With the advancement of science and technology, humans are able to choose to evolve, and there is a possibility that we can become closer to a “god” that transcends emotions. This article questions whether we would still be human if we lost our emotions in the process.
“I wish I had an extra arm!” There are many people around me who complain about how much easier it would be if they had an extra arm. While we might laugh and say, “Cheer up,” we may soon be able to control the length, shape, and strength of our arms at will. Humans have evolved over billions of years to look and feel the way we do today. But now, with the power of biotechnology, we may be able to shorten this painful evolutionary process and go beyond gaining an extra arm to gaining mysterious abilities, such as the ability to fluoresce, which allows us to glow in the dark.
However, this seemingly attractive technology can be a double-edged sword. Because evolution has been passive so far, we can’t resist it, and we accept it without thinking about whether it’s beneficial to our current situation. In fact, according to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the evolution must have had a positive impact on us, because the individuals that were favored in that situation would have survived. But now that we can choose and plan our evolution, we have to decide if the evolution we choose, for example, an extra arm, is truly beneficial to us.
One of the many ways to do this is to emulate “God”. I don’t mean “God” in the religious sense, but rather humans at the final stage of evolution. Being at the pinnacle of evolution, God can be a signpost for our evolutionary direction and a guide to keep us from going down the wrong path. The idea of imitating God may sound strange, but renowned futurist Yuval Harari introduced the concept in his book Homo Deus. The book asks the question of whether Homo deus, the successor to Homo sapiens, could be called a god, but only borrows the concept of a god.
This “god” would presumably enjoy eternal life and have a strong body that could withstand any impact without scarring. But does God have feelings? Would a god, with all its abilities and advantages, have emotions like us? First, let’s look at the evolutionary history of emotions. According to Masato Isakawa’s How Emotions Evolved, the origins of many emotions are described as survival strategies from an evolutionary perspective. In this section, we’ll use some examples of situations based on these emotional origins.
First, let’s look at fear and anxiety. Fear arose in primitive times as a quick response to danger. Anxiety is the persistence of this fear, and it’s the fear of future dangers, not just those directly in front of us, that creates anxiety. It’s linked to the human imagination and is said to have greatly increased our survival rate.
Let’s also look at anger and guilt. Anger, similar to fear, was used to prepare us for certain situations, which contributed to the defense of human rights and the development of group life. Connected to anger is guilt, and in the case of group life, anger drives members who don’t fit in to contribute to the group, and guilt drives them to reflect and strive for the group, creating a chain reaction.
Now let’s look at the emotion of motherhood. Maternal emotion arose in human reproduction. Reptiles and fish have many offspring at once, so they don’t need to care for them to keep their genes alive. However, birds and mammals have relatively few offspring, so it becomes important to take care of them. In this case, the emotion of maternal care contributes to the preservation of the species by ensuring that the offspring are carefully cared for.
The emotions of loyalty and grace are derived from the relationship of friendship. Friendship is the result of mutual devotion, which positively affects each other. As a system for overcoming individual disadvantages, friendships are sustained through loyalty and grace, which balance each other’s commitments.
So, would the final form of God need this survival strategy? It is true that fear has driven humans to respond to the unexpected. But that’s only true in primitive times and in some contexts, and the way we deal with danger today is different. In caveman times, we can imagine a situation where fear kicks in and we run away quickly from a wild boar. But today, in the face of a natural disaster like an earthquake or typhoon, running away could cause more damage. Future dangers, such as an asteroid impact, are also not solved by running away in fear. You might argue against this by using the example of being chased by a bully, but the assumption itself is contradictory. The existence of a bully requires a mental defect or emotions like anger and revenge, which cannot exist in an emotionless world.
Guilt can help a loser get back on their feet. However, guilt doesn’t always have a positive effect, so it’s more effective to act rationally. If we are rational, we will act in a way that is beneficial even without guilt as a motivation. Furthermore, emotions are less useful as humans evolve because we are more intelligent and less likely to make the wrong choice.
The same is true for motherhood, loyalty, and grace. Even without these emotions for species preservation, evolved humans would still nurture their offspring to thrive and cooperate with each other in times of danger.
There are many objections to viewing emotions as a survival strategy. One might argue that it’s hard to see humans trying to live morally and get along as part of a survival strategy, but this can also be seen as a survival issue. Getting along is similar to friendship, and the reason we live morally is because we lack the ability to control our desires. To compensate for this, morality comes into play, and it functions similarly to loyalty and grace: it’s a device that controls us from harming others in order to maintain social relationships.
Some may ask why art exists. While the earliest examples of art were murals used for documentation, art today serves a completely different purpose. There are many purposes, but in general, it’s to be uplifted by beauty or a sense of aesthetic sublimity. Uplifting is a type of emotional pleasure. Pleasure is a direct reward for all human behavior, and in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, pleasure occurs when a need is satisfied. When needs are not met, unpleasant feelings arise, so humans seek to fulfill them, which leads to survival. If emotions didn’t exist, there would be no raison d’être for pleasure, and we wouldn’t make art.
Of course, there are many other variables, and there may be counterarguments to these ideas. However, it is important to understand that the assumption here is not to eliminate emotions from humans, but to discuss their value in a state of excellence in all other factors.
In conclusion, as stated earlier, the final evolved human will not need emotions. I’m sure there will be many “pro-emotionists” who will react emotionally to this conclusion, but it’s a contradiction in terms. It’s natural for those of us who have emotions to resist the idea that we don’t need them. It might even seem that emotions reject this idea in order to preserve their existence. But emotions are just part of our evolutionary conservation system, and there’s no reason to treat them any differently.
In Yuval Harari’s book Sapiens, he talks about the end of the human race. It doesn’t mean the end of humans, but rather the end of the species as a whole and the birth of a new species. It would be a stretch to call the aforementioned “gods” humans, and whether we should evolve towards them is another discussion. But the argument here is that if we evolve using science and technology, the result will be that emotions will cease to exist.
