THE SYNTHETIC AGE
OUTDESIGNING EVOLUTION, RESURRECTING SPECIES, AND REENGINEERING OUR WORLD
By Christopher J. Preston
The MIT Press, 2018, 195 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
The Singularity
Among the many threads in The Synthetic Age, Christopher Preston refers to a book by Ray Kurzweil. In The Singularity is Near, Kurzweil defines this event as when artificial intelligence (AI) gets ahead of human intellect. Preston characterizes results of this theoretical event as “a future in which artificially intelligent machines gain a runaway intellect that exceeds anything the human brain can counter” (157).
This theme is a common thread for Preston. Earlier in the book he expresses concerns over other synthetic proposals run amuck. Nanobots that self-replicate, biobots acting as bacteria, genetically created bacteria acting as bacteria, and unforeseen effects of approaches to cooling the earth are some of the examples Preston points to where technical solutions to natural concerns carry their own risks.
Why the ethical backlash to the idea of genetically-created humans, for instance? Dubbed the Human Genome Project 2, some organizations want to take technical lessons learned with genetic recreation of simpler life forms and apply them to the more complex genetic sequences of humans (154). The singularity of AI described by Kurzwail considers software as a servant of humanity, even if the risk of so many sci-fi movies of the machine taking over exists. Creating human life synthetically for purposes such as harvesting organs or experimentation raises reasonably grave concerns. For instance, would a genetically created human be a human? If so, then human rights would apply to them, and would preclude their use as test subjects or organ farms. If not human, then one could argue the ‘experiment’ would have failed. This ethical area hearkens back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
One of Preston’s base arguments shows how concern over human interference with nature is not avoidable. In fact, humans have always interfered with nature. Preston points out how some argue that humans are a product of nature so human acts are acts of nature. The difference between human acts and natural acts gets blurry when humans intervene in natural processes as simple as moving butterflies north in England to help them migrate fast enough to avoid perceived global warming effects, or as complicated as seeding sulfuric acid in the stratosphere to lower sunlight penetration. Human history and natural history begin to merge (149).
OUTDESIGNING EVOLUTION, RESURRECTING SPECIES, AND REENGINEERING OUR WORLD
By Christopher J. Preston
The MIT Press, 2018, 195 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
The Singularity
Among the many threads in The Synthetic Age, Christopher Preston refers to a book by Ray Kurzweil. In The Singularity is Near, Kurzweil defines this event as when artificial intelligence (AI) gets ahead of human intellect. Preston characterizes results of this theoretical event as “a future in which artificially intelligent machines gain a runaway intellect that exceeds anything the human brain can counter” (157).
This theme is a common thread for Preston. Earlier in the book he expresses concerns over other synthetic proposals run amuck. Nanobots that self-replicate, biobots acting as bacteria, genetically created bacteria acting as bacteria, and unforeseen effects of approaches to cooling the earth are some of the examples Preston points to where technical solutions to natural concerns carry their own risks.
Why the ethical backlash to the idea of genetically-created humans, for instance? Dubbed the Human Genome Project 2, some organizations want to take technical lessons learned with genetic recreation of simpler life forms and apply them to the more complex genetic sequences of humans (154). The singularity of AI described by Kurzwail considers software as a servant of humanity, even if the risk of so many sci-fi movies of the machine taking over exists. Creating human life synthetically for purposes such as harvesting organs or experimentation raises reasonably grave concerns. For instance, would a genetically created human be a human? If so, then human rights would apply to them, and would preclude their use as test subjects or organ farms. If not human, then one could argue the ‘experiment’ would have failed. This ethical area hearkens back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
One of Preston’s base arguments shows how concern over human interference with nature is not avoidable. In fact, humans have always interfered with nature. Preston points out how some argue that humans are a product of nature so human acts are acts of nature. The difference between human acts and natural acts gets blurry when humans intervene in natural processes as simple as moving butterflies north in England to help them migrate fast enough to avoid perceived global warming effects, or as complicated as seeding sulfuric acid in the stratosphere to lower sunlight penetration. Human history and natural history begin to merge (149).
RSS Feed