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August 05, 2005
What's next for human body ?
I believe, the human evolution has stopped. The animals & plants have evolved to work around the problems forced upon them by nature. The last species of animals (i.e. we the humans) happens to be more intelligent than previous species; the humans invented the tools to circumvent the nature's problems. By inventing the tools, we in a way stopped our own evolution. By building houses, by inventing agriculture, by inventing medicine, we have more or less broke away from our dependance on the natural forces. What now for humans ?
If we need to evolve further, the only way seems to be tweaking our bodies to invent a new species.
I am unabashed posthumanist. Here are some of my posthumanist fantasies regarding the human body. Nothing in the human existence and human condition is sanctimonious to me. I believe that the following of my dreams are going to happen at some point in human history.
Lost time in sleep
We need to take the sleep out of human existence. Sleep has had its role in human evolution but I believe, there is no more need for the sleep in human life. Currently I don't think, we for sure understand the reasons for sleep. The darkness of the nights may have been one reason for the existence of sleep; the humanity did conquer the darkness by inventing the power to create light at will in nights. The sleep may have been meant to give rest to physical body. It could be there for human mind to rest and reorganize the memories. But there are so many passive activities in human life now which could safely work as replenishments for body and mind. We should tweak the human body to remove the need for sleep safely without endangering the human life.
A better sex
It is time to take a relook at the sex in human life. If sex was only meant for procreation, there is no need for humans to involve in sex for non-reproductive reasons. The sex has a stronger role in human evolution. Possibly the human child needs such a long rearing, the sex may have been chosen by evolution as the tool for building family platform for child rearing.
The sex needs to be freed from the genitals. We need to tweak the human body to invent a new form of sex which is as powerful as sex but not really associated with genitals. Why did the evolution pick genitals so close to excretory parts (which are meant for discharging waste products from the body)? Why did it not invent a new body part independent of the excretory body parts ?
The "new sex" needs to be doable say by handshaking or rubbing noses or kissing. Say that it needs be freed between the male and female. Imagine, if we can get the orgasmic pleasure just by handshaking or rubbing hands in a particular order, the sex need not be any more between a man and a woman.
The "new sex" can be more powerful than the current sex. It can be invented to create harmony in the society. It need not be called by the name "sex" as such; we could call it by any other name. But it got to be more powerful and liberating than current sex.
The current sex has murky relationship with guilt & sin in any society. The "new sex" needs to be freed from the concept of guilt and sin.
Woman's body
The contraceptive has been such a liberating tool for women. The next advancement for woman would be to take the womb out of woman. Rearing the fetus in a lab is not far from reality. What about even taking out the menstruation out of woman ? These would have far better implications for woman emancipation.
The sneaky germs
Nature did a poor job in protecting the human body from the vagaries of bacteria & virus. Why do the bacteria & virus have to be so sneaky ? If a predator like lion is coming to eat me, I could see it and run away from it or take some protection from it. But the bacteria & virus are so sneaky in hijacking the body that we are at the mercy of the fate. We need to close the bodies for all microorganisms.
Self-repairing body
After closing the body for germs, next thing is to address the self-healing and self-repair of the body. Lizards can grow back their tails if cut. Even human liver can grow back to full size if it is cut to half. We need similar abilities for all of the human body parts so that they can repair, heal and regrow back to their functionality.
Specter of death
Another fantasy is to increase the longevity of human life. Yes, I would like to live to 1000 years. Lot of people are so unimaginative when they ask "why would I want to live 1000 years with a crippled old body?". Well, if we can increase the longevity, why can't we repair the crippled body ? It is well possible to imagine to live forever with the same healthy physical body which never deteriorates.
Some people object saying there wouldn't be enough place for people on the earth if everybody lives. Ask the same people if they want to die a natural death if there is really a cure for death. Ask them if they want to die tomorrow to make little more space on earth. Well, I too don't know where to make space for all the people if everybody start living. But we got to be creative to come up with solutions. Whether we could find the solution or not, there are enough people motivated to realize the dream of living forever.
Satiation
I am such a food lover, I would love to enjoy the taste of a favorite dish for a long long time. Currently after I eat for a while, the satiation kicks in and it does not taste any longer the same. But imagine, there is a toggle switch on the esophagus to divert the food to an external invented body sac. Whenever I am eating for pleasure, it just accumulates into this sac instead of going to my stomach. Now I can enjoy the food so long that I stop eating only when my jaws are tired of chewing.
I know, it seems so blasphemous to talk of food in these manner where there are people dying of starvation in this world. But I believe, the starvation is an artifact of failed social institutions which I believe can be corrected if only we try to solve it. There is enough technology now to create manifold of food for the masses of the world.
Sensibilities & Objections
These preposterous fantasies may definitely offend the sensibilities of lot of people. But I believe, these sensibilities are product of culture & time we are living in. My belief is that these would erode over a period of time.
I would like to think anybody's objections against my ideas are like those of people who objected to the invention of agriculture. Imagine the first man who invented the agriculture. This person instead of depending on the natural forest for food started domesticating the plants and growing them. I would think that the rest of the humanity would have felt offended at this person for violating the will of God by growing those sacred trees whenever and wherever he liked.
One of my friends said, "well, what you are talking are artificial things". I don't think anything is artificial. You can't create any artificial things which violate the natural laws. We only harvest the nature's existing laws to invent a new things. Of course, there are good harvests & bad harvests. We need to conduct a productive discourse before abandoning anything as harmful to the human evolution.
I find another sort of defense from people who keep explaining the reasons for status quo. They present all sorts of facts for the way things are in this world. They explain why sleep helps body or why the sex is the way it is. They explain how death needs to be there to make a way for new generations. Well, I am not looking for explanation of the way things are. I want to go meta or beyond the way things are. I would like to label these defenses as "argument from ignorance" or "argument by lack of imagination".
Posted by nachiketa at August 5, 2005 03:25 PM