14. #1: Our genetics are diversifying and keeping around “unfit” genes #2: Memes are a major component of our environment #3: Still Darwinian evolution, but we can control our environment.
18. Idea & design Creation & utilization Spread of ideas Motivation Intelligence Thumbs Memes/information Money
19. Idea & design Creation & utilization Spread of ideas Motivation Intelligence Thumbs Memes/information Money
20. The future of humanity is in your hands. Jun Yin @junnibug http://juny.in/
Editor's Notes
My talk is entitled “Post-evolution and post-humanism: how technology is affecting our genetics and evolution”. My name is Jun Yin, you can find me at junnibug. So to start off I say, Yes, technology is affecting our genetics.
How many people here are myopic? Well, if we were in the stone age, you would be eaten by a mountain lion. But thanks to the brilliant invention of some Italian dude in the 13 th century, almost half the world is now myopic.
The rate of cancer has been increasing. Due medical care technologies, we are pushing the limits of our cells. For example, mice in the wild never get cancer because they get eaten before they develop cancer. We know that smoking and other environmental factors are causes. But a genetic factor is that we have kids at older ages, which increases the chance of genetic defects in our progeny.
So my first point is that our genetics is diversifying. More so than if we did not develop technology, because technology is allowing us to live with “unfit” genes. Which is awesome for us otherwise most of us would die. Unfortunately we are seeing things like cancer crop up, but that’s just another challenge that we are making progress towards.
How are we creating these technologies? Obviously, our unmatched intellect. But also our opposable thumbs to help construct things. And the propagation of memes or flow of information.
The internet and increased communication has greatly influenced access of information. For example, if you need to fix your computer, there’s a youtube video for that. Furthermore, we are globally connected. Back in the day, when China invented gun powder, you had to sail across the ocean and infiltrate as a spy to learn the recipe. Now there’s a youtube video for that too! The access to mass information is greatly accelerating technology for all of humanity.
Memes behave in their own evolutionary manner. Good ideas spread faster and could increase our survival and well being. However, some bad ideas spread pretty fast too, like Scientology and the Jonestown massacre. While meme survival does not directly correlate with our survival, it is a integral part of our changing environment. Which is my second take-home message.
I call it post-evolution, but the process is still Darwinian evolution. We are still under selective pressures and we respond to our environment. However, unlike any other specie on this planet, our technology has enabled us to manipulate and create our environment. We can alter the selective pressures against our survival.
So now that we recognize that our genetics is diversifying, memes are part of our environment, and that Darwinian evolution is still happening, just that we can control our environment
So the big questions is… what shall we do to change our environment, and thereby affecting our genes and the evolution of humanity?
Biologically, we want to: cures for diseases, increase longevity, increased intelligence, strength, and speed, decrease the need for sleep, biologically created caffeine?
Socially, we can create: eyepiece computers, bionic limbs, language translators, digital ID, Teleporters? Some of these things are already on the horizon.
So I would like to go back to the previous slide of how we create technology. Our intelligence fosters new ideas and designs, our thumbs allows us to create and utilize physical objects, memes spread the ideas, and a point to add is the motivation behind all this is money. Which in our society is the currency of survival.
So while you are at your jobs earning money for your own survival, I challenge you, the technologists, to think about the greater impact of what you create and create new things that shape the future of humanity Thanks.
