 118) is the countenance kind. One example of the first kind of nanotechnology is the buckyball which is nicknamed in Buckminster Fullers honor. Its properties are 60 times the strength of steel, the weight of plastic, the electrical conduction of silicon, the heat conductivity of diamond and the size and perfection of DNA (Garreau, 119). The second kind of nanotechnology starts with Eric Dexler. With his book Engines of Creation The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, he discusses his ideas. Growing objects such as a car, or a TV will be possible with nanotechnology. Computer intelligence has two meanings weak and strong.Theres a man name Ray Kurzweil, also known as the restless genius, in the movie Transcendent Man. He said, technology feeds on itself and gets faster and faster. Its gonna continue and in about forty years the basic changes are going to be so astonishingly quick that you wont be able to follow it unless you enhance your own intelligen ce with the technology weve created. According to Garreau, Kurzweils thinking of the weakness of humans was affected by his and his wifes family being destroyed by the Holocaust and his dad suffering from a heart attack and dying at age 58. Kurzweils view of human nature is humans, unlike reptiles, are capable of higher functions such as love, art, culture and technology. He can see the hell and prevail scenarios and mentions avoiding dangerous technologies such as nanotechnology is unrealistic. He said, Most technology will be nanotechnology in the 2020s. You would beget to relinquish all of technology. Kurzweil calls The Curve of exponentially increasing technology (Garreau) The integrity of Accelerating Returns. He thinks humans dont have control of the force (the Curve) and its a pattern of life (Garreau).living Progress mentioned a termination called Progress trap. According to the video a progress trap was created to define human behavior that seem to provide benefits in th e short term, but ultimately leads to disaster because theyre unsustainable. An example that was provided was our ancestors hunting mammoths. Hunters who notice how to kill two mammoths do progress. Driving a herd over a cliff was discovered which led to making too much progress. Also, this progress trap could be related to the Curve.The movie stated, We think progress is more of the same Like we should make our machines better and make more machines. Technology is rising due to humans trying to make progress which ended up being too much. According to the movie, we are essentially the same people as those stone age people, culture has become completely detached from natural evolution, and our knowledge and technology (ability to do good or harm) has grown out of proportion. After, he went to the topic the mortal threat from the development of self-replicating man-made anything (Garreau, 145), but he found information which lead him to believe biotech is a greater threat.Francis Fukuyama is one of Americas most apprehensionful and challenging public intellectuals (Garreau, 155). He defines human nature as the sum of the behavior and characteristics that are typical of the human species, arising from genetic rather than environmental factors (Garreau, 159). Also, Fukuyama said, The thing Im worried the most about is the attempt to transfer on a large scale some basic characteristics of human behavior in ways that will make us scarcely recognisable (Garreau, 159).Different versions of hell are mentioned in Radical Evolution. For Francis Fukuyama the lowest ring of hell will be reserved for those who, through biotechnology, dream of leaving stub human nature (Garreau, 155). Garreaus conclusion from his studies is there will be three different types of humans The compound, The Naturals, and The Rest. The Enhanced are people who use GRIN technologies, The Naturals are humans that have an opportunity to become Enhanced but choose not to, and The Rest are peop le who dont have a choice of becoming Enhanced. Questions are asked which are If a person has a test-tube baby, is she an Enhanced? and If a person has a Viagra prescription, is he an Enhanced? Garreau wants to use The Shakespeare Test to answer the question How will you someday tell, looking at an Enhanced, if she genuinely represents a transformation of the species-comparable to the difference between Neanderthals and todays humans?Bill gladden is the Edison of the Internet. Joy stated, Ethical humans, not robots, dominated this future, and I took Roddenberrys dream as part of my own (Garreau, 141). After Joy hearing a debate between Kurzweil and John Searle on the Heaven Scenario, Joy thought of a hell scenario. Both scenarios have The Curve. Although Joy thought of the idea he doesnt have a book of The Hell Scenario.At first Joy focused on the topic of overcoming peoples denial (Garreau, 145), but to him it seems its already a topic that had a lot of discussion. After, he went to the topic the mortal threat from the development of self-replicating man-made anything (Garreau, 145), but he found information which lead him to believe biotech is a greater threat. When Saddam Hussein was in power Iraq was working(a) to mix pox and cobra venom with the knowledge of fowlpox with venom extract kills more chickens. Another piece of information is the incident with Australian nobble pox. This computer virus can kill every mouse it infects. Since smallpox is a close relative, it could be genetically modified to be as fatal. In a description by Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher Lucretius a quote says, A flame, like flame in furnaces, would magnificence/Within the stomach (Garreau, 148). These make up The Hell Scenario.First, Pox with cobra venom was almost made after the second Gulf War, but in the process of its making, the invention was ruined due to bombings. When Saddam Hussein was in power Iraq was working to mix pox and cobra venom with the knowledge of f owlpox with venom extract kills more chickens. After hearing this, Joys alarm is underlined by the fact that such a weapon in the hands of someone like Saddam Hussein was a serious worry (Garreau, 146).Second, is the incident with Australian mouse pox. This virus can kill every mouse it infects. Since smallpox is a close relative, it could be genetically modified to be as fatal. In Australia, mice were everywhere and scientists tried to find a way to control them. According to Garreau, Toward this end, two Canberra researchers, Ron Jackson and Ian Ramshwo, in late 2000 were trying to create a new mouse contraceptive. Instead, they created a monster. They added one gene to a mouse pox virus, and this new virus turned out to be 100 percent fatal.Next, A innovational plague will be more dangerous than a plague in the past. In a description by Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher Lucretius a quote says, Recurrent spasms of vomiting would rack alway their thews and members, breaking do wn with sheer exhaustion men already spent the inward parts of men, in truth, would blaze unto the very bones A flame, like flame in furnaces, would blaze within the stomach (Garreau, 148). This shows the symptoms of the plague of Athens. With that in mind, imagine what a plague compound by todays/future generations technology can do. How many people would die?The Inauguration Poem One immediately says, digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands as worn as my fathers cutting sugarcane so my brother and I could have books and shoes. Will we fatality to work once we reach a point where technology is so advance machines can do the work for us? If that happens humans wont need to work hard or even work at all because machines will be the product of humans past work.In conclusion, possibilities of dangerous weapons, fear from the Australian mouse pox incident, and the high level of threat of a modern plague all make up The Hell Scenario. With these imperfections of humanity it s unlikely man kind will follow the Heaven Scenario. Instead man kind will dive into the Hell Scenario because thats a closer match to how things will go with imperfect humans.Works CitedGarreau, Joel. Radical Evolution The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies and What It Means to Be Human. New York Doubleday, 2005. Print.Ggrefeder. Hd motion-picture show Transcendent Man Part 1/7. YouTube. YouTube, 02 Oct. 2011. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.Joy, Bill. Bill Joy What Im Worried About, What Im Excited about. TED Ideas worth Spreading. TED, 2008. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.KurzweilAI Accelerating Intelligence. KurzweilAI Ray Kurzweil Bio Comments. N.p., 2011. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.Surviving Progress. Dir. Mathieu Roy. Perf. Stephen Hawking, David Suzuki, Jane Goodall. 2011. Netflix.Wade, Nicholas. From End of History Author, a Look at the Beginning and Middle. The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Mar. 2011. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.