Highway To Mars

We enter the genetics part of Transhumanism with a movie that explores the moral concerns around genetic technologies and how they might be used to favour the elite.  While it’s a shorter movie, it covers the subject really well and is very clear in how it views the issues around genetic editing.

We can make a better human being, that doesn’t mean it will end well.  And remember, ordinary people can surprise and surpass our expectations…  Science doesn’t get everything right.

As a message, I am mostly okay with that.  It fits well with my own personal concerns around creating Man 2.0.

This is what science fiction does best, it offers up a pond to play in and brings the future to us in the here and now to explore our own morality and feelings about such changes.  I can for example imagine a time when there is the genetic version of “Tinder” that matches based on a genetic profile…  COR THERE GOES A GOOD LOOKING DNA!

I think in general though such concerns are less valid now, there is so much concern about genetics and sex now, it seems unthinkable that such a corporate driven approach would happen.  Then again, who knows what a Donald Trump America might look like.

Generally we talk Science Fiction on Highway to Mars but this week I found science fiction lagging behind on what I think could well be the most important issues of our time.  If Transhumanism seems somewhat SF that is only because the developments in Transhumanism are happening largely out of the public eye.

Zoltan Istvan is unique.  It’s not very often that anyone who enters politics does so on a purely science platform let alone a reasonably fringe science at that.  Yet when you listen to him, you realise he is performing the function that science fiction should, exploring the implications of a difficult technology long before it’s come to pass.

There is a remarkable contrast in Transhumanism.  While the West has treated it as fringe frankenstein science, at best used by monsters the Japanese at least have been having exactly that science conversion through manga and anime for a long time.  Japan has already decided to embrace robotics.  Transhumanism is close behind.

If Transhumanism is fringe science it shouldn’t be.  Transhumanism has the potential to be the most disruptive of all technologies, what would be more disruptive than Human 2.0.

I want to make clear I am not advocating for or against Transhumanism, though I think it’s inevitable. I am however advocating that like any change a lot of forethought is needed.  This is one change that should not be thrust upon us, even if it’s a good thing.  Looking at how long we have had to prepare for global warming though, maybe there never will be enough time.

None the less SF, time to get talking.  Thankfully Zoltan is not waiting for you.

Original Interview from Youtube – Dave Rubin via the Rubin Report

Limitless reads like one of those dodgy clickbait adds on the internet – but it’s actually a lot smarter than that.  I like Bradley Cooper as an actor and I think that the Cooper – Deniro combination is one of my favourites in modern cinema.

Limitless blends the kind of sci-fi that John Wyndham was so good at ( Trouble with Lichen) with a couple of talented dramatic actors.  I think it could have gone further in building the conflict between the two but that is just a personal aesthetic choice.  At it’s core though it does a very good job of telling the good and the bad of a drug that has enormous personal upside with a fatal downside.

This is the key to transhumanism that I think needs to be understood.  The path to a “better” us is going to be made over the bodies of those that willingly risk the consequences and the odds on the chance that they will beat them.

There has been and always will be drug cheats in sport for example.  There will always be those that will take a chance for an edge and we need them to.  In reality, there is no other way that we will find out what works or not.  Is this a good thing?  That depends on your morals.  Can we change the need to go through this step?  No.

This is the softer form of transhumanism, it’s the nice enhancement without changing too much.  In the next few weeks we will leave this softer side into increasingly harder territory as we deal with increasing levels of technological and genetic manipulation.

In the first of our new series on how science fiction influences history we look at Star Trek.

Star Trek is “THE” science fiction series.  No other series has been as influential in the real world nor has any other series taken as much effort to explore an array of complex real world issues through the lens of a fictional universe.  Star Trek is the only major series to go beyond a fandom of fantasy to influencing whole disciplines of science.

While we may “PINE” for the TOS series, the reality is that a lot more of the heavy lifting, the exploration of what we might become came in the later series TNG, DS9 and Voyager.

If you like TOS gave us the why, TNG the how.

Even though the new series seeks to chart it’s own path in a post “Roddenberry” vision even it adheres to one basic concept.  In the future we are defined not by our differences but our ability to see past them.

In a year of Brexit and the US election, I feel we have never more needed the wisdom of Star Trek.

We had to get to Lucy at some point.

In my first review of Lucy I was quite critical of the movie because it pretty much not only ignores existing neuroscience in favour of fantasy, it tries to dress itself up as good science.

Luc Besson goes so far as to say he consulted top neuroscientists in forming his ideas.  *Bullshit* or rather *Quacks*.

None the less it is in fantasy that we often feel safest to explore ideas that scare us.  Transhumanism is scary.  Loosing our humanity to something else (as we believe is inevitable) is scary.  Hell Lucy is scary.

Yet there is an innocence to Lucy as she ascends to a higher plane that is compelling.  She doesn’t herself really know what to do with what is happening to her, she is just going on instinct.  As such, Lucy is the first of the Transhumanist characters who is at least accessible.

