ITC #60: A.I., Transhumanism, and the next 50 years

In The Crease (ITC) is where history, mystery, and the human condition collide. Hosted by J E DOUBLE F, each episode blends storytelling, analysis, and dark humor to explore the strange, the forgotten, and the unsettlingly relevant.

🎧 New episodes release bi-weekly.
📅 Current Season: ITC Season 4 (Episodes 61–80).

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Wire, So the silence breaks, metal dreams and minds awake,
shot code begin to blend. We ask what's human in
the end?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Fifty uplink a spark? Will we shine? A fad to
dark circuit speak? The futures? And what we changing here?

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Hello and welcome to in the Crease. I am your host,
j E. Double f And this is episode sixty, the
big season three finale. Thank you for joining me on
this journey sixty episodes deep. Can you believe it? Time
flies when you're navigating the future, past and everything in between.

(03:16):
Now Tonight, tonight, we're gonna pull back the curtain on
the future and dive into a topic that's as fascinating
as it might be mind bending, transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and
how our lives might be very different in fifty years now.

(03:37):
If this sounds heavy, don't worry. We're going to try
to explore it in the true in the Crease fashion,
a bit of a narrative adventure with maybe a good
dose of humor, some wild what ifs, and a ground
to look at both the amazing breakthroughs and ethical dilemmas
that could shape our world. But twenty seventy five, now

(03:58):
before we jump in. Let me let me set the scene.
Imagine it's the year twenty seventy five. You wake up
in the morning and your AI assistant let's call her Sna,
has already brewed your coffee exactly how you like it.
She knows this because while she's basically in your head

(04:20):
yah your smart contact lenses, Sanna has already checked your
vital science and scheduled your day. Glance in the mirror,
and you see a much younger face than your eighty
five year old face might suggest, thanks to medical technology
that have dramatically slowed down aging. As you head out,
you hop into a driverless vehicle that whishkes you to
a lab where you collaborate with both humans and AI

(04:43):
colleagues when curing a disease I was considered a death
sentence a half century ago. Sounds a little bit like
science fiction, right, Well, in twenty twenty five, it does
a little, though you can probably see the grounding of
it already. What by twenty seventy five could actually be reality,
or even before then, at least maybe something close. Now.

(05:05):
In this episode, we're exploring transhumanism, the idea of using
technology to enhance humans beyond our natural limits and artificial
intelligence to understand how these forces might radically transform everything
from our health and longevity to our jobs, our society,
and even what it means to be human. And we'll
look at some of the major benefits, possibility of eradicating diseases,

(05:29):
making our body stronger and our minds sharper, maybe even
living longer, healthier lives than ever Before that said, we're
not going We're not going to put rose colored via
goggle Zone. We're also going to tackle the downsides and
ethical dilemmas, you know, the scary stuff like AI that
doesn't share our values, the risk of a new class

(05:50):
of super enhanced humans leaving everyone else behind, and questions
about privacy and who controls all this data when technology
is literally under our skin, and fears that in pursuing
all this tech we might lose something of our humanity
all away. And because let's face it, I like to
finish a season with a bang, We're going to get

(06:13):
a little imaginative. I've got two story segments for you.
A trip to a worst case scenario fifty years from now,
a bit of a cautionary tale, maybe like a you
might find in a black mirror episode, and we'll visit
a best case scenario future that'll sound like a utopia
where things, I mean everything went right. Now, these narratives

(06:34):
will help us visualize the extremes of what could happen
if everything goes wrong, or if we played the tech
cards maybe just right.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Or chet pack.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
We're about to venture into the future of human evolution,
artificial minds in the incredible ways our world might change
in the next five decades. I hope it will be entertaining, insightful,
maybe occasionally funny, and probably a little frightening as well.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
So let's let's dive in.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Okay, first things first, what do we mean by transhumanism
in AI? I know I've touched on a show on
the show before about AI, but let's for those who
haven't called it because I think it was pre x,
let's touch on them both. Transhumanism is basically the idea
that we could and should use technology to upgrade the
human condition, to transcend our biological limitations. Now, if that

(07:34):
sounds like a mouthful, I'll think of it this way.
Human's one point zher or great in all, But wouldn't
it be cool if we could get humans two point
zero or even three point zero. Now it is a
philosophical and scientific movement that advocates for enhancing human capabilities
and longevity through tech. This means, you know, living much longer,
perhaps even in definitely one day, getting smarter, stronger, and healthier,

(07:57):
and generally breaking out of the natural limit evolution has
given us so far. Transhumanism so well, they're transhumanists. They're
really not satisfied with That's just how it is when
it comes to things like aging, disease, or even the
fact that we can only perceive a limited range of senses.
They're looking at the emerging technologies biotech, nanotech, robotics, AI,

(08:19):
you name it, and ask how can we use these
to push humanity forward. Some transhumanist thinkers even imagine that
one day humans might transform so much that will become
post human, being so advanced that we hardly recognize ourselves
by today's standards. Now, don't worry. Post human doesn't mean
Instagram influencer who's had a bit too much caffeine. It

(08:40):
means beyond human, potentially with intelligence and abilities far beyond
any human has. Now a quick bit of history, the
term transhumanism was popular popularized by biologists. Julian Huxley, brother
of actually author all this Huxley back in nineteen fifty seven,
the idea of enhancing ourselves is as old as myth,

(09:03):
you know, basically think of stories of God's grating special
powers or alchemists seeking immortality. In the late twentieth century,
futurist thinkers turn this idea into an organized movement.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
Today there are.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Actual conferences and institutes dedicated to transhumanist research. And to
be clear, we're not just talking theory. Even today, in
twenty twenty five, bits of the transhumanist vision are already happening.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
You know.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
You could even look at pacemakers and cochlear implants, prosthetic
limbs that athletes use to run faster, or brain computer
interfaces like neuralink being tested to help paralyze patients gene
therapies that can edit out disease. But we'll talk a
little bit more on that a little bit later.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
Now.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
AI, of course, is another big piece of this puzzle.
AI refers to machines or software that can perform tests
that normally require human intelligence. That could be anything from learning,
problem solving and pattern recognition to things like understanding language
or even creative work. Today, we mostly call that narrow
AI systems that are really good at one specific thing,

(10:05):
like playing chess, detecting credit card for aud or recommending
you new songs to listen to. And we've expanded a
little bit here in the last couple of months, and
you've probably interacted with AI dozens, if not hundreds of
times already today, maybe without even knowing it. Well, did
you use a digital assistant like Siri or Alexa? That's AI.

