Anti Transhumanist Wisdom on Battlestar Gallactica
In Marshall McLuhan's vast television wasteland that is getting vaster and more wasted with each passing year, there are a few shining examples of true excellence. Perhaps the best show on television today--and one of the best ever--is Battlestar Gallactica, a program that like the best science fiction explores the most meaningful issues of human existence and societal complexity.
For those who don't know: the premise of the show is that human beings made millions of robots known as cylons that developed artificial intelligence. The cylons decide to wipe out the human race because of our defects and all but succeed in a suprise nuclear attack.
The last 40,000 humans escape in a ragtag spaceship fleet led by the obsolete war "battlestar" called Gallactica. Eventually, in desperation, the fleet strikes out for their mythical planet of origin--Earth--their enemy hot on their tails.
The cylons were able to infiltrate into human society--and the escaping fleet--because they developed 9 "models" that look and feel human--with the women super hot in order to attract the teenage boy (and middle age man) crowd. What's more, the "human" cylons can't die. If one is killed, it is resurrected, memories intact, in a vat on a resurrection ship: A transhumanist's most devout fantasy! Come to think of it, cylons are transhumanists: They are post human, fully conscious, enhanced, and immortal.
One of the latest twists in the tale has been a civil war breaking out among the cylons, with the rebels now working with the humans. A plan is afoot to destroy the core resurrection ship, meaning that cylons will become mortal, just like us. To sell the plan to a doubting governing council, "Six" one of the cylons, gives a short speech. It struck me that it was worth transcribing and posting here, because shades of Leon Kass, it rebukes the transhumanist fundamental goal of material immortality:In our civil war, we've seen death. We've watched our people die: Gone forever. As terrible as it was, beyond the reach of the resurrection ship, something began to change.
This is hard but true, isn't it? I know that as I approach my 59th birthday, my focus has certainly sharpened. My father is dead. My grandmother is dead. My mother is almost 91 and my heart trembles. But Six is right. Death's awful shadow gives corporeality its magnificent power. And as we struggle to delay that awful day for ourselves and those we love, death also gives us a reason to grasp the joy and search for transcendence and ultimate meanings--even among those who deny there is any meaning to be found.
We could feel a sense of time, as if each moment held its own significance. We began to realize that for our existence to hold any value, it must end. To live meaningful lives, we must die and not return.
The one human flaw that you spend your lifetimes distressing over--mortality--is the one thing; it's the thing that makes you whole.
Death is important for what it gives us as well as what it takes away. And that is where the transhumanism goes so badly off the rails. There may be an immortal existence, but it isn't--and shouldn't be--here.
Labels: Transhumanism. Immortality.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:54 PM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
I have enjoyed Battlestar Galactica, but certainly not because I agree with the view expressed in the quote, which is neither new nor wise, in my estimation. It is as ancient as the anti-materialist religious traditions that taught us to denigrate the flesh, with horrible practical consequences too numerous and well-known to bother listing. Likewise, valuing physical bodies in a physical world certainly is not so new as the Transhumanists. There are significant religious traditions, notably Mormonism in modern times, which posit God in the flesh and this world as that from which heaven will be organized. Of course, the practical consequences of such faith are quite different from escapist faiths.
The reasoning that a shortened life span increases the value of life is simply not manifest in our behavior. If it were, we'd all be planning morphine overdoses a few minutes from now. I agree that there is much that is worse than death. I disagree that death is good or absolute.
Like you, Wesley, I've experienced the deaths of persons close to me. These experiences have, indeed, been opportunities to learn. I do value life more as a consequence. However, it is LIFE I value -- not death. In the same way, my experiences of misery and pain have been lessons, yet I do not seek them out for themselves. I seek these things only as investments toward greater things, if and as necessary.
By the way, it's worth noting that Battlestar Galactica was originally created by a Mormon, although some of the ideas expressed in the recent series don't reflect Mormon ideas.
Well I never said it was original, but it is nice to see such things expressed in popular entertainment.
I think life and not death is to be valued too. That was Six's point, I think. The fact of death, makes life more worth living.
In Christian thinking death is the enemy. But it is also the lot of man and must be prepared for in the hope of something else in the great beyond. Indeed, all of the greatest religions and philosophical point have preparation for death as a core function. LSD too, for example, the emphasis on family. And in the process, I think these faiths and philosophies generally help their adherents live better and happier lived.
But I do think that obsessing on death and ways to overcome it materially are misguided and bound to disappoint.
Finally, I don't think a Mormon has to reflect Latter Day Saint theology in his or her work any more than an atheist or Buddhist does.
But I think BSG is about the plusses and perils of transhumanism. These issues are worth pondering.
If the risk of death makes life more worth living, we would expect to see humans generally and persistently increasing their risk of death. We don't see that. We do see thrill seeking, but I interpret that in the same way I interpret the Freudian death drive, as something like the last ditch effort of the impotent. The will to power, when all else fails, adjusts even our psychology: IT CAN'T KILL ME, BECAUSE I'LL KILL MYSELF!
The religions of the world are not all escapist, hoping for that which utterly negates the world. Mormonism is an excellent example, in its emphasis on transformation of this world, rather than hoping for something else entirely. Heaven is, as Mormon prophets have described, what we make of what we've got. Send us to hell and we'll work to make a heaven of it. In such traditions, God finds himself within chaos and sets about organizing it, rather than creating everything from nothing. God invites our participation in this organization effort according to enduring principles rather than promising supernatural immaterial metaphysics in return for seemingly arbitrary behavior patterns.
You mention that you think obsessing on death and ways to overcome it materially are misguided and bound to disappoint. While I agree that obsessions of any sort can be detrimental, who do you suppose will be disappointed by efforts to overcome death materially? The immaterial dead? If not, and overcoming death materially is not possible, no one will be disappointed by the effort in the long run.
I've on occasion been charged with fear of death. I don't want to die, of course, but I'm hardly afraid of death itself, particularly if it is as absolute as some esteem it to be. That simply makes no sense to fear such a (no)thing. If there's anything to fear, it's the risks that always accompany life, no matter its magnitude, mundane or sublime.
I agree that BSG is a valuable look into issues related to Transhumanism and religion. I also agree that artists need not reflect their theology in their work; however, I didn't intend to suggest that the modern television series is the work of the original Mormon author, but that the original story more often reflected Mormon ideas than does the new series -- just a trivial observation.
It's not like we can give ourselves infinite time, as the universe will end eventually. Our lives can only remain finite, the only difference shall be in the magnitude - decades or eons. The shadow of death will always be present, just perhaps much farther off than before.
I don't feel that my life would have been any more meaningful in the Middle Ages, where I would have been halfway through the life expectancy of 40-something. Now, with life expectancy approaching 80-something, I think that, if anything, life is more meaningful now. I see no reason to doubt such a trend, both in life expectancy and life satisfaction, will continue.
Joshua, I agree that we can reasonably expect increasing life spans -- even to the point of overcoming aging within the next few decades. However, I don't share your opinion that our fate relies uniquely on our current understanding of a failing universe. Patterns of complexity continue to emerge, and there's reason to expect more than we currently have the anatomical capacity to imagine.
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