Luc Besson seems to believe that wonderful things lie on the other side of human potential.  He may be right.  The reality is though while a few will embrace that potential, many more will fear the change that comes with it.  It’s here that Besson trips over.  In his personal obsession with Lucy, he forgets to sell it to us.  We are all just supposed to get it, you know like cosmic, wow man.

In the end Lucy becomes what she was all along – a phantasm.

He left the true heavy lifting, exploring what is on the other side to others.  For Besson, “cosmic” speculation is enough.

“Reunion” kind of implies that Rick and I have met each other which is not quite the case.  We have talked many times over skype including video so we knew each other but this was the first time in the flesh.  It was a great experience to be sure, Rick and I are very similar and my only regret was not having a lot more time to spend…

So while I was there I came on the Radio show and that was a lot of fun…

Transcendence brings to an end the main part of the Transhumanism section, though we have a good number of episodes to go, they will be exploring specific topics.

Transcendence brings to light all of the issues that come both with Transhumanism and the Singularity.  Will we trust someone more powerful than us?  Will the promise of things being better overcome our own internal fears?

Transcendence explores this topic in depth very intelligently without answering the question.  It points out (rightly) that different does not equal enemy.  It also points out that humans in their need to control their world may well end up destroying it to protect it if the need arises.  These are all topics we have explored across the set of movies but not in one complete package.  In essence, this movie gets to the heart of the matter, even if the performances could be off-putting for some.

In the end there are no simple answers.  Every progress has it’s risks and even if we create new life or upload ourselves into the cloud, is that real?  Do we need to be flesh and blood to be convinced?

This movie is much better than it’s box office performance.  It does have it’s problems in the first third but in the end this does what science fiction does at it’s best.  It asks all the right questions, it leaves us uncomfortable in the knowledge that we have to supply our own answers.

I don’t get it.  How can a book I pretty much hate go to being a radio play I adore?  That is Douglas for you.  I guess when it comes down to it, Douglas was most at home with Radio where with the help of a good producer and a dash of decent editing you end up with something substantial.

I think that is the point with Douglas and his books.  He would push the line regarding deadlines giving his editors nowhere near enough time to get the work into shape.  In that regard, he was his own worst enemy.

This version of Life the Universe and Everything is nearly perfect, one more edit and it would have been.  In this case, though I won’t quibble.  Douglas was born to do radio.

Avatar is a funny movie.  It’s the most successful movie ever, yet nobody really talks about it.  That is mostly because it’s the world building and not the story that people remember.

Not that I see that as a problem.  The fact that people shelled out so much to see a world that ‘might exist’ largely because of how detailed it was is a testimony to the creator.  It also demonstrates that people want to know, want to speculate on what other worlds might be like.  I am amazed that nobody has followed on but then I suspect no other movie maker has James Camerons environmental credentials.

Avatar extends on the Transhumanism concept in two important ways.  First it postulates that there is the possibility that a greater biological connection exists, one that can emulate the kind of computer environments that we saw in the matrix.  Second it postulates that body hopping is a thing, that we could potentially augment, prolong or change our lives simply by swapping our consciousness to another body.

The second part has had some working through, Cassandra the last human in Doctor Who seasons 1 & 2 for example.  Still mostly it’s been used for storytelling effect, this is the first time to really explore the idea as a thing in of itself.

The reality is if we are to get off of earth and into the universe all options will need to be on the table.  While we can create better machines to take us there, chances are we will also need to change ourselves for we too are built to exist within a narrow band of environmental conditions.  We don’t do well in high carbon dioxide environments for example.

The primary question in Transhumanism is how far are we willing to go.  We will like the daleks choose not to be human any more in order that we can do more.  Avatar doesn’t answer that question but at least it asks that question.

Lets see if they explore that further in the next round of Avatar movies.

Something different for Highway to Mars an interview.  Nick Page is the YouTuber responsible for the fantastic animated sequences that bring the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series to life.  While Nicks work is essentially fan videos which with the whole Axanar debate have become somewhat controversial – the thing is they are good.

Nick brings a bleak colour palette to the universe which fits many of the segments he’s chosen to animate.  His rendition of Marvin as a scrawny somewhat nerdy creature is awesome.  HWTM is an unabashed Nick Page fan.

One of the interesting things with many science-fiction properties now is that technology is enabling fans to get in on the act when it comes to content creation.  There is a concern that professional operations will make money off of IP that they didn’t create, Axanar top of the list.

I think that studios would be better off providing a community license and taking a cut of the profits.  Sure I get that CBS/Paramount want to control their brand but how is any fan production going to do more damage than they do to themselves.

It’s a bit like the war on drugs.  Spending a shit tonne of money to stop the trade, in the end, causes more damage than it aims to prevent.  The era of monolithic property control and fixed copyright is done.

Whoever recognises that and finds a sensible way to share in the fun will be the big winner.

As for Axanar, the real issue with CBS/Paramount is a lack of decent content driving fans to fill in the void.  They have themselves to blame and the fan films to thank for keeping the torch burning.

Check out Nicks Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMuCEiwVy_jvFmboAEYGwjg