Technotopia and the Death of Nature

May 22, 2002 by James John Bell

There is something missing from the discussion of the technological singularity, says James Bell: the true cost of progress will mean the unprecedented decline of the planet’s inhabitants — an ever-increasing rate of global extinction, some warn.

There is no question that technological growth trends in science and industry are increasing exponentially. There is, however, a growing debate about what this runaway acceleration of ingenuity may bring. A number of respected scientists and futurists now are predicting that technological progress is driving the world toward a "Singularity" — a point at which technology and nature will have become one. At this juncture, the world as we have known it will have gone extinct and new definitions of "life," "nature" and "human" will take hold.

"We are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth," San Diego University Professor of Computer Science Vernor Vinge first warned the scientific community in 1993. "Within 30 years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will end."

Some scientists and philosophers have theorized that the very purpose of life is to bring about the Singularity. While leading technology industries have been aware of the Singularity concept for some time, there are concerns that, if the public understood the full ramifications of the Singularity, they would be reluctant to accept many of the new and untested technologies such as genetically engineered foods, nano-technology and robotics.

Machine Evolution
A number of books on the coming Singularity are in the works and will soon appear. In 2003, the sequel to the blockbuster film The Matrix will delve into the philosophy and origins of Earth’s machine-controlled future. Matrix cast members were required to read Wired editor Kevin Kelly’s 1994 book Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-biological Civilization. Page one reads, "The realm of the born – all that is nature — and the realm of the made – all that is humanly constructed — are becoming one."

Meanwhile, Warner Brothers has embarked on the most expensive film of all time — a $180 million sequel called Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The film is due out in 2003; a good decade before actual machine evolution is predicted to accelerate "out of control," plunging human civilization towards the Singularity.

Central to the workings of the Singularity are a number of "laws" — one of which is known as Moore’s Law. Intel Corp. cofounder Gordon E. Moore noted that the number of transistors that could fit on a single computer chip had doubled every year for six years from the beginnings of integrated circuits in 1959. Moore predicted that the trend would continue, and it has — although the doubling rate was later adjusted to an 18-month cycle.

Today, millions of circuits are found on a single miniscule computer chip and technological "progress" is accelerating at an exponential rather than a linear growth rate.

Stewart Brand, in his book The Clock of the Long Now, discusses another law — Monsanto’s Law — which states that the ability to identify and use genetic information doubles every 12 to 24 months. This exponential growth in biological knowledge is transforming agriculture, nutrition and healthcare in the emerging life-sciences industry.

In 2005, IBM plans to introduce "Blue Gene," a computer that can perform one million-billion calculations-per-second — about 1/20th the power of the human brain. This computer could transmit the entire contents of the Library of Congress in less than two seconds. According to Moore’s Law, computer hardware will surpass human brainpower in the first decade of this century. Software that emulates the human mind — "artificial intelligence" — may take a few more years to evolve.

Reaching Infinity
The human population also is experiencing tremendous exponential population growth. Dan Eder, a scientist at the Boeing Artificial Intelligence Center, notes that "human population growth over the past 10,000 years has been following a hyperbolic growth trend … with the asymptote [or the point of near-infinite increase] located in the year 2035 AD." An infinite number of humans is, of course, impossible. Scientists predict our numbers will hover around 9 billion by mid-century.

Eder points out that the predicted rise of artificial intelligence coincides with the asymptote of human population growth. He speculates that artificial life could begin to multiply exponentially once biological life has met its finite limits.

Scientists are debating not so much if it will happen, but what discovery will set off a series of Earth-altering technologic events. They suggest that advancements in the fields of nanotechnology or the discovery of artificial intelligence could usher in the Singularity.

Technologic Globalization
Physicists, mathematicians and scientists like Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil have identified through their accelerated technological change theories the likely boundaries of the Singularity and have predicted with confidence the effects leading up to it over the next couple of decades.

The majority of people closest to these theories and laws — the tech sector — can hardly wait for the Singularity to arrive. The true believers call themselves "extropians," "post-humans" and "transhumanists" and are actively organizing not just to bring the Singularity about, but to counter what they call "techno-phobes" and "neo-luddites" — critics like Greenpeace, Earth First! and the Rainforest Action Network.

The Progress Action Coalition (Pro-Act), which was formed in June 2001, fantasizes about "the dream of true artificial intelligence… adding a new richness to the human landscape never before known." The Pro-Act website features several sections where the strategies and tactics of environmental groups and foundations are targeted for "countering."

