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Theo and Dezi moved to the coast in the late 80’s searching for a new way of life. They certainly found it - few things are more invigorating than starting over with energized friends who all seem to be high achievers. Theo took classes at the university while Dezi pursued career goals helping children with special needs. They both worked late into the evenings, but at one point Dezi grew weary of typing Theo’s class assignments, and advised Theo it was time to buy a word processor. Theo was largely clueless about the idea, but finally ended up with an Amiga computer. The Amiga could display 1024 colors, edit videos, and create 4-color magazines - in contrast to the primitive black and white IBM’s and the high end Macs with their ugly orange screens. For Theo, this was all a revelation, a clear sign that technology offered many significant advances in life. But there were also challenges. This advanced technology had to be paid for, and students live on loans, dreams, and prayers – and then there was the ethics question - would technology actually improve the lives of anyone?
Theo took the time for knowledge expansion, and spent many hours hanging out at the evening “new release” book signings in the local bookstore speakeasies. It was there he discovered all the thinkers behind the movement known as “Process Modes of Thought.” He was particularly fascinated by a semi-outcast genius known as Erich Jantsch. Jantsch spoke continually about the “Self-Organizing Universe,” and published articles and books read by all the luminaries in Quantum Physics and Systems Theory - but he was so advanced in his thinking the academic institutions refused to hire him. His basic premise was that human life must be seen through the lens of self-determination, self-organization, plasticity of structures, and the freedom to evolve. Of course, this “process” approach was confrontational to the “static” power brokers who were heavily invested in the status-quo. But for Theo it was a life changing revelation. He realized, technology is the cutting edge of evolution.
Time passed, and technology continued to evolve. Amiga computers faded due to incompetent management, and the archaic “IBM compatible” became the new Golden Rule. Apple tried to compete with DOS, but ended up pushing cell phones instead. Then Google came along and discovered a way to accumulate riches beyond imagination using mass surveillance of the general population. All this new rush of invention came with the message that technology would empower democracy from the ground up – freeing the individual and awarding power to the small people. However, the global expansion of information access was offset by the elimination of privacy – something people gave up easily with the psychological defenses of “convenience” and “I have nothing to hide”.
Desi looked at Theo and said, “Technology has moved so quickly, I can’t keep up.” Theo responded, “but Amazon has given us everything we need in life, with free next-day delivery.” Dezi responded, “free delivery has taken away our free--dom to buy locally from our neighbors. Amazon buys half of what they sell from China and puts their own brand name on it.” Theo reflected, “but at least we have our health.”
In 2023 David Sinclair at the Harvard Medical School published the groundbreaking, epic-making research on the “aging clock” that can speed up or reverse aging of biological cells. This Information Theory of Aging changed everything. Researchers were able to manipulate the biological age of mice, making them older, or returning them to youth – and the intervention was repeatable – safe, without any side effects – no cancer. In response, the Mayo Clinic announced successful restoration of the broken spinal cord of a quadriplegic. Forget wheelchair research - quadriplegics will stand and walk out the door. Not to be outdone, the Buck Institute, announced their commitment to the complete elimination of all heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, dementia, vision, hearing loss, and neurodegenerative diseases. The explosion of new discoveries was unprecedented in history, death had been undone! Age was now considered a disease - the disease that surpassed all others, and it could be eliminated. The entire medical industry was thrown out, and “health care” replaced “disease care.”
Desi looked at Theo and said, “What about ethics? What about the people in prison? What about economic inequality? What about climate change? Is life extension only for the wealthy?” Theo had no answers, because ethics had been left behind and was replaced by the post-post-modern theory of “Tribes”, where behavior came to be defined by local groups. All overarching theories of human behavior were viewed as antiquated artifacts of corrupt authoritarian regimes. Ethics, by definition, was considered oppressive.
Undeterred and unrestrained, David Sinclair announced that his lab at Harvard had successfully restored vision to mice who had been completely blinded by damage to their optical nerves. Vision restoration was possible and was repeatable over time. Critics questioned the applicability to humans, but Sinclair said the lab was immediately moving into vision restoration with primates, and then to FDA approval for treatment with humans. The same technology could be used with all diseases and with lifespan in general.
Theo was ecstatic. “This means a great deal of pain and suffering will be eliminated.” But Dezi remained skeptical, “Are people going to have a choice in all this?” Before the year 2023, all ethics, even the foundations of religion, had been based on the reality of death. But as of 2023, the dominant question became, “how do we do ethics when death is no longer inevitable?” Clearly the old “go to heaven when you die” approach was hard to understand for people who don’t expect to die.
In the year, 2040, planet earth finally reached the state of Singularity, the point in time at which technological growth became uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. Ray Kurzweil had predicted its arrival in the year 2045, but it came early. The central question for the survival of humanity was, “who makes decisions, and what choices will they make.” Throughout the history of humanity on earth, civilizations had self-destructed. The Roman Empire lasted less than a thousand years. Mayan and Greek civilizations each lasted less than half a millennium. North American civilization was showing every sign of an early end. Even though exploration had uncovered at least 50 distant planets that could support life – no life had been found anywhere. Scientists concluded that the key aspect of intelligent human life was the ability to self-destruct. When a civilization develops the technology to communicate over large distances, it also has the technology to destroy itself and this is probably true throughout the universe – it is likely what happened to life on those other planets.
Along with traditional technologies, nanotechnology continued to evolve, and self-replicating graygoo biomachines became a widespread reality. Based on biological transformation, the greygoos clearly demonstrated the catastrophic possibilities where out-of-control life systems could consume all other biomass on Earth while continuing to build more of themselves. Bio-engineered plant life could out-compete natural plants, and hybrids were the new norm. Artificial bacteria could out-compete natural bacteria, spreading like the blowing pollen of Monsanto’s engineered corn in the fields of Mexico. The existence of graygoo replicators clarified the difference between "superiority" in terms of human values and "superiority" in terms of competitive success. Which one would survive?
But then came Lucid – when Lucid was eight months old she could wave and say a few “made up” words. Communication by sign language preceded fully-formed English words. Lucid could ask for milk by waving her hand and making the “milk” sign. For Theo and Dezi, Lucid was the whole world – even though Lucid could not speak, could not prepare food, could not walk, was basically “helpless” and needed constant attention. But Lucid had one significant form of communication that far surpassed all others - eye contact. Lucid’s survival was based on human compassion – the only way for her to stay alive was if other people cared enough to feed and clothe her.
Theo and Dezi did not have the power to change the course of human history, but they could agree on one thing - in an era where death had been eliminated, an era of singularity where graygoo competed with nature, the future of humanity came down to how they cared for a child – for the child was the future of humanity.
Living is just dying in disguise