[ExI] Fwd: Anti-Transsimianismus

[Emlyn]

I'm betting there is a subset of the list who are not subscribed to
transhumantech. Here's a great piece of writing that Eugen posted
there, have a read.

-- 
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org>
Date: 3 Jan 2008 22:54
Subject: [tt] [forum] Anti-Transsimianismus
To: tt at postbiota.org


----- Forwarded message from " mixter at gmail.com" <mixter at gmail.com> -----

From: " mixter at gmail.com" <mixter at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 12:35:28 +0100
To: forum at detrans.de
Subject: [forum] Anti-Transsimianismus
Reply-To: Öffentliches Forum zum Transhumanismus <forum at detrans.de>


  Gefunden auf: [1]http://dresdencodak.com/cartoons/dc_040.html

  The following was taken from a cave wall painting in southern Tunisia
  more than 300,000 years ago. Fossil evidence suggests that the author
  was of the species Homo erectus.

                            "Enough is Enough"
               A Thinking Ape's Critique of Trans-Simianism

  To further expound upon the topic of last week's installment, I will
  address the more specific claims of Dr. Klomp and his radical theory
  that has been gaining wider acceptance throughout the community.  Once
  again I would like to thank our readers for sending in your fish bones
  and boar hides in support of this journalist's campaign to expose Dr.
  Klomp's trans-simianist prattle for what it is: a collection of
  wishful thoughts out of keeping with any factual evidence.

  The term 'trans-simian' comes from the shortening of 'transitional
  simian,' a concept Dr. Klomp has developed to describe an individual
  who is in an evolutionary transition from simian to post-simian,
  though Klomp himself admits that he is not entirely clear what a true
  post-simian would be.  Characteristics exhibited by a trans-simian
  include augmentation of one's natural abilities with 'tools,' as well
  as one's mental capacities with what has been dubbed 'culture.'

  Klomp's primary argument rests on what he calls the 'Quickening,' an
  imagined point somewhere in the future when the advancement of
  'culture' occurs so rapidly that its pace will far exceed that of
  biological evolution.  In his own words,

    "There will come a time when within a single generation we will
    develop one or possibly even two new ideas Current advancements in
    the 'bow' and 'arrow' industries suggest an exponential trend in
    the expansion of our technological capacities.  We are able to
    perform hunts in a fraction of the time it took our ancestors, thus
    freeing up valuable time to ' think ' of new ideas. In the
    post-simian world, we may develop into a species that is not only
    intellectually superior to our current state, but capable of feats
    beyond the comprehension of a contemporary simian."

  Pardon this author for not holding his breath.

  Notice that Klomp cherry-picks discoveries to better support his
  argument of an exponential growth.  It took more than a million years
  to develop fire and the hand-ax, and yet Klomp believes simply because
  it took only 2,000 years to develop bows and arrows that new
  inventions will spring up in even shorter timeframes.  This theory is
  an expansion of 'Morg's Law,' which states that since a sharpened rock
  can in turn become a chisel to make an even sharper rock, that the
  sharpness of hand-axes will increase exponentially over the span of
  tens of thousands of years.  While Morg's Law has so far proven
  accurate, Klomp can't escape the reality that there is an upper limit,
  namely that a rock can only become so sharp.  We have already noticed
  a slight decline in the growth of hand-ax sharpness, but Klomp insists
  that when the potential of stone axes becomes exhausted, new materials
  will be discovered to replace the rocks and continue the exponential
  trend of sharpness.  As of the time of this article, however, he has
  provided no evidence of what these miracle rocks are.  Klomp also
  argues that there will come a time when we will use tools to create
  other tools, though naturally this is a laughable fiction since there
  has never been any recorded evidence of a tool making another tool, or
  even any records for that matter.

  Another factor in Klomp's post-simian world is the development of
  "abstract thought" that will be aided by

    "the ability to store memories and thoughts outside our brains onto
    physical media, perhaps on flattened tree bark.  To achieve this we
    will have to overcome the problem of turning words, which are
    sounds, into things we can see, but given current trends this is an
    engineering issue that will ultimately be resolved.  This will be
    the real catalyst for the Quickening, when the memories of one
    generation will literally become immortal and then build upon the
    memories of the next, creating a sort of mass mind that experts in
    my field are calling "history." In the post-simian world our era
    might even be referred to as pre-history."

  Here we see Klomp's predictions descend from unsupported speculation
  to sheer fantasy.  His recent cave painting, The Quickening is Near,
  explains in great detail different methods we may employ to transform
  words into some kind of visible format, but all are incomplete.  The
  simple fact remains that words are sounds, not pictures, and no amount
  of wishing will change that.  Even if such a thing were possible, it
  is doubtful that many would wish to store their memories externally.
  This author, for one, would prefer it if his memories stayed in his
  head and not on some cold, lifeless bark.

  The most shocking of Klomp's predictions, however, is that we apes
  will have little or no place in the post-simian world.

    "As technological progress outpaces biology, new selective
    pressures will arise that will force our species to evolve mentally
    and physically beyond what we are now.  This is the same trend that
    gave rise to our own intelligent species, but it will only
    accelerate in the coming generations.  Our new environment
    increasingly favors higher dexterity and intelligence, and so the
    true post-simian will not be an ape at all.  It will share some
    similarities with the modern ape, but at the same time possess
    capacities far beyond our comprehension.  The thought capacity of a
    single post-simian could be greater than the combined brains of
    every ape in the world."

  More intelligent than an ape?  Klomp fails to explain just what a
  post-ape can think of that we mere mortals cannot.  The capacity of
  the simian mind is already far beyond any animal in the world:  We are
  capable of using speech to let others know where we are, where to
  sleep and eat, and where to find shelter when it rains.  Exactly how
  fast do we need our brains to be to figure these things out?  When
  will we decide that enough is enough?

  Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that such a post-simian
  future is possible or even probable.  Is it really a world we should
  want to strive for, where our very ape nature is stripped away in the
  name of efficiency?  Technologies such as the bow and arrow already
  desimianize the act of hunting.  While our ancestors were able to
  experience the pure ape feeling of clubbing an animal to death with a
  rock, we are left with the cold, sterilized bow that kills cleanly and
  quickly from a safe distance.  This separation from basic daily
  activities is a slippery slope.  What would happen if we no longer had
  to gather fruits and nuts, and they simply grew wherever we wanted
  them, or had drinking water flow right to our feet instead of
  wandering in search of streams for days?  These seeming conveniences
  would rob us of what it means to be an ape.  Klomp predicts that
  through a technology called 'hygiene' we could extend the simian
  lifespan well into the late 20s or possibly 30s.  What exactly will
  the post-simian do with all that time?  Do we really want to live in a
  society populated by geriatric 27- year- olds?  In living so long and
  spending so much time 'thinking,' do we not also run the risk of
  becoming a cold, passionless race incapable of experiencing our two
  emotions (fear and not fear)?  How much of our simianity are we
  willing to sacrifice for this notion of progress?

  Rest assured that while Klomp may have accru ed a recent following,
  there is no reality to his fantastic claims.  What is concerning is
  the increasing number of young apes spending less time clubbing
  animals and more time 'inventing,' 'thinking' and 'creating,' none of
  which contribute to the preservation of the simian way of life.  These
  sorts of fads come and go, however, and this author is confident that
  in a short while everyone will have forgotten about Klomp and the
  notion of being anything more than an ape."

  -Thog
  Professor of Finding an Animal and then Killing It,
  The University of the Woods

  -- Translated by Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codak

References

  1. http://dresdencodak.com/cartoons/dc_040.html

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