The whole concept of "I" is just a mechanism for encouraging survival and propagation. Yet in our species it has come to override those higher level "goals" (in quotations because evolution doesn't really have goals, just more successful mechanisms). We are able to invent changes in the environment that render the original reasons for developing those instincts moot. The most obvious example is the invention of the condom, which is very clearly not in the best interest of the genes that lead to it.
We currently stand on the brink of developing the ability to arbitrarily change our underlying instincts, urges, and inherited imperatives. Once we do that, our genes are toast.
Let's take a couple examples: Condoms have not resulted in the collapse of mankind, mostly because we (or at least many of us) have a desire for children that is independent of the desire for sex. But let's say we invent a pill that changes that desire into one for making money. From an individual intellectual perspective, it would make so much more sense to work for yourself and your own monetary advantage rather than for your children. If it were just as satisfying emotionally, then why not?
Or consider altruism: This is another clear example of something that helps the survival of the genetic group at the expense of the individual. Objectively, there's no justification for it, but it makes us feel good. If you could undergo a simple course of genetic therapy and eliminate that urge, you'd be better off. Of course, you might also be considered psychotic by a school of psychiatry that was developed with a human genetic bias, but, hey, that's their problem.
Or consider pleasure (this is the classic wirehead scenario): If it becomes possible to directly stimulate the pleasure center of the brain, why bother with all the indirect ways to do the same thing -- like pursuing a career, finding love, or having babies? Why not just plug yourself into an IV drip and live in a permanent state of bliss?
So once we're able to reprogram ourselves to eliminate genetic biases which are not in our own direct interest, is it the end of civilization? After all, it would (or could) mean no more children and every man for himself.
Perhaps not. Perhaps it depends on the result of a race between that trend and the one leading to personal immortality.
If you live forever, and/or pass on your history and goals directly to offspring clones, then the role of the gene is no longer needed. And because your own goals are now very long term, it makes sense to makes deals where you lose in the short term, which is essentially identical to genetic altruism. The pleasure center problem is harder to solve. But one answer is to modify yourself early on so that some goals are immutable -- you don't change them because you inherently don't want to.
But how likely is it that immortality will be achieved before self-modification is acheived. At a guess, I'd say very unlikely. How can you understand a mechanism well enough to keep it running indefinitely without first understanding it enough to change it? So, is that it? The species is doomed? That's why we haven't heard from any other advanced space-faring races -- because they all die out when they reach this point?
There is one other possibility. A technological singularity has been predicted by some, in which the pace of technological advance moves so quickly that it becomes effectively unpredictable. If that happens, and it's a huge if, then immortality and self modification may become available at essentially the same time. If so, then some of us will undoubtedly choose one, and some will choose the other. That decision will be a choice between bliss and legacy. And our generation could be the ones who make the decision.
(And note that it makes some sense for other space-faring civilizations to wait for that transition before making contact. Which of us makes the choice for immortality will determine the character of the civilization that emerges. Before that, it's hard to predict what it will be like. So it might be best to wait for a civilization to emerge before contacting it.)
Comments