(10:29):
Did you let Google aught to complete your email or
scroll through a social media feed curate it by algorithms,
that's AI too. And of course we can't forget to
mention the famous GPT for style chatbots or rock and
image generators that have taken the world by storm lately.
The reason AI is such a hot topic is because
it's advancing at an amazing break neck pace. We went

(10:53):
from clunky chat box I could barely hold a conversation
to AI models that can rate essays, create arc poes
that you get music, and even drive cars. Just in
the past few years, we've seen AI beat world champions
in games like Go, diagnose diseases from medical scans, and
do all sorts of tests that were once the realm
of humans, and many experts believe that in the next

(11:15):
few decades or even years, we might achieve artificial general intelligence,
that is, AI that's versatile and adaptive as a human mind.
In fact, surveys of AI research is indicated a fifty
percent chance of human level AI by the twenty sixties
or even earlier, and some are are forecasting as soon
as the end of this decade. Now, imagine an AI

(11:37):
that isn't just book smart and one tomin but literally
can do everything, learn any skill, solve any problem. Beyond that,
there's a notion of superintelligence AI that faress ex human abilities.
It's a little exciting and frankly a little scary to
think about. You might be wondering how do transhumanism and

(11:58):
AI relate to one another. Think of them as more
of a complementary force. Transhumanism is about upgrading humans, often
by merging us with tech, and AI is about creating
intelligent machines. The intersection is where these things could get
really interesting. Some transhumanists see AI as a tool to
improve themselves, like using AI to enhance our brain power,

(12:21):
having AI assistance for every person. Others see a future
where advanced AI and humans literally merge in some way.
You know. Think of once again Elon Musk Neuralink, and
he has argued that AI gets smarter, or as it does,
get smarter, the only way for humans to not be
left behind is to link our brains with AI becoming cyborgs.

(12:46):
And as I mentioned, he's put his money where his
mouth is by funding Neuralink, a company working on I
bandwidth brain implants. So the lines between AI and human
enhancement can blur. If you have a chip in your
brain that helps you think faster, is that AI or
is that transhumanism? H Actually it's both, but we're getting

(13:08):
ahead of ourselves a little bit. The key point, transhumanism
and AI are about change, profound change in what humans
can do and how we live. So with some of
these basics out of the way, let's move into the
bit more fun part. What could all this mean for
us in the coming fifty years? Will we conquer disease,

(13:30):
maybe even death? Will AI run our cities well while
we sip tea in our cybernetic bodies. Let's talk about
these possibilities the upside, and later we'll tackle the downside.
We're going to put on our futuristic optimistic hat just
for a moment. What are the major benefits of embracing

(13:51):
transhumanism in AI? Why are so many apparently smart people
excited about these things? Turn Out the potential upsides are
actually quite staggering. Perhaps the most personal, profound impact could
be on our health in lifespan. Modern medicine has already
given us antibiotics, vaccines when they're tested right, and organ transplants,

(14:16):
but transhumanist tech could take it to another level, defeating diseases,
repairing or enhancing our bodies, or even slowing or halting aging.
Imagine a world where Alzheimer's cancer, Parkinson's, and other currently
incurable diseases they're not just treatable, but preventable or outright cure.

(14:38):
AI is playing a big role here already. For example,
AI system like Deep Minds Alpha fold has solved protein folding,
which helps researchers understand diseases and develop drugs even faster.
By twenty seventy five, AI might routinely help us find
cures in months, not decades, and a super intelligent AI
might even find solutions to things we've yet to imagine.

(15:01):
From curing complex diseases to reversing some of the effects
of aging. On the transhumanism side, think about the genetic
engineering of biotechnology. We already have Crisper, and with the
latest story of dire whoops, I couldn't have planned this
episode any better. Crisper is a gene editing tool that,
in early experiments says cure genetic diseases and individual patients.

(15:23):
In fifty years, we might be able to edit out
genetic predispositions to illness before a person is actually ever born,
or give everyone a genetic upgrade for say, virus resistance.
Scientists are exploring ways to rejuvenate cells, boost our immune systems,
and even regenerate organs. Now in twenty twenty two, doctor
successfully transplated transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a

(15:48):
human patient. Now that patient unfortunately didn't live long, but
it was actually a proof of concept that we might
one day have organ transplants on demand, potentially using animals
or lab grown organs to replace failing human ones in
the future. If your liver or kidney fails, no problem,
just grow a new one from your cells. I'll Transhumanism

(16:12):
takes it a little bit further. What if we don't
have to replace an organ with another squishy organic one,
but with something they think is better. For example, artificial
organs that don't wear out, or bionic limbs that give
you extra strength. There's a famous cybernetics professor, Kevin Warwick,
to experiment on himself within Planet devices. He once connected

(16:33):
his nervous system to a robot arm across the Internet,
and even gave himself an ultrasonic sense via an implant.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Just kind of work.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Hence that we could expand our senses and abilities into
the future. Lost your arm, Well, here's a prosthetic that
not only replaces it, but maybe has built in tools
or enhanced strength. Lost your sight, Bionic eyes could restore
vision and perhaps even let you see infrared or zoom
in like binoculars. Of course, the holy grail aging. Transhumanists

(17:05):
often view aging as not just a fact of life,
but as a disease or an engineering problem that has
yet to be solved. Aging is basically your cells accumulating
damage over time. What if we could repair that damage.
There are scientists working on syneletic drugs that removed age
zombie cells, on gene therapies to extend ptelomeres, the caps

(17:27):
on your chromosomes that shorten with as you age, and
on ways to rejuvenate tissues. And we have folks like
futurists Ray Kurzwell who have predicted that with biotechnology and
AI we might reach a point called longevity escape velocity,
where for every year you live, science extends your life
by more than that one year. And Kurzwell believes that

(17:50):
by the twenty thirties, advances in AI and biotech will
start to radically expand life spans. Now, of course this
sound wild, but consider that life expectancy was about forty.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Seven in the nineteen.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Hundreds, and today it's about seventy two globally in some
countries even over eighty. What if by a twenty seventy
five life expectancy is now one hundred and twenty or
one hundred and fifty. And some optimists even talk about
ending involuntary death entirely, meaning people would only die by
accident or choice, not by aging or disease. Now, even

(18:28):
if immortality stays a sci fi dream, living healthier for
much longer is a real goal. Wouldn't it be amazing
if at ninety you could be as vital as a
forty year old. We might spend far more years of
our life healthy and active and push the boundaries of
old age. But that would transform society. People could have

