Implications of improvements in the Human Nervous System
The nerves in the human nervous system come in different sizes. The nerves in some other
animals are quite a bit larger than human nerves. A nerve in a crayfish, for example, is similar to a
human nerve but some crayfish nerves are much larger. I think that it fair to say that evolution
has tended to design more compact and efficient nerves where it provided an evolutionary
advantage. But did all of the better designs end up in the "more advanced" animals on the top of
the evolutionary tree?
Compare the development of the nerve to the development of the airplane. Once the Wright
brothers understood the airfoil and developed a method of testing the viability of airplane designs
in wind tunnels, the development of airplanes grew rapidly. Whereas in 1900 the fast flying was
done by birds, in 2000 the fastest flying is done by engineered systems. Breakthroughs in
understanding often lead to rapid evolutionary progress.
There was no reason to believe that evolution had delivered the optimal flight solution and there is
no reason to believe that humans have evolved to use the most efficient possible nerves. Once
scientists understand the human nervous system and how the DNA is coded to create nerves, we
(humans and robots) will be in a position to improve the design of the human nerves and nervous
system.
At some point in the future we may well use this technology to create humans with five times the
brain capacity of the current human brain. For the sake of discussion, let us assume that it will
take 20 years before such humans are being born on a regular basis. Let us call these new
humans “21st century humans.”
What are the implications of this kind of technology? Will the universities be dominated by these
21st Century humans? Will these more intelligent humans do well as politicians or will the
average 20th century human identify with average-brained politicians? Bonobo chimpanzees
have the ability to understand human language. At some point 21st century humans will be as
superior to “normal” 20th century humans as current humans are superior in mental ability
compared to Bonobo chimpanzees. Since humans control the earth more than Bonobos do, we
might naturally assume that 21st century humans will dominate the earth in competition with
20th century humans.
When the local school committee is dominated by 21st century humans, will the newly upgraded
“normal school classes” be designed for 21st century children and will the "20th century
children" be assigned to “special education” classes?
Will “normal” humans be relegated to manual labor jobs and feel like they have become wage-
slaves for the more advanced humans who will obviously dominate those jobs “at the top?” If you
had one normal child and your second child was of the new breed, would they attend the same
public school system? How will you instruct a 16 year-old daughter whose intelligence far
outstrips your own? Will “normal” humans end up being as obsolete just like the Neanderthal
became obsolete? If you found yourself as a 21st century human, would you want the "dummies"
to have the right to vote?
As an analogy, picture a world in which there were six billion Bonobo chimps who controlled the
earth’s political systems and owned 99% of the property and one million 20th century humans
who owned only one percent of the property. How long would it take for such a world to be
dominated by 20th century humans? What would happen to six billion chimps?
We know that the earth is now overpopulated with human beings. My point is that someday we
will wake up in a world in which the leadership looks around and sees that the world is
overpopulated with six billion “retarded” 20th century humans. These more intelligent humans
will look at the rest of humans and obsolete robots as we do chimpanzees. A few chimps are nice
to have around and we all want to “be kind to animals” but if we had six billion chimps that were
“running” things, wouldn't we want to make some drastic changes? If the leadership of humans
did something to curtail the population of chimps, that would might make the leadership seem to
be "Nazis" from the point of view of 20th century humans, but not from the perspective of 21st
century humans. Perhaps some of them would join APE-TOP—Advanced People for the Ethical
Treatment of Obsolete People.
Just something to think about.
Donbot
Next
Terms about nerves:
Central Nervous Peripheral Nervous
System System
bundle of axons tract nerve
accumulation of cell bodies nucleus (brain) ganglion
grey matter (spinal cord)
myelinating glial cell oligodendrocyte Schwann cell
The nerves in the human nervous system come in different sizes. The nerves in some other
animals are quite a bit larger than human nerves. A nerve in a crayfish, for example, is similar to a
human nerve but some crayfish nerves are much larger. I think that it fair to say that evolution
has tended to design more compact and efficient nerves where it provided an evolutionary
advantage. But did all of the better designs end up in the "more advanced" animals on the top of
the evolutionary tree?
Compare the development of the nerve to the development of the airplane. Once the Wright
brothers understood the airfoil and developed a method of testing the viability of airplane designs
in wind tunnels, the development of airplanes grew rapidly. Whereas in 1900 the fast flying was
done by birds, in 2000 the fastest flying is done by engineered systems. Breakthroughs in
understanding often lead to rapid evolutionary progress.
There was no reason to believe that evolution had delivered the optimal flight solution and there is
no reason to believe that humans have evolved to use the most efficient possible nerves. Once
scientists understand the human nervous system and how the DNA is coded to create nerves, we
(humans and robots) will be in a position to improve the design of the human nerves and nervous
system.
At some point in the future we may well use this technology to create humans with five times the
brain capacity of the current human brain. For the sake of discussion, let us assume that it will
take 20 years before such humans are being born on a regular basis. Let us call these new
humans “21st century humans.”
What are the implications of this kind of technology? Will the universities be dominated by these
21st Century humans? Will these more intelligent humans do well as politicians or will the
average 20th century human identify with average-brained politicians? Bonobo chimpanzees
have the ability to understand human language. At some point 21st century humans will be as
superior to “normal” 20th century humans as current humans are superior in mental ability
compared to Bonobo chimpanzees. Since humans control the earth more than Bonobos do, we
might naturally assume that 21st century humans will dominate the earth in competition with
20th century humans.
When the local school committee is dominated by 21st century humans, will the newly upgraded
“normal school classes” be designed for 21st century children and will the "20th century
children" be assigned to “special education” classes?
Will “normal” humans be relegated to manual labor jobs and feel like they have become wage-
slaves for the more advanced humans who will obviously dominate those jobs “at the top?” If you
had one normal child and your second child was of the new breed, would they attend the same
public school system? How will you instruct a 16 year-old daughter whose intelligence far
outstrips your own? Will “normal” humans end up being as obsolete just like the Neanderthal
became obsolete? If you found yourself as a 21st century human, would you want the "dummies"
to have the right to vote?
As an analogy, picture a world in which there were six billion Bonobo chimps who controlled the
earth’s political systems and owned 99% of the property and one million 20th century humans
who owned only one percent of the property. How long would it take for such a world to be
dominated by 20th century humans? What would happen to six billion chimps?
We know that the earth is now overpopulated with human beings. My point is that someday we
will wake up in a world in which the leadership looks around and sees that the world is
overpopulated with six billion “retarded” 20th century humans. These more intelligent humans
will look at the rest of humans and obsolete robots as we do chimpanzees. A few chimps are nice
to have around and we all want to “be kind to animals” but if we had six billion chimps that were
“running” things, wouldn't we want to make some drastic changes? If the leadership of humans
did something to curtail the population of chimps, that would might make the leadership seem to
be "Nazis" from the point of view of 20th century humans, but not from the perspective of 21st
century humans. Perhaps some of them would join APE-TOP—Advanced People for the Ethical
Treatment of Obsolete People.
Just something to think about.
Donbot
Next
Terms about nerves:
Central Nervous Peripheral Nervous
System System
bundle of axons tract nerve
accumulation of cell bodies nucleus (brain) ganglion
grey matter (spinal cord)
myelinating glial cell oligodendrocyte Schwann cell
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