moving a muscle. Telepathic speaking, via neural probes to the language
parts of our brain, must be possible. Sounds crazy? Plenty of smart people,
including Elon Musk, think it is the way of the future.^9
While movies like Ex Machina and Her are disquieting, triggering fears
of computer control and robot domination, a more salient concern revolves
around the future of human interaction in a cyborg future. It’s more
possible than you think. What will communication be like when everyone
in your social sphere is electronically plugged in?
The future rise of the machines will not resemble a bourgeoning rogue
robot army, but instead the transformation of humanity into Homo
electrus. In the Terminator movie series, Skynet is the interconnected
artificial intelligence among servers, androids, cyborgs, satellites, and
war-machines. The thought of a world where the Terminator and Ava from
Ex Machina are electronically coordinated is disturbing, as far-fetched as
it seems. On our way to a future where Homo electrus “speaks” by
electronically transmitting a message, there will surely be a day when our
offspring will come face-to-face with humanoids who have spare,
electronic stares. What will it feel like to coexist with a humankind that
has, to paraphrase Timothy Leary, “turned on and tuned in” in a galvanic
fashion?
We pine for life before smart phones, where people attended sporting
events and concerts in person, eyes wide open and biologic senses at their
peak. Now, our phones stand in the gap, neither comprehensively capturing
the moment, nor allowing us to live in the moment. How strange will life
be when those electronic gizmos are not in front of our eyes, but implanted
into our brains?
I have to say I hope I am wrong. Homo electrus mostly freaks me out.
A 13.8-billion-year evolutionary transformation from the beginnings of
the earth to the dawn of cyborgs has occurred in three main phases,
according to Max Tegmark. Life 1.0 arrived about four billion years ago,
and is characterized as simple biological existence, where organisms like
bacteria have no ability to communicate and learn. Life 2.0 is modern
humankind (appearing a hundred millennia ago), with advanced culture
and awareness, and the ability to communicate and improve our
“software.”^10 Tegmark explains, “Even though the information in our
human DNA hasn’t evolved dramatically over the past fifty thousand
years, the information collectively stored in our brains, books, and