Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future

Anyone who’s kept up with some of my book reviews knows that I’ve been reading about biological enhancement and what the future holds for the human race. When I first saw the title of James Hughes’ book, I immediately thought I would read about further proof that we are on the brink of a biological uplifting of our society—a social change so vast that the world as we know it will be redefined.

But, Hughes brings us sci-fi optimists back down to planet earth. It’s all right there in the subtitle, “Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future.” So, what does he mean by “respond”?

He means we, as a society, need to have a conversation about what the next 100 years will bring, and what exactly we’re going to do about it. The next 50 years. The next 10 years.

He recognizes that there is a need for a serious discussion of bioethics. He recognizes that Francis Fukuyama, appointed to the President’s Council on Bioethics, was the wrong man for the job.

Most importantly, he notes that the term “citizen” will have to be redefined.

I think he may go a little off-chart by putting the great apes in the same classification as human children and demented and mentally disabled adults. But, I won’t argue too much there because numerous studies have shown that those great apes might have something that we attribute to consciousness, self-awareness.

He notes that he attended a conference where a transgendered person spoke of being the first of the transhumans. So, is this the first step? Thus far, the U.S. hasn’t been extremely tolerant of the transgendered, but I can see that changing in the future. We’re never tolerant of difference at first. Eventually, people start seeing things differently as time passes on. We’ve seen that with women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement, and are now beginning to see a gay rights movement.

The next movements may involve the transhuman movement—rights for the biologically enhanced. This is where the trouble may start. In the other movements, humans were equal in intelligence and physical attributes, for the most part. However, without a serious discussion of the dos and don’ts of biological enhancement, we may create a species of man that is vastly more intelligent and physically superior.

Without the proper steps taken to ensure their rights, we could put ourselves on the brink of another civil war. Or, a world in which humans version 1.0 are enslaved.

With writers such as Philip K. Dick and other greats, whose words tell how humans must fight against future technology, we’ve become accustomed to think of danger when we think of technological advancement. Hughes believes that “If there is to be a future for progressive politics it has to come from a rebirth of a sexy, high-tech vision of a radically democratic future, a rediscovery of the utopian imagination.”

Maybe that’s what we’ve lost, the ability to imagine a future where things might just actually work. A future where disease is erradicated. Where war is rare. Life is fullfilling.

Hughes is an optimist. However, he also has a realistic view of our world. With so much argument over moral permissibility in today’s society, how are we going to face tomorrow’s? We must respond.

It was a neat video to watch, even if it is an hour long. I recommend watching it if you want to see how people in this age group use technology. If nothing else, you will get to hear a girl explain that she uses her phone to produce 4,000 text messages a month.

Now, I will attempt to answer the questions posed to the group.

