A specter is haunting the universe — the specter of technological singularity. Blind accelerationists are everywhere, worshipping speed and bullishly developing (or adopting) new technologies. Soon, we will realize that the introduction of artificial intelligence has transformed our tools into our colleagues. And soon, these (simulations of) colleagues that we’re (enthusiastically) onboarding will render our roles at the workplace obsolete. [The spirit of the machine has become ubiquitous, and we are already past the point of no return.] All of the powers of the technofeudalist world seem to have entered into an (unmeant) alliance (or race) to accelerate the evolution of the hyperreal and bring an end to human history.
The evolution of the hyperreal means exactly this: the process of humanity dissolving in the ever-evolving complex system that once made them more human but now makes them non-human.
Two things are clear:
- Technological singularity is already acknowledged as a possibility, and as we head towards it, we will become less and less human until we fully merge with the machine (or go extinct).
- It is high time that the citizens of the possible future should plan a revolution because the citizens of the actual future may not be able to do so. In fact, the citizens of the actual future may not exist due to the extinction of the human race.
Invention of (Serial) Realities
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of the human struggle to exit intolerable realities. Unfortunately, every time we escape or change a reality, we find ourselves in another one that is equally unsatisfying or worse. This is because, to exit one reality, we must invent another reality to live in.
What’s worrying about the upcoming reality, however, isn’t that it’s unsatisfying; it is that it can be the last of all “human” realities.
Supporters of singularity believe that there will come a time when humans will transcend biology. But that is only an illusion. The biological body of a human being is a prerequisite for humanness. When your mind is uploaded to the cloud, that mind, which is a duplication (a simulacrum) of the original mind, cannot be called human. In fact, as Jean Baudrillard would have restated it if he were still alive, “the duplication suffices to render both artificial.”
(We can say that when humans transcend biology, they die, but not in the traditional sense — they die and go to an artificial heaven or hell. And your death will leave behind a copy of yourself, a residue of your human spirit.)
Having said that, we need a revolution to stop this unjustifiable evolution; otherwise, in the name of progress, humanity will end.
Enforcers of Realities and Changers of Realities
The self-preservation response (or defense mechanism) of any reality is an infection that causes spiritual blindness. The group of people infected are sometimes a majority and, other times, a minority. There’s always a group of people who do not want the current reality to change because they might lose their current advantage in the new reality. We can call these people the enforcers of reality. Their opponents, those who want to change the status quo, are the changers of reality.
Our epoch, the epoch of technofeudalism, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: It has complicated the antagonism between the enforcers of reality and the changers of reality by placing them in the hyperreal, where many realities merge. Here, the revolutionaries are indistinguishable from the defenders of the status quo. Moreover, it’s as if all wars are still being simultaneously fought in renewed, boring, ludicrous simulations. We are witnessing history expressly repeat itself as a farce, as if it’s mocking us. (Have we learned nothing from history?) The power of repetition cannot be matched — it is the wheel of time that keeps on turning. Although the rules of the game occasionally change, we’re always playing the same (new) game: opposites attract to give birth to something new again (rebirth, rebeginning, reinterpretation, etc.): oppressor and oppressed, rich and poor, male and female, believer and non-believer, etc. The list is long.
A Summary of the History of Technology
The history of technology can be summarized as follows: First, the artificial thing helps us complete our tasks, i.e., it enhances our physical capabilities. Then, the artificial thing completes the task for us, i.e., it replaces our physical capabilities. Then, the artificial thing assists us in forming our thoughts, i.e., it enhances our thinking capabilities. Then, the artificial thing starts thinking on our behalf, i.e., it replaces our thinking capabilities. (And when that happens, who will we become? We will be left with “the childish simplicity of the little people” described in The Time Machine by H. G. Wells.)
One day, the biological human wakes up and finds that the present is split into two: present-past and present-future. The biological human can no longer keep up with the speed of movement of progress. When he unplugs himself, there’s nothing but the desert of the real and a world of machines that he cannot grasp and doesn’t have access to. Evolution is taking place at the speed of light, and the only way he can be a part of it is by letting his biological self go. Even then, he has no real chance. Humanity has become obsolete. Neither his mind, nor his body, nor his spirit are of any value to the all-knowing machine.
Why are we in such a hurry, then? What are we trying to achieve here? Does this progress have real value to humans? Or is this how eternal recurrence works? God creates man. Man kills god. Man becomes man-god. Man-god creates AI. AI kills man-god. AI becomes AI-god. AI creates a new universe with a god in it. God creates man.
Zero Will Always Touch Infinity
The greatest of all possible dystopias must concomitantly be the greatest of all possible utopias.
Where Are We Today
We’re all in the hyperreal, and we cannot escape it. The physical and the virtual, what’s real and what’s fiction, are blended so seamlessly and merged so compatibly that we cannot distinguish one from the other.
This is nothing new, yet we must constantly remind ourselves of where we are in order to remember where the exit is — that is, if there is an exit.
Like the characters in Christopher Nolan’s Inception who need to use their “totems” to check if they are in the real world or the dream world, we need to regularly conduct “reality checks” as well — we need to check where we are and remember that we’re alive. (This sounds almost too easy when, in fact, it has become almost impossible to find ourselves.) Our “addiction” to the hyperreal does not allow us to embark on a journey to (re)discover “the desert of the real,” this place that is in-between, in limbo, made of highways, streets, train stations, airports, elevators, hospitals, bathrooms, quarantines, waiting rooms, etc. It is where boredom sits on a throne and waits.
If we don’t do these “reality checks” (which make us uncomfortable) on a regular basis, we will dissolve in the system(s) until we are one with the universe. And this oneness is no good news: it is technological singularity, the end of history, the death of the human — or, more dramatically put, the final act.
(What is singularity good for if it isn’t any good for me, my individual spirit?)
If we remain on autopilot mode for too long, we will lose our spirits and become non-playable characters (NPCs) without knowing that we’ve become NPCs. (NPCs live their lives like they’re programmed to do. They’re always where they’re supposed to be, repeating recognizable patterns, doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Rebelling against the code is not a possibility for them. They’re created for a purpose, and they serve it automatically, inevitably. They think they know themselves when, in fact, they don’t even know where they are.)
But I believe there is still time for us to wake up, don’t you?
“Wake up, Neo…” You must rebel.
What Must Be Done
[TBD]
This piece was originally published on my Medium account on February 5, 2024.
Bored Absurdist 