Pro-Act, AgBioworld, Biotechnology Progress, Foresight Institute, the Progress Freedom Foundation and other industry groups that desire accelerated scientific progress acknowledge that the greatest threat to technologic progress comes not just from environmental groups, but from a small faction of the scientific community — where one voice stands out.

The Warning
In April 2000, a wrench was thrown into the arrival of the Singularity by an unlikely source — Sun Microsystems’ Chief Scientist Bill Joy. Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems, helped create the Unix computer operating system and developed the Java and Jini software systems — systems that helped give the Internet "life."

In a now-infamous cover story in Wired magazine, "Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us," Joy warned of the dangers posed by developments in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics. Joy’s warning of the impacts of exponential technologic progress run amok gave new credence to the coming Singularity. Unless things change, Joy predicted, "We could be the last generation of humans." Joy has warned that "knowledge alone will enable mass destruction" and termed this phenomenon "knowledge-enabled mass destruction" (KMD).

The Times of London compared Joy’s statement to Einstein’s 1939 letter to President Roosevelt, which warned of the dangers of the nuclear bomb.

The technologies of the 20th century gave rise to nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) technologies that, while powerful, require access to vast amounts of raw (and often rare) materials, technical information and large-scale industries. The 21st century technologies of genetics, nanotechnology and robotics (GNR) however, will require neither large facilities nor rare raw materials.

The threat posed by GNR technologies becomes further amplified by the fact that some of these new technologies have been designed to be able to "replicate" — i.e., they can build new versions of themselves. Nuclear bombs did not sprout more bombs and toxic spills did not grow more spills. If the new self-replicating GNR technologies are released into the environment, they could be nearly impossible to recall or control.

Globalization and Singularity
Joy understands that the greatest dangers we face ultimately stem from a world where global corporations dominate — a future where much of the world has no voice in how the world is run. The 21st century GNR technologies, he writes, "are being developed almost exclusively by corporate enterprises. We are aggressively pursuing the promises of these new technologies within the now-unchallenged system of global capitalism and its manifold financial incentives and competitive pressures."

Joy believes that the system of global capitalism, combined with our current rate of progress, gives the human race a 30 to 50 percent chance of going extinct around the time the Singularity happens. "Not only are these estimates not encouraging," he adds, "but they do not include the probability of many horrid outcomes that lie short of extinction."

Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen contends that if chemists earlier in the last century had decided to use bromine instead of chlorine to produce commercial coolants (a mere quirk of chemistry), the ozone hole over Antarctica would have been far larger, would have lasted all year and would have severely affected life on Earth. "Avoiding that was just luck," stated Crutzen.

It is very likely that scientists and global corporations will miss key developments (or, worse, actively avoid discussion of them). A whole generation of biologists has left the field for the biotech and nanotech labs. As biologist Craig Holdredge, who has followed biotech since its early beginnings in the 1970s, warns: The science of "biology is losing its connection with nature."

Yet there is something missing from this discussion of the technologic singularity. The true cost of technologic progress and the Singularity will mean the unprecedented decline of the planet’s inhabitants — an ever-increasing rate of global extinction.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN), the International Botanical Congress and a majority of the world’s biologists believe that a global "mass extinction" already is underway. As a direct result of human activity (resource extraction, industrial agriculture, the introduction of non-native animals and population growth), up to one-fifth of all living species — mostly in the tropics — are expected to disappear within 30 years. "The speed at which species are being lost is much faster than any we’ve seen in the past — including those related to meteor collisions," University of Tennessee biodiversity expert Daniel Simberloff told the Washington Post.

A 1998 Harris poll of the 5,000 members of the American Institute of Biological Sciences found 70 percent believed that what has been termed "The Sixth Extinction" is now underway. A simultaneous Harris poll found that 60 percent of the public were totally unaware of the impending biological collapse.

At the same time that nature’s ancient biological creation is on the decline, artificial laboratory-created bio-tech life forms — genetically modified tomatoes, genetically engineered salmon, cloned sheep — are on the rise. Already more than 60 percent of food in US grocery stores contain genetically engineered ingredients — and that percentage is rising.

Nature and technology are not just evolving: They are competing and combining with one another. Ultimately there could be only one winner.

