Reactions to the Pace of Change

The Natural Human Being– a Dying SpeciesVirilio visualizes an invalidation of the human beingwhen nanotechnology can support a person’s memoryusing minicomputers, genetic improvements andcapacity prostheses. “Technology colonizes the bodyof the human being as it has colonized that of theearth. Motorways, railways, and flight paths havecolonized the territorial body by organizing it. Onlynow, the human body is being threatened by micromachines…Technologywill reduce all living matter’sabilities by pretending to complement and assistthem.” 8) Virilio calls this “the prosthesis humanbeing.”Correspondingly, the British futurist IanPearson from British Telecom thinks that in50 years’ time we will no longer be humanbeings. Our genetic material will long be outdatedsimply because the fittest, as always,will survive, and the fittest will be those whohave replaced traditional human “equipment”with biotechnological medicinal and digitalequipment.This technical support will in much better ways thantoday remove unwanted consequences of “havinglived” such as symptoms of ageing, unwanted fat,and illnesses.Medicine can already penetrate DNA and interactwith the body’s circulation and will be able to do soto an even higher degree. 9) Biotechnology and medicinecan reinforce normal processes and will be usedby people who by today’s standards would pass ashealthy.Physical and psychological abilities will becomea commodity which makes our surrounding “reality”a very variable quantity. Authentic breasts and unmanipulatedgood moods will only sporadically bewhat makes up reality.Considering that computer intelligence in thefuture will exceed human intelligence, and that we,to an increasing degree, will be able to manipulatethe abilities of the human being, there is hardy anydoubt that we will occupy ourselves with brain-buildingand mind-building as well as body-building.We will “work out” in order to be able to make it inthe future, and it might even be acceptable to takeadvantage of various kinds of “steroids” to improveour intelligence or capacity. A direct interconnectionwith computer power is an obvious possibility. All inall, there are many things that point to our presentperception of the human as being something uniquebeing somewhat strained in the future. The geneticdifference between a human being and a chimpanzeeis less than two %, which is less than the differencebetween a horse and a zebra.If it doesn’t kill you, it will cure you- and vice versa, too?It is suspiciously easy to avoid radical, extreme situations,taxing on one’s strength, or working oneselfto death. Our attitude towards life is not in thebalance. This means that we only really know ourselvesand our work superficially. The sociologistRichard Sennett calls this “opaqueness.” “Whenthings are made easier for us…we become weak.Our relationship to work becomes superficial becausewe lack an understanding of what we are doing.” 10)When all we know about ourselves is the immediate,the easy and the comfortable, it may not be enough!Sennett’s example is discontinuous work, where theprocesses involve prerequisites and consequenceswhich we have no previous experience with. If thelevel at which we work is too superficial and discontinuous,it becomes boring and anonymous.Sennett’s thesis is supported by the increasingdemand for psychologists. In Denmark alone, thenumber of psychologists in private practice has grownenormously over the latest decades, and from 1997to 1999 the number has doubled to almost 700.8) Paul Virilio, Cybermonde, la politique du pire: entretien avec Philippe Petit (Paris: Editions Textuel, 1996).The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies’ translation.9) M.Sc., pharmacology, Ph.D. student Claus Møldrup, Den medicinerede normalitet [Medically-Induced Normality](Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1999)10) Sennett, Richard, The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism(New York: Norton, 1998)8 R E A C T I O N S T O T H E P A C E O F C H A N G E