This article presents various scenarios in which humanity may face an apocalyptic end and explores how Homo sapiens may evolve through biotechnology, cyborgization, and non-organic engineering. It is an optimistic look at the future that technological advances will bring, but it also calls for a deep rethinking of human identity and existence.
Before you start reading, let’s take a moment to imagine. What if the human race was on the brink of extinction? Does a volcanic eruption or meteorite impact come to mind, or is the human race being wiped out by some sort of disease? It’s true that Homo sapiens is predicted to be on the verge of extinction. In fact, there are several theorists who believe that Homo sapiens is on the verge of extinction. But why is Homo sapiens doomed, and in what sense do they mean by doomed, which is very different from the destructive view of the question above? In this article, we’ll look at the end of Homo sapiens as the evolution of Homo sapiens into a different kind of being. So how does the end of Homo sapiens come about? Yuval Harari interprets the end of Homo sapiens from three perspectives: biotechnology, cyborg technology, and non-organic technology. Let’s take a look at the cyborg engineering perspective, which includes a historical perspective on why the end is coming.
First, let’s look at the definition of Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens means “wise man” and refers to human beings who meet the following conditions: a brain capacity of 1300 to 1450 cc and a developed frontal cortex. This includes all living humans. All living things, including humans, are subject to physical forces, chemical reactions, and natural selection. In principle, no matter how hard we try, we cannot exceed our biological limits, but mankind has been constantly striving to achieve eternal life and endless life. As humanity’s intellect has developed, it has acquired the ability to lead intellectual design, such as the agricultural revolution and the green fluorescent rabbit Alba. One example of human intellectual design is cyborg engineering. A cyborg is an entity that is partly animate and partly inanimate.
An example of a cyborg is the character in the movie Iron Man who has a room-temperature fusion reactor embedded in his chest. Cyborgs are not only fictionalized in science fiction and movies. In fact, insect cyborgs and cyborg sharks are being developed. In addition, most of us are already bionic in the sense that we rely on glasses for our vision, hearing aids for our hearing, and smartphones to lighten the load on our brains. As technology has evolved, we’ve seen prosthetic arms that move with thought instead of arms, and microchips implanted in the retina to allow limited vision. In these cases, humanity is already developing technologies that can replace the body scientifically and technologically, and recent research on artificial noses, artificial eyes, and more suggests that it is not impossible to replace most of the body.
However, advances in cyborg engineering are not just about pushing physical limits. Cyborg engineering is moving towards controlling the human mind, memory, and even the self. Scientists are already working on stimulating specific parts of the brain to manipulate memories or insert new ones. This raises fundamental questions about human identity. Can we still call ourselves Homo sapiens if we have bionic bodies rather than biological ones? One day, we may be able to transcend the boundaries between organisms and machines and become a step beyond Homo sapiens.
We will have access not only to our bodies, but also to our minds, such as controlling our memories and egos. These challenges could lead to questions about human identity, reason, and whether we are rational. Socially, there are many criticisms of cyborgization of humans for eternal life. However, the desire for eternal life has been a constant in humanity, and it is likely to become more socially acceptable as technology advances. These changes are not just technological innovations, but also social and ethical issues. Humanity needs to have a deep discussion about how we will accept these changes and how we will define ourselves as a new species.
This is how the end of Homo sapiens might look like from a bionic perspective. Whether the end of Homo sapiens will actually happen in the future is uncertain. Some predict that we will be immortalized within the next 50 years, while others predict the next century or millennium. However long it takes, research into human immortality will continue, and genetic engineering, cyborg engineering, and non-organic engineering will continue to advance. If science and technology continue to advance at the current rate, the end of homo sapiens may be inevitable, but should we fear the future? “What we should take seriously is the idea that the next phase of history will involve fundamental transformations not only in the technological and organic realm, but also in human consciousness and identity,” says Yuval Harari.
It’s one way of imagining the future, one possibility. In the end, we need to look at the end of Homo sapiens not negatively, but positively, as the beginning of a new era. We need to think about what we want to be about it, and take a serious look at human enhancement. The future that new technologies and science will bring is obviously difficult to predict, but it will open up endless possibilities for us. We are at a point where we need to think deeply about how we will utilize them and what direction we will take.