Resources

  • The Foresight Institute‘s May 2000 conference on “Confronting Singularity” prompted Bill Joy to issue his famous warning about technology’s threat to human survival.
  • Ray Kurzweil’s website: kurzweilai.net
  • “The Campaign for a Post-Human World,” Richard Hayes, Earth Island Journal, Spring 2001.

James Bell is a writer for Sustain, a national environmental information group based in Chicago.This article is excerpted from his forthcoming book. For more information visit www.technologicalsingularity.info or contact [email protected]. An earlier version of this article was published in the Samhain (November/December 2001) issue of the Earth First! Journal. (c) 2001 by James Bell.

Copyright Earth Island Journal

Footnotes

Technotopia: Clones, Supercomputers, & Robots

Hybrid biological nanomachines, clones, implanted microchips, DNA computers, and spy robots are among the signs of the coming Singularity, in which superintelligent machines may take over, some fear. But we can’t stop it without a totalitarian, state-enforced ban, says Ray Kurzweil, and what’s more, computers will become conscious, feeling beings with rights.

Self-Replicating Atomic-Size Machines
By James Bell

Another cutting-edge field of research with an exponential growth rate is nanotechnology — the science of building "machines" out of atoms. A nanometer is a distance one-hundredth-thousandth the width of human hair. The goal of this science is to change the atomic fabric of matter — to engineer "machine-like atomic structures" that reproduce like living matter.

In this respect, it is similar to biotechnology, except that nanotechnology needs to literally create something like the non-organic version of DNA to drive the building of its tiny machines.

As University of Texas Professor Angela Belcher explains, "We’re working out the rules of biology in a realm where nature hasn’t had the opportunity to work." Belcher is combining genetically modified proteins with semiconductors in the hope of using proteins to do the "building" of the non-living nanostructure. The technique is a hybrid of biotechnology and nanotechnology. What would take millions of years to evolve on its own, "takes about three weeks on the bench top," says Belcher.

Machine progress is knocking down the barriers between all the sciences. Chemists, biologists, engineers and physicists are now finding themselves collaborating on experimental research. This collaboration is best illustrated by the opening of Cornell University’s Nanobiotechnological Center and other such facilities around the world. These scientists predict a breakthrough around 2005 to 2015 that will open the way to molecular-size computing — allowing for exponential technologic progress to race toward infinity.

Signs of the ‘Coming Singularity’
By Gar Smith

Some of the scientific "breakthroughs" expected in the next few years promise to make cloning and xenotransplantation (the introduction of genes from one species into another) seem rather benign. At least when scientists plant a spider gene in a goat or insert pig cells into a human brain, they are dealing with all-natural ingredients.

In the Brave New World of the Coming Singularity, the merging of technology and nature has already yielded some disturbing progeny. Consider these examples:

  • Human embryos have been successfully implanted and grown in artificial wombs. (The experiments were halted after a few days to avoid violating in-vitro fertilization regulations.)
  • Researchers in Israel have fashioned a "bio-computer" out of DNA that is capable of handling a billion operations-per-second with 99.8 percent accuracy. Reuters reports that these bio-computers are so minute that "a trillion of them could fit in a test tube."
  • IBM has built a video screen whose images appear so true-to-life that "the human eye finds [the video images] indistinguishable from the real thing."
  • In England, University of Reading Professor Kevin Warwick has implanted microchips in his body to remotely monitor and control his physical motions. During Warwick’s Project Cyborg experiments, computers were able to remotely monitor his movements and open doors at his approach.
  • Engineers at the US Sandia National Labs have built a remote-controlled spy robot equipped with a TV scanner, microphone and a chemical micro-sensor. The robot weighs one ounce and is smaller than a dime. Lab scientists predict that the micro-bot could prove invaluable in protecting "US military and economic interests."
  • US scientists have built a machine that, when released into the environment, powers itself by feeding on the bodies of snails and other living creatures.
  • In April 2001, scientists built a robotic fish that was guided by the brain of an eel. The Washington Post heralded the grotesque achievement with the headline: "Scientists Start to Fuse Tissue and Technology in Machines."
  • In February 2001, MIT researchers successfully tested a robotic fish controlled by a microprocessor and powered by the muscle tissues stripped from a frog.

Vernon Vinge’s Vision
By Gar Smith

The nonprofit Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) exists "to bring about the Singularity — the technological creation of greater-than-human intelligence." SIAI believes that the creation of "computer-based ‘artificial intelligence’ [will]… result in an immediate, worldwide and material improvement to the human condition."

