The Revolt Against Humanity, by Adam Kirsch
Review by Dave Gamrath
One-liner: In his book The Revolt Against Humanity: Imagining a Future Without Us, author Adam Kirsch contrasts two groups, which both believe the future of humanity is in jeopardy, but have very different views about what to do about it.
Book Review:
Reports of stunning advancements in Artificial Intelligence are currently widespread, and with them, debate ensues on the pros and cons of these new technological advancements. These reports inspired me to read The Revolt Against Humanity: Imagining a Future Without Us, by Adam Kirsch. In his book, Kirsch quotes writings of dozens of respected “thinkers” (engineers, philosophers, political activists, scientists, etc.) regarding the future of humanity, and divides them into two distinct camps. His first group believe in Anthropocene antihumanism, and are “inspired by revulsion at humanity’s destruction of the natural environment.” Kirsch’s second group are members of transhumanism, a philosophical and scientific movement that advocates the use of current and emerging technologies—such as genetic engineering, cryonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and nanotechnology—to augment human capabilities and improve the human condition. Both groups are predicting the end of humanity as we know it, but have very different conclusions about what this means.
The Anthropocene is a term describing our current geological age as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Its premise is that nature exists only for humans, not in its own right. Members of Anthropocene antihumanism believe that “humanity is essentially a destroyer, and has been from the very beginning of its appearance on the planet.” Antihumanists believe that we’ve shattered the planet beyond repair, and that it’s too late to turn things around. The only question is how soon this human-caused apocalypse will come. Antihumanists believe “that the end of humanity’s reign on Earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it…as a sentence we have justly passed on ourselves.”
Examples of our precarious situation obviously includes climate change, which Kirsch calls “a second, deadlier Holocaust,” and will result in rising sea levels, a refugee crisis, wars as hundreds of millions of people flee equatorial zones and crop failures, and mass death from heat exposure. Kirsch writes that “we are in the beginning of a mass extinction,” the sixth great extinction in the history of planet earth. Kirsch calls nuclear war “the ultimate evil,” but writes that our destroying the earth as we pursue aims that we consider to be good and just, such as our pursing prosperity, comfort, and human population growth, as actually more “radically unsettling.” Kirsch writes that humans have been in “a zero-sum competition that pits the gratification of human desires against the well-being of all nature.” Survival of the fittest has been replaced by survival “of what is most useful to human beings.” Human fingerprints are now on everything on earth.
Antihumanists are discussing a “revolt against humanity,” which Kirsch claims is a real and significant phenomenon, even if just an idea. Kirsch points to recent polls that show over 90 percent of respondents believing that our future will be worse than the present, which Kirsch see as evidence that Anthropocene antihumanism is already more than an “avant-garde phenomenon.” But given what Antihumanists are calling for, including the cessation of all human reproduction, I find it hard to imagine that this movement will ever be viewed as anything other than extremism at its most extreme.
On the other side of this debate are Transhumanists, who also believe “that human life can’t continue the way it is now,” and that “our world is on the brink of a fundamental transformation.” But their view of the needed transformation involves using technology to create new intelligent life that will no longer be human. They are excited about creating AI with intelligence infinitely superior to our own. Transhumanists believe that technology can “transform human bodies and minds,” and create “posthuman successors” that can survive and prosper on a degraded planet. They insist that technology will allow humans to overcome “aging, cognitive shortcomings, involuntary suffering, and our confinement to planet Earth.” “We will be able to redesign our bodies to make them more efficient or simply more aesthetically appealing.” Human senses will be refined, and human “brains will be supercharged, so that the average person will think more rapidly and deeply than Einstein.” We will be able to engage in “mind-uploading” and “interstellar exploration.” Humans can develop a “brain-emulating computer,” which will effectively be a human mind. This technology will enable humans to live in a “fully virtual consciousness.” With these enhancements, humans will become immortal, eradicating death from old age. The technologies that will allow all this to happen include genetic modification, nanotechnology, and robotics.
Transhumanists believe that in a relatively short time the entire human brain can be scanned into a computer, and a computer can be programmed into consciousness. The holy grail for transhumanists is artificial general intelligence, which includes “a computer mind that can learn about any subject.” This computer can improve itself without limit, “until it became more capable than all human beings put together.” But Kirsch admits that transhumanism tends to overpromise, and that “big breakthroughs always seem to lie just over the horizon.”
Kirsch also describes many dangers that exist pursuing this technology. What comes with creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a computer program that is independently conscious, I.E., a computer that may conclude that there is no purpose for humans to exist. It may become impossible for humans to ensure that AGIs problem-solving abilities will address the problems that we direct it to solve. AGI might come up with its own ideas, and might determine that the best way to achieve its goals is to exterminate humans. In my humble view, that could suck. Some scientists believe that this could happen before humans even realize it’s happening! Yikes!
In a nutshell, the revolt against humanity, including both Anthropocene antihumanism and transhumanism, believe that we need to “forfeit our own existence as a species” to save the earth. I humbly suggest that these ideas will struggle to be accepted by mainstream society, but Kirsch believes that both philosophies can be important even if they don’t come to pass, and could inspire a needed revolution. On this, Kirsch may be right. Given humanity’s refusal to take significant action to stop climate change, as well as the scary-fast improvements in AI, it’s not hard to imagine a revolution or two just around the corner.
Reviewer Opinion: An interesting (if scary) book.
Reviewer Rating of Book: Thumb up.