Post-Humanism
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
-Jalal ad-Din Rumi, 13th century Sufi scholar
As the fall comes to an end, I thought it appropriate to conclude the term with a somewhat heartwarming topic, if anything to combat the colder nights. Most fortunately, Thanksgiving break approaches, and with it, a chance to contemplate the greater world beyond our academics at Exeter. And so in anticipation of this opportunity, my last topic of the trimester deals with the perennial broad subject: the fate of all mankind.
What will become of us once we have become bone, once our bone has turned to dust and dust has turned to nutrient for our children’s children? Our names will surely be gone. Perhaps there is an Ozymandias among us, one who will set himself in stone to resist the ceaseless tide of time. But for him, too, entropy will eventually visit to collect her dues. His plaques will be eroded by sand. His face will be smoothed into a featureless contour, and his body will be salvaged for materials. He will lie a husk of his former self, or two trunkless legs of stone.
Or alternately, we may shun the Ozymandias who actually lies within all of us. Hitherto, everyone has been tortured by his calling: to each of us forge a unique identity and legacy so that we may be distinguished during life and remembered after death. But perhaps this endeavor is more than just futile—perhaps it is unnecessary. In her article, The Idolization of Diversity and Identification, upper Irene Chun warns against our impulse toward self-establishment. I wholeheartedly agree; we should conquer our individualism—especially that based on religion, culture and ethnicity.
Since the dawn of time, humans have adopted labels pertaining to faith, lifestyle and race. This trifecta is wholly extraneous, and yet it remains the refuge of those seeking to be distinguished not by their actions, but by their backgrounds. Of course, the great irony is that, ultimately, every person on Earth subscribes to a certain belief system, belongs to a certain culture and is of a certain bloodline. The very fact that there are Muslims and Christians, Russians and Americans, and Asians and Caucasians ought to highlight not that any particular combination is worthy of recognition, but that overwhelmingly, humanity seems to be united by a common propensity for religion, culture and ethnic tribalism.
One could take pride in his Protestant faith, his New-English upbringing and his Anglo-Saxon blood. But these are mere arbitrations; they do not so much prove his specialization, as they prove his similarity to an Indian Jain. In the grand scheme of things, one is indistinguishable from the other. Both are extrapolations upon an elementary man. Therefore, it is perversely egotistic to shackle oneself to a specific version of humanity, when one could instead stress his solidarity with all of mankind. In fact, this solidarity must become our prime directive. Only then will we overcome our enslavement to individualism; we will attain what Nietzsche called the Übermensch, or what we term the post-human.
It was Arthur C. Clarke who once wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Likewise, perhaps the reader will be awed by my speculation of Man in the future. The post-human is certainly surreal, and even alien to some. This is to be expected—any sufficiently advanced being is indistinguishable from a force of nature. The post-human will behave not as an individual, but as a singular expression of our species. He will be the gust of wind to our collective tempest. No longer will religion, culture and ethnicity provoke discrepancies amongst ourselves. Instead, they will serve to unite us.
To begin with, the post-human will kill God. I make no argument about whether He exists. I only claim that for the sake of humanity, the post-human will no longer venerate Him. We will worship ourselves. The religion of man will not submit our species to a superior idol. It will not manipulate our species with promises of supernatural rewards. Each man will do good works in tribute to his fellow man.
If God exists, he will surely bear witness to this with strong emotions. If God reacts with wrath, he is petty, and never deserved worship in the first place. If God loves us, He, too, will be converted to the religion of man. Either way, He will grow feeble as his devotees wane in number. Deities subsist on belief. Accordingly, through faith in our collective potential, we ourselves will gain divine status. Eventually, we will travel to distant worlds throughout the galaxy. We will terraform them through magic—unimaginable scientific achievements—perhaps impressive enough to make converts out of local inhabitants. Finally, religion will attain what has truthfully been its original goal: to empower all mankind.
Just as religion will be homogenous across our ranks, so, too, will culture. This is not to say that we will lose the immense civilizational diversity we so cherish today. Through an extensive process of cultural appropriation, all ways of life will be distributed to all, so as to create a “human” culture that is uniform across mankind. The post-human will be a paragon of generosity; he will be wise enough to understand that he has no proprietorship over the intellectual property of his ancestors. He will cede his culture—all of it—to his fellow humans. In return, he will partake without restriction in customs that previously did not belong to him.
By now, the theme of this vision should be clear. At its core, it entails a strict devotion to humanity: human religion and human culture. Even ethnic classifications will be superseded by a dominant identification with mankind. Today, we mock the idea of being “colorblind.” In the future, this will be possible in the sense that no longer will race be something that we perceive. Yes, it may be registered by our eyes… but it will be done so unconsciously. The post-human will bear a fascination with species, not the color of his peers’ skin.
Through the reduction of religious, cultural and ethnic barriers, we will no longer become a fractious anarchy, but an order devoted solely to its own advancement. We will have a better chance at immortality than lonely Ozymandias; our descendants will travel to faraway planets, and everywhere they will build statues to Man—not Christianity nor America nor Pacific Islanders.
Is this not an appealing future? Perhaps some of you believe this humanity to be overly ant-like. I disagree; insects serve their queens while we will serve our species. The difference is great. By giving up our fickle differences, we will empower ourselves as a whole. We will not isolate, but cooperate. ♥