1. What cell phones and carriers do you use?
   I use a $45 Sony Ericsson phone from Wal-Mart because my last phone died. I have service from Cingular.
2. What are your uses of cell phones vs. landlines?
   I don’t have a landline any longer. Since I purchased a cell phone 4 1/2 years ago, I’ve found a landline unnecessary. I kept the landline for a couple of years, but I was paying for something I never used.
3. Do you have cameras on your cell phone?
   I don’t have a camera on my cell phone. The quality of the camera on the affordable phones is lackluster compared to my HP Photosmart R927 (8.2 megapixels). Maybe when cheaper phones get close to this megapixel range, I’ll add camera on my list of things I would use in a cell phone.
4. Do you ever print digital photos?
   Rarely. I generally set photos up on my computer in files to share with friends at home and over the internet. Sometimes they provide a much needed change in my desktop background. I also use the pictures to put on MySpace and Facebook.
5. What is your use of MySpace?
   I don’t use it that much. Too many people don’t know how to design with CSS, so there are a lot of profiles that are just ugly and take way too long to view (and I have high-speed cable). I’m more of a Facebook fan. It’s a great networking tool. I have caught up with old friends that I probably would’ve never seen or spoken to again in my life. I plan events, import my blog, share photos, message friends, and loads of other things presented in a fast-loading, navigational manner.
6. What is the role of IM?
   I can hardly remember the last time I used IM. My first couple of years of college, I used it quite a bit. Often having 3-4 windows open at one time.
7. How do you pay for things online?
   With my debit card usually. I also have an Amazon credit account. I usually buy things off of Amazon. Most of my purchases are movies and books because I can get things much cheaper there.
8. Do you play video games?
   Occasionally. I don’t have much time for them these days. Every now and then, I’ll invite some friends up to have a Halo 2 LAN party.
9. Do you watch TV anymore?
   Hardly. I mostly tune in for football games. However, I do keep a massive collection of DVDs and TV on DVDs. It’s easier to watch through a season of a show at my own convenience than having to try and catch the show on a weekly basis. I also use my DVD recorder to record some of my favorite shows during the week. Speaking of, I have about two months worth of burnt DVDs to catch up on.
10. How many of you have iPods?
    I own the 30GB iPod Video. I only have enough songs on there to use 3GB though. I don’t use it too much. I’ll probably stick with Apple’s product. It works well, and I wouldn’t want to switch my music collection, albeit small, over to another platform anytime soon.
11. What are your general uses of computers?
    General uses? Blogging, obviously. Microsoft Word for typing papers and some other things that I write. Notepad for coding and quick notes. Wordpad for some more structured notes. Windows Media Player and iTunes for listening to music. I edit videos, email professors, keep in touch with friends. And I’m going to stop listing things now because this list could get long.
12. How can advertisers reach young people?
    I honestly don’t know. So many things are being designed to get around advertising these days. Word of mouth is always a big advertisement. But, word of mouth has to start somewhere. Celebrities are a big factor in determining how some people purchase.
13. Do you play online games with other people?
    Not much. In the summer, I might play an online game with others on my XBox 360.
14. Do you watch video on your computers and where do you get it?
    I check out YouTube on occasion or videos from other blogs and sites. On occassion, I might bring a DVD on a trip to watch on my computer.
15. How much time do you spend with email?
    I check it a few times a day. It’s usually used to communicate with professors. I also, get automated messages for bills that I owe. Usually, it’s used for more formal messaging. I use Facebook to message friends.
16. Are you familiar with RSS feeds?
    Yes. I run a blog.
17. Do you know what a wiki is?
    Yes, but I don’t use wiki services a lot. If I’m looking for quick information, I usually google it first. Of course, sometimes the wiki answer comes up. Answers.com is another site I use for things like this.
18. How do you communicate when away from your computer?
    Cell phones are a major device used for communication. If I need to tell someone something, I’ll use the cell phone.
19. What gadget or service do you wish you had?
    Probably a mixture between iPod, a satellite phone, my HP camera, and a quality PDA.
20. How will what you do change as you enter the working world, and what skills do you wish your parents had?
    I’m sure that the skills I am acquiring now will inevitably affect the way in which I work. And I think that employers are starting to understand that my generation is an information generation. We bring in skills that some people from older generations (not all) are still trying to figure out; whereas, we have an extensive working knowledge of computer technologies. My parents? They’re too scared to buy a lot of stuff online. So, I wish them the ability to stop worrying about that.

The homework I did—believe me, this isn’t a boring topic—was a proposal on our ethics project for Technology, Literacy, & Culture, which centers on Cell Phone Tracking Parents. This has become a reality.

Katherine Albrecht, mentioned in the article by Barry Levine, discusses the factor that I see as the major problem with GPS Cell Phone Tracking Technology.

“I have a problem with any kind of tracking device, especially for kids,” she says, “because they will grow up with the expectation that tracking your every move is a normal part of life. It raises the hair on my neck because we’re training kids to be tracked at all times and they will think that some authority tracking them is fine.”

This is a real issue. People my age (22) may be some of the last people in the U.S. who believe it is wrong to have our every move tracked. Sure, our every move isn’t being tracked at the moment—I hope not, at least—but this is a future that could be real. Kids today, might not know that they have certain privacy rights when they become adults. Even adults now don’t know about their rights of privacy.

Cell Phone Tracking isn’t all a bad thing either. There’s E911, which is a great thing by all means. It provides emergency teams to get to an emergency quicker and more efficiently than before, in some cases. This is definitely a good thing if you’re living in a back-of-the-woods Alabama town. Parents can actually know where their kids are if the kids’ cell phones are on and not ditched at a friend’s house. Of course, what kid would turn off or leave their cell phone somewhere? Not many. This can also be a bad thing, which I went over before.

The real truth is, is that Cell Phone Tracking has positive and negative consequences. It depends on which viewpoint you’re looking at it from. This is a reality that is upon us all.