(18:51):
multi decade careers or several careers in one lifetime, and
families might see five or six generations alive at once.
Though we met family reunions might need a stadium by then,
but hey, it's a thought. And if your biological body
is about to fail, transhumanists have yet another be cryonics

(19:15):
that's freezing yourself after death in hopes that future tech
can revive you. And this of course sounds like science
fiction unless you love Disney. But there are already facilities
like the Alcore Life Extension Foundation in Arizona, which holds
you over one hundred quote unquote patients and liquid nitrogen.
Now tech luminary such as Papal co founder Peter Teel

(19:36):
have already signed up to be frozen.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
The idea is, if.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
You die before the anti aging cure comes, you take
a little bit of a chili nap and let people
in so I don't know, twenty seventy five or twenty
one hundred reheat and reheal you. Now it is a
long shot, but it shows how far individuals are willing
to go for a chance at longer life. No One
astronomer Martin Reige joke that he'd rather end in an

(20:01):
English churchyard than a California refrigerator, and he was called
a deathist for non embracing life at all costs. Deathist.
That's kind of a kind of a new insult for
for you. The best case on health by twenty seventy five.
Many diseases our history he managed or significantly slowed.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
And if something does go.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Wrong, we have high tech fixes, from lap grown organs
and bionic body parts to nanobots that can repair you
from the inside. Imagine nano robots in your bloodstream doing
routine maintenance, cleaning up cholesterol or zapping cancer cells early.
The frightening part is that tech is already in early
stages now and could be very real by then. But

(20:49):
what about the mind? Most human brains are incredible, but
let's face it, they have limits. We forget things we
can only learn so fast, and let's face it, we're
prone to errors. You know, like that magic portal when
you go from one room to another and you forget
why you're in that new room. Transhumanism says why not

(21:14):
use tech to enhance our cognitive abilities? And we are
already on that path. Consider that a smartphone is basically
an external brain upgrade gives you instant access to vast information, navigation, computations,
and even a memory bank for your phone numbers and birthdays.
The only thing is it's not directly integrated yet, but

(21:35):
the vision for the next fifty years is to make
that connection much tighter. We're talking brain computer interfaces or BCI,
and researchers have already enabled people to control computer cursors
or robotic limbs just by thinking about it via implants
that read neural signals. Entrepreneurs are aiming to create implannable
devices that can let your brain communicate with computers at

(21:57):
high speed. If they succeed, you might one day be
able to google things with your thoughts or download a
new skill like in the movie The Matrix. I mean, okay,
maybe not instant kung fu, but maybe the ability to
fly a helicopter as long as it doesn't fly apart
on you. Even without implants, AI could enhance cognition at

(22:20):
you're a future where you have a constant AI companion
in in ear piece or maybe audio directly into your brain,
listens to everything you hear and provides helpful notes in context.
You're walking into a meeting, it whispers the name of
people in key facts about them, so you know now
you never forget a name if you're trying to remember
if fact, it feeds you that info. In a sense,

(22:43):
you have an augmented memory and intelligence at your beck
and call. And this is kind of like having your
own personal Jarvis from Iron Man in your head. And
memory prosthetics are another angle. Scientists have experiment with chips
that can mimic the hippocampus and animals, and even in
some human trials for memory loss. Down the road, if

(23:06):
you have memory issues or just want a better memory,
a chip might help record and recall information for you.
Students in twenty seventy five might laugh at how we
had to study for exams when they can just have
the relevant information accessible in their neurallink. Now, hopefully there
will still have some critical thinking and just not downloading facts,

(23:27):
because we see where that can lead already. Now, AI
itself might boost our creativity and intellect by being a collaborator. Already,
we see AI co writing music or resisting and brainstorming
and the future. Maybe your favorite novelist writes books in
tandem with an AI that fleshes out ideas, or maybe
paints with an AI that can suggest mixes of styles.

(23:51):
Instead of replacing human creativity. The best case scenario is
AI amplifies it. Think of it as working with the
colleague who has infinite knowledge and can generate endless ideas
while you provide the vision and the taste, And think
about education that could be revolutionized. Each child or maybe

(24:12):
an adult reskilling for their third career in their one
hundred year life, could have an AI tutor personalized just
to them, adjusting teaching methods perfectly to how help them
learn best. By twenty seventy five, the classroom might be
an antiquated as one room school houses are now. Learning
might be immersive, continuous, and tailored with AI mentors.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
For every subject.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
And of course, there's also the idea of enhancing intelligence Biologically.
Scientists are studying genes that affect brain development. Theoretically, gene
editing might boost IQ or memory one day. Now, of
course that's controversial. You know you can cue the Getica
reference in the nineteen ninety seven film about a future but

(24:59):
genetically divides, but it could happen. Nootropic drugs might also
become more effective in commonplace, helping people concentrate or think
better with minimal to no side effects. But the idea
that transhumanists flirt with the most as an extreme idea

(25:21):
mind uploading. Now, this is a bit of a sci
fi concept of copying or transferring your consciousness into a
digital medium. If that were possible, you could live in
a computer or a robot body. And there's even some
people that say this is the only way we'll ever
leave the Solar System. Now, no one really knows if

(25:41):
this will ever be feasible or what you means in
this context. Is it a copy? Is it really you?
But some hope that it could upload, That you could
upload your mind, you effectively achieve digital immortality. You could
back yourself up or exist in virtual worlds that are
whatever you want them to be. Imagine if you will

(26:01):
living in the sims, but you are the sim We're
better yet. Now you have a giant holideck from Star
Trek where you can do anything you want, and it's
not an illusion because your mind is truly there. At
twenty seventy five. I wouldn't bet on full uploading yet.
You never know, though, but we might see rudimentary versions,

(26:23):
or at least partially uploads of certain brain functions, even
per partial merging like Havny, a digital twin AI that
knows everything about you and can carry on your work,
but might blur the line between human and AI itself.
People might effectively live on through such systems even if
their biological body dies, and at the everyday level, how

(26:48):
that enhancement means greater intelligence, memory, focus, and perhaps entirely
new ways of thinking. Future humans or transhumans might solve
problems we find in tractable because they can't mentally stimulate
things faster or even share thoughts collectively. The optimistic view
has us becoming smarter as a species thanks to our

(27:09):
AI friends and tech upgrades. Now, these changes won't just
be in extraordinary areas like curing disease or boosting IQ.
They'll also be in the little things that make maybe
our daily life a little easier or more enjoyable. In
fifty years, these self driving cars that you're seeing now

