Life Extreme - How to Improve the Human Condition

What gets me about this book is that the pictures are out of this world (these pictures are actually in this world even more amazing). A GREEN BUNNY wow pretty amazing what humans can do. The book transitioned well from Ribofunk, and the pictures where not as spooky after reading Ribofunk.

On that note here are some problems I have with the books content, or rather what I don’t see happening that I hoped would. When we are able to create a human ear using the biology of a mouse we blur the line between animals, humans, and technology. They start to become one part in a greater system or picture. This I don’t think is controversial. I have never thought myself that much different than an ape on a biological level; in fact I have just as many appendages off of my abdomen as many other mammals and brains that do most of what their brains do as well. Nursing for young and the like, even behavioral patterns are somewhat alike. What I don’t see this book doing is showing how technology is being used to overcome human limits that are innately human. To be more specific, I think what makes humans not animals but humans is something that goes on in the mind of the human being. Whatever it is called it is something that distinctly gives humans an ability to form complex relationships, reason with each other communicate emotions and give and take directives. These processes are human and they have their flaws when perhaps emotions get in the way of performance of tasks and completion of directives. What I am not seeing is how the manipulation of biology that helps create an ear for a human or increases the productivity of meat from a cow that will no doubt help decrease poverty helps overcome the limitations that the human processes of the mind undertake. I would not say that increasing the lifespan of humans by giving them pig hearts is something that does not help overcome that limit, I ask what human limits of the mind can we overcome when we start to call upon and manipulate the power of nature? I wonder about these human limits and think about all those times I was told that humans capacity is boundless. Does that mean we place those limits upon ourselves individually or as a collective? If I had a better memory with the use of some electronic hard drive would I be able to overcome the human limit of poor memory? Or is it that there is a point at which my own limits are not human limits but limits of my own that I must try to overcome? Maybe overcoming human limits means training my memory rather than using a hard drive to improve it. What I am starting to think is that human limits (limits of the mind) are such that when we attempt to improve our mind through anything but hard work we become less human or we make an attack on humanity. I think that what makes humans distinct from animals is the capacity to overcome our immediate inabilities through our work. Some humans never attempt this; the capacity does not imply desire. Some humans are able to do great things, others are able to as well but do not attempt it. I think that humans in fact do not have human limits because what it is to be human is determined by humans themselves. I say it is that we have cognitive functions that other animals do not have like imaginations and spatial thinking, possibly grammar. I don’t think that we can overcome these things because they are boundless. I liked how Ribofunk and Life Extreme have the theme of melding the worlds of technology and organic matter because the complication that arises from this melding allows us to identify and possibly protect what we can agree is special or untouchable about humanity. This gives us a starting point to ask the question of how much technology is permissible, how much manipulation is allowable, and if there is anything distinctly human we can identify then will we dare improve it or is it just not possible?

One more thing I liked about the Life Extreme is that it showed the possibilities of what modern biology can do for us. Some of the pictures may have been cruel (like the big cow that will be slaughtered) but it amazes me the extent to which technology has the power to feed us cloth us and make our lives longer. These improvements allow us to have more time and freedom to concentrate on things that do matter. They liberate us to attempt to do the things that will make us better people. These technological improvements are at least encouraging in a world full of suffering, no???