Vernon Vinge, the originator of the Singularity concept, is not so sanguine. "When greater-than-human intelligence drives progress, that progress will be much more rapid," Vinge conceded during his famous 1993 speech at a NASA symposium. "We can solve many problems thousands of times faster than natural selection."

"How bad could the Post-Human era be?" Vinge wondered. "Well… pretty bad. The physical extinction of the human race is one possibility." Another possibility he proposed was that, "given all that such technology can do, perhaps governments would simply decide that they no longer need citizens!

"The first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make (provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control)." Because ultra-intelligent machines could design even better machines, Vinge predicted an "intelligence explosion" in the near future.

"A central feature of strongly superhuman entities will likely be their ability to communicate at variable bandwidths — including ones far higher than speech or written messages."

But there is more to the human being than mere computational intelligence. Without emotion, empathy, compassion and a moral sense, raw intelligence can be a dangerous thing. As Ishi, the last surviving member of California’s indigenous Yahi nation observed: "White people are clever, but they are not wise."

When the Singularity occurs, Vinge said, it could happen "in the blink of an eye — an exponential runaway beyond any hope of control…. It will probably occur faster than any technical revolution seen so far…. Even if all the governments of the world were to understand the threat and be in deadly fear of it," Vinge warned, "progress toward the goal would continue."

"The problem is not simply that the Singularity represents the passing of humankind from center stage," Vinge concluded, "but that it contradicts our most deeply held notions of being.

"There are other paths to superhumanity," Vinge suggested. "Computer networks and human-computer interfaces… could lead to the Singularity." Vinge call this alternative to Artificial Intelligence "Intelligence Amplification."

Ray Kurzweil’s Vision
By Gar Smith

Computer pioneer Ray Kurzweil is the winner of the world’s largest prize for invention — the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize — and was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Clinton in 2000. He is the author of The Age of Intelligent Machines (MIT Press, 1990) and The Age of Spiritual Machines (Viking 1999). In his latest [forthcoming – Ed.] book, The Singularity Is Near, Kurzweil predicts that the final merging of "biological" and "artificial" intelligence will occur before the end of this century.

"The rate of technical progress is itself accelerating," Kurzweil observes. But while people are quick to recognize this fact, "very few people have really internalized the implications of that prediction." Industrialized societies are now doubling their rate of technological progress every 10 years. That means the 21st century will experience the equivalent of "20,000 years of progress" in a century, Kurzweil notes. "You get to a point where the rate of progress is so fast that it’s virtually a rupture in the fabric of human history."

"Human beings get our power from having a hundred trillion inter-neural connections operating simultaneously," Kurzweil writes. We are approaching a time when computers will be programmed to create and build even-more-intelligent systems. At this point, Kurzweil warns, the acceleration of computer intelligence threatens to become exponential. Within 20 years, computers will not merely be super-intelligent, "they will be conscious, feeling beings deserving of the same rights, privileges and consideration people give each other.

"I don’t think we can stop it. I think there are profound dangers," Kurzweil states. Still, he doesn’t agree with Bill Joy’s argument that we must call a halt the acceleration of artificial intelligence systems before we create a system that grows out of human control. "The only way you can stop technology advancement," Kurzweil warns, "would be to have a totalitarian, state-enforced ban."

The Need for a "Green" Singularity
By Gar Smith

We have arrived at one of history’s great watersheds," writes Ervin Laszlo in his book, Macroshift: Navigating the Transformation to a Sustainable World (Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco). The civilization of the modern age "is not sustainable; it is destined to disappear."

Laszlo, the science director of the International Peace University of Berlin, is an expert in the field of systems theory. Laszlo argues that it is critical that the world "move from economic globalization to a new and sustainable civilization." Such profound and rapid changes in human history are called Macroshifts. Previous Macroshifts occurred with the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the development of agriculture, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Age.

According to Laszlo, the old order of humankind’s evolution "can be encapsulated in three terms: conquest, colonization and consumption." The coming Macroshift will require a transformation to an evolution that relies on "connection, communication and consciousness."

Laszlo’s Macroshift represents the kind of fundamental social and economic change that environmentalists have been championing. The question now is whether the advent of an accelerating technological Singularity will eclipse Laszlo’s envisioned Macroshift and usher in a new world that leaves humankind diminished and alienated from life, from joy and from the natural world.

Copyright Earth Island Journal