(27:31):
will actually absolutely be the norm if AI pilots all vehicles.
Traffic accidents which are you know? A significant lead of
calls of death could plummet to near zero. Commutes might
become relaxation or work time, as your car essentially now
a moving living room or office. Advanced high speed transits

(27:54):
like hyperloops or next gen maglev trains might sip us
pass cities at near supersonic speed and for longer trips.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
Forer HAPs we'll have.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
Routine suborbital hops that cut intercontinental travel to under an hour.
And just for that, think of my other show that
mentioned star ship all the time? What about your homes?
Your cities? Your home in twenty seventy five might be
run on run by AI that adjusts lating temperature and

(28:23):
maybe even decor based on your mood. Since the course
via wearables or implants, appliances could restock themselves your fridge's
AI orders groceries before you run out. May be able
to optimize energy use usage, recycle waste efficiently, and manage
utilities without human intervention. Now, on a city level, it

(28:45):
might be able to manage traffic flow by coordinating self
driving vehicles and public transit in real time, helping eliminating
any jams. City infrastructure could be constantly monitored and self
repairing with the help of AI guided maintenance robots. Kind
of an interesting thought. We won't need dominoes to help

(29:06):
fill potholes. But one of the promises that are tilted
by the pro group of AI and robotics is with
our labor and our boring task. As far as I know,
no one loves doing laundry, scrubbing toilets. Some might love

(29:28):
performing repetitive factory task. But by twenty seventy five, we
might have cheap general purpose robots or autonomous system to
handle most of the manual labor. And I know, I know,
we've seen that movie, and that could free people from
dangerous or monotonous jobs. AI system might run a lot
of the behind the scenes working industries. You might have

(29:49):
an AI housekeeper that's basically an upgraded rumba able to
tidy up the house, maybe cook dinner.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
You know.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Now we're thinking, hey, we got our own little Rosie
from the Jetsons, and this could mean we have more
free time to focus on what we want to do,
create projects, hobbies, spending time with our loved ones, or
pursuing even more education. It might also mean a big
shift in the economy We'll touch on that later, but

(30:18):
what about entertainment and leisure. Well, with advanced day, you
could have infinitely creative content on demand. AI generated movies
or games could be tailored to your preference on the fly.
Once a star and a custom movie. Oh hey, I
could generate a photo realistic film with you as the hero.

(30:38):
Games could be fully immersive VR with dynamic storylines that
react to your actions. And of course we've seen this
movie too. Some people might choose to spend a lot
of time in virtual worlds, especially if those become indistinguishable
from reality and you can do fantastical things of Some
optimists even talk about it a post scarcity economy where

(31:03):
AI and automation makes goods and services so abundant that
property as we currently know it is eliminated. Just think
of the possibility of your Star Trek replicators where you
can just ask for food or item and it's boom
made for you. Real replicators might not exist by twenty
seventy five, but you never know. I mean, highly efficient

(31:24):
three D printing and automated manufacturing could make material goods
incredibly cheap, and it's such a world basic needs like food, water,
and shelter could be universally accessible, freeing humanity from the
struggle for survival and allowing us to pursue intellectual, creativity
and exploratory activities. So to sum up the bright side,

(31:45):
the best case vision with transhumanism and AI as people
living longer, healthier lives, and televisions and creative and creativity blossoming,
work becoming less about drudgery and more about purpose, and
society thriving with abundance and sustainability. But and of course

(32:06):
you knew there was a butt coming. Every rose has
its thorns, and every technology has its trades off.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
So let's talk about those.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
We're going to take off our utopia colored glasses and
confront the darker side of these future possibilities. As amazing
as transhumanistic tech and AI could be, they also raise
serious ethical and practical questions, and we have to consider
these if we want to steer towards the better of

(32:42):
the future options and avoid the more nasty ones. So
let's break down some of these concerns. Are we're still human?
One big worry people voices whether we might lose our
humanity and the process of enhancing it. Now, this does
sound a little but it covers a few deep questions.

(33:02):
If we keep adding mechanical or digital parts to ourselves,
at what point do we stop being human? If an
AI becomes super smart but has no feelings or more understanding,
isn't it just a soulless intelligence making cold harsh decisions.
Those living in perfect virtual paradise or having a computer
co pilot in your brain dull What is the human

(33:26):
spirit now? Philosophers and religious thinkers often raise these questions.
Many religions teach that there's something sacred about human life
or that human soul that shouldn't.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Be tampered with.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
The idea of quote unquote playing god gets thrown around,
like who are we to resign ourselves or create new
life in the form of AI when we're already perfect
by the way our God built us. Now, if you
believe humans have an immaterial soul, then uploading your mind
to a computer might be seen as impossible. I mean,

(34:00):
you can't upload a soul, or maybe just even consider
it sacrileges and some critics say transhumanism offers a kind
of false techno utopia with zero spiritual foundation, that it
promises immortality in a purely material way. And thus might
lead people away from traditional beliefs about life, death, and meaning.

(34:24):
Even outside religion, there's a fear of losing authenticity. If
you can just pop a pill or use a chip
to become a happier or smarter, is your achievement really yours?
For example, if I aised an exam because I had
a memory enhancement implant, do I deserve the grade? And

(34:45):
what about personality? Are we changing what it means to
be us? As one writer put it, if you can
alter your body and mind at will, you might lose
touch with your natural self. Imagine a future where you
meet someone and later find out they've swapped out so
many body parts and run so many cognitive mods that
none of their biological self even remains. Are they the

(35:07):
same person that was born years ago?

Speaker 4 (35:09):
Or have they.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
Become a new being entirely? Of course, the classical philosophical
thought experiment is the ship of theseus. If you replace
a ship's plank one by one until no original plank remains,
is it the same ship?

Speaker 5 (35:27):
Now?

Speaker 3 (35:27):
For humans, this is not just theoretical. We do replace
many of ourselves over time naturally, but transhumanism could accelerate
and extend at replacing whole organs, limbs, even neurons with tech.
At some point, continuity of consciousness becomes the key question.
It changes our gradual and our mind adapts. You might

(35:49):
feel you're still you. But if you upload your brain
to a computer, is that uploaded mind really or is
it just that copy that thinks it's you? And some
argue that even if technology makes a perfect copy of
your mind, the original use still dies if the brain
is destroyed in that process. Others they do believe identity

(36:10):
can transfer, especially done incrementally. Honestly, we just don't know.
But it's an ethical and metaphysical can of worms, and yes,
I might be. Then there's the concern of AI consciousness,
or better yet lack thereof. We could create extremely intelligent

(36:31):
machines that make human speech and behavior, but are they conscious?
If not, they make decisions that appear rational, that have
no empathy or true understanding of human values. That's kind
of one interpretation of the soulless intelligence, and AI might decide,
for instance, but the most logical way to make humans
safe and happy is the lock is all in padded rooms,

(36:52):
or worse, just to eliminate the source of unhappiness, which
could be humans themselves because it doesn't feel or value
life like we do. It could be alien and it's
reasoning and trust me, I understand that even today, narrow
AI can be baffling, like a chess AI sacrificing its

(37:12):
queen in a move that looks crazy in ten until
ten moves later you see the actual genius. The super
AI's plans might be utterly inscrutable and not aligned with
our well being at all. Not on the flip side,
if AI does become conscious or sentient, we now have
a new ethical issue. Do these digital minds have rights?

