Saw That Coming: Humans Make Machines – Machines Evolve – Machines Kill Humans

          Technology is evolving. You can say that confidently now in a more grammatically correct way than ever. That is, evolution is a biological process, and during the industrial revolution or growth of the internet, for instance, one could not use the term with such accuracy. Now however, technology and machines are literally evolving into biologically functioning entities.  Like most things unknown, this seems to scare the general populous, as the 1995 film Screamers (Duguay) seems to illustrate (as do countless other films).  However, what may be most interesting about this is the very fact that it is actually happening today, in real life. The evolution of machines into biological parts for those less able, or those who can afford it, is no longer only something to be seen in cyberpunk fiction, or science fiction. As Mischa Peters illustrates in his article “Exit Meat: Digital Bodies in a Virtual World,” the body is merely seen as a vessel for the mind, and there is a very real possibility as if out of fiction we will eventually develop (and already are developing) new kinds of vessels. Peters also goes through what he sees as the “four bodies,” which essentially trace the evolution of the body, and of the machine, into one.

“Natural” (52) or I Am What I Am

          For Peters, the body in its natural state is one that remains unaffected by technology directly. Of course, he argues, that technology has always informed us what counts as a body. Perhaps we’re living in the wrong “bodies,” or perhaps or “bodies” are not bodies. Maybe we only think they are because that’s what we’ve been programmed to think. Maybe we live in the matrix. The point is that this is probably entirely true, and interesting to think about on a more philosophical level. Perhaps we’re only now coming into the realization that all of our bodies are un-evolved and incomplete, whether we’re differently able or not. Maybe the evolution of technology into our bodies is just as natural as when the first organisms stepped out of the ocean and evolved into land animals. It’s possible that the term natural doesn’t fit here. Who can say what is natural?

“Modified” (53) (I.E. Ch-ch-ch-changes)

          This body is exactly what it sounds like. However, the modifications are not necessarily integral or permanent, and they could have taken place out of necessity or out of commodity (53). Soon, once the sorts of technological modifications that exist now become cheaper, that idea of ‘commodity’ will probably spin out of control. One can realistically imagine a future where we are all literally plugging ourselves into computers in a way that we’ve only seen in films and literature so far. This is before the ‘two-become-one’ and we are still just humans attached to technology. We can always unplug, and are just ‘adding on’ or ‘upgrading.’

“Enhanced” (54): Running Out of Gas

          To carry that idea of upgrading a little further comes the “enhanced body” (54).  The human/technology divide is becoming more blurred here, and once ‘enhanced’ the option for just un-plugging and continuing your life as a more ‘natural’ human is less possible. The human body, as Peters puts it, is given “new kinds of possibilities,” (55) with technological implants. Here’s where he, and probably most people who would ever realistically be faced with such options, would begin to have problems. Is it wrong, as a human, to become part machine? Are cyborgs better left in science fiction? Will we lose all conception of our identity and self when we merge with machines? Will technology take over our minds like some sort of brain-controlling parasites? Maybe it will; maybe not. The anxieties articulated by Peters, and the works of fiction that he draws from in the article, tend to lean toward these possibilities. Maybe that’s just because we’re all, at heart, pessimists, or maybe it’s just because this makes for better reading on both a fiction and non-fiction scale. However, as science is already doing, it’s important to weigh the benefits. Although most people probably won’t want in on the trial runs of technologically enhanced body parts, the strides that could be made at an individual and global level are infinite. Maybe in the future, when our bodies are nothing more than floating balls of energy we’ll look back and have a hard time believing that we were once as we are now. Just as certain people still have a hard time believing that we indeed evolved ‘from monkeys.’

“Cyber Body,” (56) Cyber Mind

          Here, there are no boundaries left to be blurred. These bodies have become complete technological entities. The evolution has become complete, and we have entered into the future of the race. Unlike the other body types, this fourth type still only exists in the world of fiction. As the previous three develop however, this fourth becomes more and more a  real possibility. Of course, it’s still a long time coming.

Conclusion

          All in all Peters’ article carries with it an overall tone of apprehension and anxiety, despite a genuine interest. He leaves readers, urging them to keep a critical eye on the evolution of technology, and warns that we may be left with “digital bodies suited only to a virtual world” (57) if we do not approach these developments with apprehension. The question is then, should we just dive in to this pool of battery acid to either be burned up as the biological beings we are, un-belonging to this new world, or are we just as likely get a charge? Maybe there is a lot to be optimistic about…then again, maybe not.