Tue, Aug-16-11, 02:30
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Quote:
August 15, 2011
Foods That Control: Mile Markers on the Road to Our Tech Future?
by Barbara Berkeley, MD
Are you an optimist or a pessimist about the future of mankind? There's a question to start your day.
In May, the Gallup Poll announced that optimism for the future of American youth had reached an all time low. When asked whether they thought that young people in the US would have a better life than their parents, 55% of those polled answered no. Pollsters commented:
The large majority of Americans expressed optimism about the future for U.S. youth when Gallup first asked this question in January 2008, as the recession began to take hold. They continued to do so even as the economic crisis unfolded and unemployment ballooned. Hopes for U.S. youth declined to the 50% level in October 2010, however, before dropping to a new low in the April 20-23, 2011, USA Today/Gallup poll.
Of course, this pessimism reflects doubts about our economic future. But what about the larger future of our species? Is there a connection between the helplessness many of us feel politically and the general trends happening in our world?
On my recent trip to southeast Asia, I had approximately 60 hours of enforced down time (travel and layovers). It was a great opportunity to read, catch up on missed movies, and watch The Godfather, (Parts I and II for the hundredth time ...still fabulous!). One of the movies I watched was a documentary called Transcendent Man. This is a film about futurist Ray Kurzweil, a brilliant, eccentric scientist who has predicted something called "The Singularity". The Singularity refers to the point at which humans and technology will effectively merge, changing the course of human evolution.
As Kurzweil points out in this film and in his written work, the pace of human techological advancement is moving so quickly that we will soon have artificial implants that will enable us to access the internet and other sources of the world's knowledge. Our bodies may soon be enhanced by injectable mini-computers and chips, making us into the bionic man. Essentially, we will eventually cease to be competely human, at least as we define that state today. While this could lead to wonderful improvements in health and longevity, the asymptotic growth of technology has more sobering, and ultimately more frightening, aspects. These relate to the seemingly inevitable development of artificial intelligence. In the not too distant futures, computer intelligence will multiply itself to the point where it exceeds out own. Once computers become smarter than man, the future looks nothing like any we might have envisioned and the place of man in the universe becomes uncertain. While many scientists believe that Kurzweil is incorrect in the timing of his predictions, no scientist who is quoted in the film doubts that we are headed in this direction.
When we imagine a world of endlessly expanding intelligence, we realize how limited we humans are and how vulnerable these limitations make us. If we look at our behavior, our literature, our art, we are fixated on a few basic themes: tribalism (war), love, and the search for spiritual meaning are the most obvious. Similarly, we are highly motivated by one very simple thing: our brain's system of rewards. Endorphins, endocannabanoids, and other brain chemicals are what keep us coming back for more. And more. Whether it's the pleasure created by food, the colors and noise of a gambling casino, the smell and feel of a cigarette, the rush of alcohol, sex or drugs, we are led around by these ancient responses, often to the point of our own destruction. Advances in technology have already shown how vulnerable we are.
Modern science has made it easier to deliver hits to our pleasure centers. Whether these come from the bright colors of video games, the instant access to pornography, or destructive foods masquerading as wonderful fun, we are easy to lure. It is not hard to imagine a future in which many of us will opt to live in a virtual world, full of colors and sensations that cannot be obtained on good old Earth. This tendency to give in to the enjoyable without regard to consequence is what gives me grounds for pessimism. Just today, for example, I saw a new patient who had been uttterly destroyed by food. He weighs over 300 pounds, is riddled with pain, is losing function in his eyes and kidneys, has had several heart attacks, is injecting insulin multiple times a day and yet he describes an utter passion for junk food, fast food, and sweets. Perhaps it is judgemental to say that this is a tragedy. We all have the freedom to pick the way we want to live. But my worry stems from a suspicion that we aren't choosing so much as being manipulated by ever-heightened pleasure experiences. The modern production of food may be one of the best examples of this unfortunate phenomenon.
Our inability to see that our country is being weakened by tehnologically enhanced food and our sheer willingness to embrace these products as harmless fun makes me worry for our greater future. If we are willing to be killed by food, how easy will it be to offer us other kinds of pleasurable "enhancements"? How simple we will be to control. Unless we start looking at our changing world critically, it will take no more than a sweeter, brighter, more colorful drug to destroy us completely. Now that's pessimism.
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http://refusetoregain.com/refusetor...ech-future.html
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