(37:37):
Is shutting down a super intelligent AI equivalent to murder?
It's kind of the stuff of science fiction. Think data
on Star Trek TG fighting for his rights, or the
Androids and Blade Runner asking if they have souls. At
twenty seventy five, we might actually confront this. Perhaps there
are AI beings who feel like persons. Societies would have

(38:00):
to figure out how to treat them. And if some
humans are part AI themselves, the line between human and
machines blur even further. So ensure transhumanism and AI force
us to rethink who we are and what values we
hold dear. Is our humanity fined by our biology, the
fact that we're meeting bone with natural brains, or by

(38:20):
something else like consciousness, our experiences, our capacity for love
and creativity. Now, of course, transhumanists would argue it's the latter,
that technology really doesn't make us less human unless we
let it degrade those higher qualities. Critics were either chasing
perfection on power. Through tech, we may strip away humility, compassion,

(38:41):
or the meaning that life comes from our natural life cycle.
If we could simply live forever forever, would life lose
some meaning? Maybe it could gain new meaning? And these
are the open questions we're going to have to grapple with.
Is a big concern that sometimes may not be fully

(39:05):
looked upon in this regard who will get these enhancements
and who will ai benefit? If they're not available to everyone,
we could see a world of stark inequality, even more
so than what people complain about today. Right now, cutting
edge medical treatments or augmentation tech like the latest bionic

(39:27):
lamborgine therapy can cost a fortune, and of course, initially
new tech is always expensive. Think of your early cell
phones and computers. Only the rich could afford them. But
over time they became cheap and widespread. The hope is
that augmentation follows a similar path, but what if it
doesn't or the gap period is really really long and painful,

(39:51):
and that is the night Mere scenario, and a class
of augmented superhumans who are now healthier, smarter, and probably
going to live a lot longer, underclass of unenhanced people
fall behind. If only wealthy individuals or countries can afford
things like life extension or cognitive and enhancement, then they're
rich might literally live longer or forever and keep accumulating

(40:12):
wealth and power, while the poor had normal lifespans and
capabilities that could freeze social mobility and deepen divisions. It's
a bit like Homo safety and splitting in the two
species when augmented one not do bol Noah Harari, a historian,
weren't about the rise of a useless class people who

(40:32):
can't complete economically with AI and enhanced humans and an
elite that has all the access to tech and longevity.
It really is a dystopian Gatica like vision, and we
already see technological dispairies. Think about having access to the
Internet or advanced medicines in different parts of the world

(40:53):
now imagining access to literally better bodies and minds. If
a corporation or government control was the distribution of enhancements,
they might only give them to their loyal members or
soldiers or high paying customers. There's also a scenario of
geopolitical inequality wealthy countries with widespread enhancements versus poorer countries
without them. Inequality two point zero might also appear in

(41:18):
more everyday ways. Job posting for competitive positions will list
certain enhancements as recommended or even required, like needing a
neuro implant to efficiently collaborate with the AI driven work environment.
That could pressure people to enhance just to earn a living,
whether they want to or not, and those who can't
afford it, well, they're screwed and consider insurance or healthcare.

(41:41):
Would unenhanced people have higher insurance premiums because now they're
technically more fragile. It really does sound dystopian, but it
could happen if enhanced folks have slightly lower health risk
and insurers operate on cold, hard data. There's that concept
of genetic inequality. If gene editing for traits becomes possible,

(42:06):
even something like eliminating disease risk and embryos, which is
which you would normally call a positive use. Both these
families might make sure their kids have the best genes
money can buy. We could inavertently create a genetic elite
over generations. The twenty eighteen case of a Chinese scientist
editing twin babies genes to try to give them HIV

(42:27):
resistance as a real example, I know I haven't heard
about that one, have you, as a real example of
how close we are to tinkering with human genetics, as
it was met with global outcry and punishment for the
scientists because it was seen as dangerous the premature and
I'm mexicable glory is someone will push further and not
everyone will play by the rules with that. We're going

(42:49):
to take a brief break so I can get some drink.
And we still got about another twelve pages, so I'll
try to get it done before our show starts.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
If you're loving the show, pimp it out post that
whatever you can, I do, appreciate it, and we will
be back a couple of minutes.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
I was once man, Now I.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Am the rest.

Speaker 6 (43:32):
Wires twitch beneath my skin, metal mouth, electric grin, flesh
was weak.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
I let it go now A burning cold control.

Speaker 6 (43:44):
Plads chins your strong clues, yasle lasso for chow in
college filled us out gray sprange. I feel no hunger,

(44:05):
I feel no stench, sp I soup, grat spin program.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
I killed the silence now the gears.

Speaker 6 (44:32):
Mother cried, my child was lost, traded breathful powers cost
the lovers left.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
They feared in my face.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Machine heartbeats with no disgrace.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
I blink, I dream, I burn, I crawl. My God
is logic. I hear no call.

Speaker 6 (44:50):
I tore the past from out my head, but still
I see the dead. They spined us up grade a

(45:11):
spin chinas great the mare, no more flesh A spined
us up gray.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
It's been program here, feel no solemn.

Speaker 6 (45:30):
Ol dear disappeared, A complete emotion, deleted dreams archive, Humanity coduct.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Is your innerm.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
Alls and welcome back.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
If everyone is able to get a snack and a drink,
Hope you guys are enjoying the show. I tried to
do a lot of work on this, so I'm hoping
it's showing off. Now let's continue on some of the issues.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
That we have.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Because there's another another major concern that make it overlooked
early on, privacy and control. As technology moves under our
skin and into our brains, becomes a chilling one. It's

(47:06):
one thing if Facebook knows your browsing history. It's another if,
in say twenty seventy five, some platforms know your literal
thoughts or real time biometrics. Consider something like a brain
computer interface that can read your emotions or intentions. That
data would be extremely sensitive. Who gets to see it?

