Future Humans: Technobiologicals?
Perhaps one of the most fascinating and interesting scientific findings has been the Wood Wide Web. Basically, how mycelium (fungus), connects trees and plants which they use to communicate with one another. It has been noted that some trees will, for example, share resources to a related sick tree to help it heal and recover. More recent research is indicating that some fungi may have a language of up to 50 “words” that they talk to each other with. Don’t just hug a tree, hug a mushroom too. I’m being a bit whimsical with that and this article. Bear with me. I’m making a point later.
Already there exists the transhumanist movement. It remains relatively small, but is slowly growing. You can find a detailed FAQ on what that movement is here. Simplified, transhumanists have the desire to reach above our current animal or primate state. To expand our intellectual capabilities, to be impervious to aging and disease, to have unlimited youth and the vigour of that youth and to experience levels of consciousness the current human brain can’t. They see this being achieved through genetic augmentation, merging with synthetic intelligences or Artificial Intelligence, memory enhancing drugs, wearable computers, BCI (Brain Computer Interface) or even just through new cognitive techniques. So what about technobiologicals?
To my knowledge, as a movement, technobioloigcalsim doesn’t currently exist. But it is possible it could become a movement, an ideology that to some may seem as strange as transhumanism. As I’ve been researching into, and working on my book on the Cognitive Age and how humanity will have to adapt in the coming decades, this idea struck me.
Technobiologicals could be humans that seek to connect more deeply with nature itself. As in connecting with and communicating directly, with trees and other living flora a fauna. We humans like to think we’re not animals, but we are. How we are different, is hotly debated. But we are still animals. To survive as a species we developed forms of communication from non-verbal to languages and text. To imagine that we could actually communicate with trees may not be that far-fetched. Sensors and methods of inserting probes into living creatures are becoming more advanced all the time. Plugging into a tree may not be so hard today.
They key would be how we connect with trees, plants and fellow animals. And how we learn their language, translate it to our thinking languages and then translate back into a language the tree, flower or fox understands. Which also begs the question of would we prefer to talk to dogs or cats?
Joking aside, if we could connect with trees, plants and other fellow animals, how might we view the world? How might we better understand the world around us and the very essence of nature? or are we rather arrogant to assume that we would and could in the first place? As we learn that trees communicate and share resources, that some fungi have words and that we’re even learning that trees to some degree can “see” with their leaves, would it change our thinking? Would the larger population listen or even care? Could we even make sense of it all?
As humans, we tend to think of the self first, moving outwards towards direct kin, then our local community and to perhaps the idea of a nation (and even that varies at scale) and far less so at a global scale. A tsunami that devastates a country half way around the world elicits some sympathy from those in Western countries for a few days and we donate a few dollars through a text and move on. This is just human nature. Should we have more empathy? Yes. Do we? No.
The natural world, the multitudes of highly balanced ecosystems and the planetary ecosystem we live in and have bended to our will, is incredibly complex; and it is fighting back against our will and nature is stronger than we are. As our species has evolved, we have become ever more aware of this fact. The internet and world wide web, a technological mimicry of the natural web of the world of information, has perhaps, made us more aware of this fact.
The idea of technobiologicals may seem science-fiction but as we’ve seen over the last few decades, so much Sci-Fi has in fact, become reality, close to it or is getting there. Transhumanism is very much a real and alive ideology, whether and how long it will last is unknowable. It is gaining momentum, especially as we move away from organised religions. A fact that has happened before many times throughout human history. Religion has long been a part of humanity and none should ever be discounted, but they’ve always evolved, as has human society, culture and political systems.
My point then, is that as strange as transhumanism may seem to some and technolobiologicals may be whimsy, something is underway with human adaptations in the digital age we are in. Much as we see a shift in geopolitical structures and increased divisions within nations. We are beginning to reimagine who we are and technologies are evolving, perhaps evolving our thinking and behaviours and then we too, influence what we want technologies to become and do. These are indeed, exciting times.
