A Prophetic Seer Potentiating Us in the Present

• Published in: Zygon 2007-12, Vol.42 (4), p.1009-1013
• Main Author: Thompson, Curtis L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: evolution; Evolutionary biology; Genetics; human nature; Information technology; Nanotechnology; Nonfiction; possibilizing; Predictions; robotics; Robots; scenarios of the future; Spirituality; The Curve; The Singularity; transhumanist
• ISSN: 0591-2385; 1467-9744
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2007.00886.x

In his book Radical Evolution Joel Garreau functions as a prophet and a seer. In presenting a narrative of the future that includes an optimistic view of human nature, he warns that because of the GRIN technologies (genetics, robotics, information technology, and nanotechnology) the quickening evolution of “The Curve” is upon us and could well soon culminate in the mind‐boggling social change of “The Singularity.” Garreau considers three scenarios of the technological future: the Heaven Scenario, the Hell Scenario, and the Prevail Scenario. The third wins favor because the heavenly envisionment with its evolution of a superintelligent human who could engineer a species with a greatly extended lifespan is too blissful and the hellish prognostication with its destruction of the human species within the next quarter century is too pernicious. Just right is the middle‐of‐the‐road perspective of the Prevail‐Transcend depiction of the future. This third view is indeed more appropriate than the first two scenarios, but a more nuanced form of the third perspective—emphasizing similarly the role of human freedom and responsibility in continuing to reshape human nature but drinking less deeply of the transhumanist elixir and more deeply of a pantransentheistic potion—would constitute a more suitable vision of the future.