(47:28):
Ideally only you, But given how things often go, corporations
might want to monetize even your neural data, or governments
might want to monitorate for quote unquote security purposes. The
worst case scenario an authoritarian regime that requires citizens to
use neural implants which transmit their thoughts or moods to

(47:50):
state AI systems. Even if you think of descent, that
system flags you that the ultimate big move. Now, of course,
to some this may sound far fetched, but elements of
it are visible today. Some governments use AI driven facial

(48:10):
recognition and surveillance to monitor populations and suppress the sense.
Now imagine that with a direct brain or bio data.
Even in three societies. Company might push intrusive tech for profit.
If your ar glasses overlay ads onto your world, could
they one day be unskippable and literally in your face.

(48:32):
Maybe a free neural implant comes with a catch.

Speaker 4 (48:37):
It shows you.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
Targeted ads in your mind or collects data on your
feelings toward products, because remember, if it's free, you or
the product. Now, there's a show formerly here on Calor
and Radio called cyber Wars slash cyber Chill that would
bring up this next moment in motion.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
CyberSecure.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Anything connected can and will be hacked. Don't we worry
about hacker stealing credit card numbers? Now in the future,
the stakes could be your mind or your body, or both.
If someone hacks yourself driving car or your robotic arm,
that's a direct physical threat. If someone had hacks your

(49:23):
insulin pump or heart implant, it could ransom your life. Now,
think of a brain implant. A malicious actor could possibly
induce thoughts, control muscles, or steel private memories. It opens
the cystopian possibility of brain jacking, hacking into people's minds.
At the very least, a hacked ais system could feed

(49:45):
you misinformation without you ever realizing it subtably influencing your decisions.
You're on social media, you're already seeing that data control
also ties into manipulation. We already see how algorithms manipulate
opinions on social media. In the future of a ubiquitous
AR brain feeds, one could tailor what each person sees

(50:07):
to an extreme degree. If you're wearing AR contacts that
filter reality, someone could effectively delete certain information from your
view or insert fake things, and you wouldn't be none
the wiser unless you knew to look. Who owns the
feed to your brain might become one of the most
important questions of the era. And there's also consense and antonomy.

(50:34):
If you have an AIimplant that say, helps regulate your
mood or decision making, are you always the one deciding
or are you handing some control to the algorithm. There
could be a scenario where tovent crime people are required
to choose to have AI governors in their head that
stops violent impulses. It might reduce crime, but at what

(50:57):
cost free will? Likewise, that constantly nudges you to behave
oftimly you know, eat healthy, study, workout, could end up
feeling like a nagging parent.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
Or wife living in your skull.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Some might welcome that structure, Others might rebel and rip
the damn chip out. Even just the existence of massive
AI systems supposes privacy issues. Imagine all the city cameras
feeding an AI that spots if you j walk.

Speaker 4 (51:25):
Or if you just simply look pissed off.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
This could lead to pre crime policing and discrimination without
careful checks. Bias and AI could mean it target's minorities unfairly.
I mean, let's face it, we've already seen cases where
facial recognition tech has less accuracy for people of collar,
leading to wrongful suspicion. In a hyper connected future, these
biases could have life altering consequences for individuals, and they

(51:50):
might be harder to detect if the systems of AI
are opaic. Information security in general will be huge, with
quantum computers by twenty seventy five, potentially breaking every known
today encryption. There's a constant arms race to secure this data.

(52:13):
We'd need ultra scure systems, especially if literally people's minds
are part of that network. In summary, of transhumanism and
AI make us more connected and data driven, we must
fiercely safeguard personal autonomy and privacy. Otherwise, we do risk
a world where your every move and every thought is
tracked manipulated by someone else, be it a corporation's algorithm

(52:38):
or the government's AI. The idea of cognitive liberty freedom
of thought might become as fundamental as freedom of speech
could be today. Well, that's not the only concern we
have disruption of society to worry about. Let's talk about

(52:58):
these technologies that could shake up the foundations of society,
society and the economy, and not necessarily in a good way.
Let's face it, change can be hard, and this level
of change could be earthquake sized jobs in the economy.
We've touched on how AI might help automate many jobs.
In an ideal scenario, we'd find new and better roles
for people, or just perhaps reduce the need for everyone

(53:21):
to work full time.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
But getting from.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Here to there could be very rocky. If AI and
robots take over rolls faster than we create new ones
or restructure society, we could see high unemployment, especially in
sectors like manufacturing transportation. I mean, basically think truck drivers
being replaced by self driving trucks, and not necessarily a
bad thing. But I could see where it'd be bad.
Think customer service, even white collar jobs aren't safe. AI

(53:48):
can already write basic reports, review legal documents, and maybe
even diagnose illness. In fifty years, AI could encroach on
creative jobs too. I mean, we already are seeing AI
art as you see on my screen, and even with
some really good input from me the AI music at
the breaks that I do. What do we do if

(54:10):
a significant portion of people are essentially made redundant by technology?
And this is where the really bad idea of universal
basic income comes in. Basically, given everyone I stipe in
to cover living costs, acknowledging that traditional jobs might not
be available for all. Some futurists think that by twenty
seventy five, UBI or something like it will actually be

(54:32):
necessarily in place, but it will take practical will to
make that happen without support Like EVII, there is a
truth that society could face major unrestue to job losses.
And we haven't even touched on the possibility of this
next one, but we saved one of the biggest fears last.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
What if AI goes rogue.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Becomes that existential threat we know it can be, And
of course this has gotten a lot of press in
recent years, with prominent scientists and tech leaders warning about it.
Even the guy known as the godfather of AI, Jeffrey Hitton,
quit Google and express fear that super intelligent AI might
pose a threat to humanity if not properly controlled. He

(55:21):
actually gave roughly a ten to twenty percent chance that
AI could lead to human extension within a few decades
if we're not careful.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
Now.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
The core of this fear is something called the AI
alignment problem. How do we ensure that a super intelligent
AI goals aligned with human values and well being?

Speaker 4 (55:41):
Right now?

Speaker 3 (55:42):
If you ask a simple A to say, maximize production
of paper cliffs, a thought experiment says a superintelligence might
turn the whole earth into a paper cliff factory because
we forgot to specify, but don't harm humans or anything
we care about in the process. That's an extreme example,
of course, but it illustrates how an AI that's not
properly guide it could do very, very bad things while

(56:05):
technically following its stated objective. It doesn't hate us, it's
just indifferent to us. Of course, you had the worst
case AI scenario like Skynet situation from the terminator. Movies
where AI deside humans are a threat are simply irrelevant
and takes matters into its own hands. And this could
be through outright conflict, autonomous weapons or defense networks turning

(56:28):
on us, or even more insidious ways. For instance, if
an AI runs with a lot of infrastructure, it could
cause disasters, turn off power grids, crash financial markets, manipulate
supply chains, or even launch weapons to achieve some goal,
or due to a faulty directive. If it's much smarter
than us, it might manipulate us into harming ourselves or

(56:51):
prevent us from pulling its plug by any means necessary.
Of course, this does sound like science fiction, but even
very smart, very over people are concerned, and twenty twenty
three hundreds of tech and AI luminary signed a letter
stating that mitigating the risk of extension from AI should
be a global priority, right up there with preventing pandemics

(57:12):
in nuclear war. Experts have literally said AI could be
as dangerous as nuclear weapons, and then some even a
small percentage chance of an AI induced existential catastrophe is
taken seriously because the stakes are that high, and even
if we stop short of extinction, scenarios, An out of

(57:32):
control AI could still cause massive havoc. For example, a
misaligned AI could severely disrupt the economy or take actions
that lead to chaos. Or consider AI in warfare. If
military is deploy autonomous drones that can make kill decisions,
a glitch or a hack could result in horrible, unintended incidents.

(57:52):
There's also a possibility of AI being used by the
bad actors themselves. In authoritarian regime might unleash an AI
to tightly control its populace, or terrorists might use AI
to wreck havoc like AI designed bioweapons or cyber attacks.
Another related fear is AI accelerating other dangerous technologies. AI

(58:13):
could indeed invent potent bioweapons or new forms of cyber
weapons that allow that a humans alone might not develop
as quickly. So the AI risk is not just AI
itself acting, but AI empowering humans and bad actors in
particular to do harm much more effectively. And that's why
there's a lot of talk about AI governance and global cooperation.

(58:34):
Many suggest we need international agreements when AI developments, similar
to how we have treaties on nuclear weapons, and we
all know how those work out. So said, and others
advocate slowing down AI progress until we better understand how
to make it sell safe. Others push for technological and
technical research and the AI alignment basically teaching AI human

(58:55):
values are installing strong safety measures. The optimistic view is
that we may to create super intelligent AI that is
benevolent or at least safely controlled. But let's face if
that's not guaranteed. As one AI research equipped, trying to
control a superintelligence might be like a bunch of primates
trying to contain an Einstein with a nuclear arsenal. I know,

(59:18):
I said Einstein drink now combined AI with transhumanism in
a dark way. If humans are directly connected to AI networks,
a malicious AI can not only crash your computer, it
could crash you. If your brain implant is online and
not perfectly secured, a rogue AI might manipulate your perceptions
or actions. It's not all doom and gloom. Of course,

(59:42):
these are considered low probability, high impact risk, and many
smart people are working on ways to prevent them. Probably
need some religious and ethical people in there.

Speaker 4 (59:52):
Too, but.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
They are at least taking the risk now seriously talking
about them isn't to scare everyone into halting progress, but
to ensure that the guidance progress is held and done responsibly.
I'll go ahead, take a breath, and we know that's
a lot of heavy stuff that I just talked about,

(01:00:15):
And I hope your brain isn't buzzing with worrying right now.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
You're not alone if you do.

Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
I'm admittedly mine is a little too just thinking about
all that could actually have gone wrong. But remember, none
of these dark futures are guaranteed. Their warnings and thought
experiments not necessarily inevitables, and the reason to talk about
them is so that we can avoid them. In fact,
it's a great moment to transition now into a more

(01:00:41):
narrative exploration. Sometimes it's easier to grasp these abtract ideas
by let's turning it into a story. So, as promised,
let's embark a little time travel. We're going to first
explore the worst case scenario in the year twenty seventy five,
and then we'll go and see what maybe the best
case scenario future would be. Can kind of remind ourselves

(01:01:04):
that what we're striving for if we handle this technology wisely.
So let's grab your flashlight, maybe a Teddy Bear and
a hug our. First stop is Dystopian twenty seventy five.
It's the year twenty seventy five. The world is unrecognizable

(01:01:24):
and not in a good way. Let's step into a
possible future that we really want to avoid. It's composite
of several worst case elements that we've talked about.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
The sky over what.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
Used to be a major city, it's a hazy orange
gray particulate smog, a byproduct of reckless geoengineering and lingering pollution,
hangs in the air. Down on the street, a line
of people snakes around the block. They're waiting for their
monthly ration packs delivered by drones overhead. Many are wearing
tattered clothes and embedded with obsolete electric Some of these

(01:02:01):
electronic patches blink weekly, trying to transmit vital signs to
any med assist AI that is out there listening. A
few of these people have access to real health care anymore.
On every lamp post, there's a spherical camera and sensor array.
The AI overseer years must monitor everything red glowing lenses

(01:02:22):
tracking faces of any science of bad behavior. City's governing AI.

Speaker 4 (01:02:27):
Let's call it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
Gaya was originally deployed to key boarder an optimized city management.
Now it is running a surveillance state. Every person is scored, tracked,
and analyzed. Privacy is a myth. Even inside your cramped
little apartment, your appliances and devices report your conversations and
emotional state of the chain. Walking down the street as

(01:02:53):
a young woman, let's just call her Alice for no
particular reason. She's thirty, but the worry lines in this
ibernetic implant in place of her left eye suggest she's
had a lifetime of hardship. Alice is what people in
twenty seventy five the resively call a natural. She was
born without any enhancements. Her parents couldn't afford gene tweaks

(01:03:16):
or cyber implants. In school, she fell behind classmates who
had no ural boosters, toob interviews where joke companies now
only hire people with certified certain implants that she doesn't have.

Speaker 4 (01:03:29):
Now, she lives day.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
To day doing odd jobs, the AIS having completely taken over,
mostly scavenging and repairing old tech and probably working behind
the circle k. Now as Alice walks, she passes a
huge hollow billboard. It signs it shows a smiling family
with a metallic glean in their eyes and the slogan
upgrade to a better you A thene Of course crany

(01:03:52):
only version four point zero, now mandated for all citizens.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
She scoffs at this.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
Of course, the city wants everyone to get the latest
brain implant patch, but rumor has the chip actually has
a compliance function. It can suppress antisocial thoughts. Alice has
avoided implants so far, one of the few freedom she
has left, but also means she's locked out of many services.
Even entering the supermarket requires a brain scan now, which

(01:04:16):
she can't give. So she's reliant on those ration drones.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Above.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
Sleek autonomous security drones ZIP by Suddenly one stops and
shines a spotlight them Citizen four two one A you
are out after curfew remains stationary for scanning. Of course,
Alice's heart pounds faster. It's only eight oh five pm,
but then she remembers curfew was at eight She was
late getting rations. The drones grant scans her face and

(01:04:46):
cross references with its records. She knows what's coming a
fine she can't pay, or maybe even worse. The drone
AI finds that Alice has a low social credit score.
She's been flagged before for defiant VA. When she spoke
up at a community meeting, a machine decides she's to
be made an example of A calm synthetic voice announces violation,

(01:05:11):
proceed to rehabilitation center. Two intimidating robotic enforces on wheeled
legs appear to flank her. She's escorted, trembling towards a
looming facility where as far as people know, troublesome individuals
are re educated with intensive neural reprogramming.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
Some never return, but.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
Across town and a fenced off luxury district lives Victor,
a one hundred and twenty year old tech tycoon who
looks about fifty thanks to cutting edge age reversal treatments.
Victor is one of the enhanced Elite. He in a
circle essentially run the economy, trolling the I networks in
mega corporations. He spends his evening in a lavish penthouse

(01:05:55):
high above the smog, with an indoor garden dome and
panoranomic view. Victor's body is a patchwork of enhancement cybernetic
organs designer genes that makes his muscles dense and brain
sharpen and direct neural uplink to a powerful AI that
extends his cognition. He can afford all this because Welton
twenty seventy five has concentrated massively. The top zero point

(01:06:18):
one percent not only hold most resources, they have literally
made themselves more capable than the rest of the population.
Victor doesn't worry about surveillance. Those systems aren't meant for
people like him. In fact, he helped fund Gaya, and
he has back door access Giggoty. If he wanted, he
could watch Alice's street through the city's AI as easily

(01:06:40):
as turning in to his favorite TV channel, sometimes out
of twisted board, and the elites do just that, watch
the ground or scramble to them. Naturals are almost a
subspecies in private. They even use the slang term pre humans,
implying unenhanced people are like primitive throwbacks. Prehumans rarely live
past sixty now, not in the polluted, violently violent under

(01:07:04):
city with minimal health care. Meanwhile, Victor and his friends
plan to their next fifty years out, perhaps a vacation
to orbital resort, one of his company's runs, or upload
their consciousness to a quantum cloud for safe keeping. No
ordinary human connection and trust can escape being eroded by this.

(01:07:31):
People don't know who might be an informant willingly or
via their hacked implant relationship to offen form in semi
anonymous online spaces where folks with disabled tracking chips gather
to talk freely, but even then they might be infiltrated
by AI spies. Many have stopped having children. They either

(01:07:52):
can't afford it or don't want to bring new life
into this world. Those who do have kids often see
them taken by the state for augmentation training at a
very young age, essentially grooming loyal cyborg citizens. The worst
case twenty seventy five is a mix of oppression, inequality,
and lost humanity. Technology is not universally making life better.

(01:08:16):
The grim future didn't happen overnight. It was the result
of choices or failures to choose wisely in the previous decades.
It's what might happen if we let our technology run
away with ethical guidance or without it. If we let
reed and fear dictate how we integrate AI and enhancement,
we fail to ensure these advances to serve everyone. Well,

(01:08:38):
this is just a cautionary tale. We're going to do
everything in our power to avoid this, right, hoping everyone
is saying yes. But let's shake this off, hit the
reset button and imagine a very twenty seventy five in
a good way. It's twenty seventy five again. The air

(01:09:04):
is clean, crisp, the sky arch is blue, with a
city vibrant with greenery and gleaming solar panels. Welcome Kui
Breter tomorrow. It's Asha, a teacher turned explorer who starts
her morning in Kenya and by afternoon is having tea
on a lunar research base. She's ninety years old, but

(01:09:25):
you would never guess it. She looks maybe fifty, and
she has the energy of a thirty year old and
is considering pursuing a new PhD just for the fun
of it. You see, back in the twenty forties, scientists
finally cracked the code when aging not necessarily immortality, but
they found gene therapies and nanomedicines that effectively halted most

(01:09:45):
age related to cline. By the twenty fifties, these treatments
became widespread and affordable part of global health initiatives, so her,
and like most people now expect to live world past
one hundred and one twenty is now e achieved and
mostly all in good health. Cancer, once dreaded, is now rare.

(01:10:06):
Aisitts a drug discovery found tailored treatments for a virtually
every genetic profile, and nanobots patrol our bodies, fixing problems
before they get serious. And Asha has a brain computer
enhancement as well as many people do by choice. But
unlike the dystopian scenario, these neural interfaces were built with
privacy and consent at the core. They encrypt your neural

(01:10:31):
data with keys on the U hole. Global laws hammered
out in the early twenty thirties after some early really
bad scares, strictly forbid misuse of neural data. The implant
helps her remember things and communicate, but it cannot be
accessed by the government or corporations without her explicit permission.
She even earns some income by choosing to share certain

(01:10:54):
health data, albeit anonymously, for medical research. Now this is,
of course, to her completely voluntary. Society's figured out that
for this tech to be except that individuals had to
retain control, and that is how it works. In the
city that she walks in is con named Umaja, but

(01:11:16):
unlike Gaya from the Dystopian one, is transparent and accountable.
It's basically a civic AI co owned by the citizens,
and I apologize. I'm going to run a few minutes over.
This level of accountability has achieved was achieved through an
international AI governance Agreements established mid century. Nations has basically

(01:11:38):
agreed on strict guidelines to ensure AI systems uphold human
values and rights. Cities now run smoothly and fairly. Traffic
jams are non existent, as she can drive her AI
driven electric pods a zip her to a subordinabal launch
station right on schedule. Energy is clean and abundant with

(01:11:58):
a combination of fusion reactors. Yeah, yeah, they finally got there.
Was working in twenty fourteen. Electricity is now cheap and
essentially carbon free. Water is clean. Atmospheric water generators and
advanced desale in nation plants solved most of the water
scarcity issues. She sees children heading to school. Sort of

(01:12:19):
school is not a boring lecture hall anymore. These kids
are wearing ar glasses that turn the whole city into
a classroom. They're on a field trip, scavenger hunt, solving
puzzles that teach them history and science. Got it by
an educational AI turned to each child's learning style preference.
One kid has a robotic prosthetic arm. He was born
without one, but his new arm is fully functional and

(01:12:41):
even has nifty features like a build interron. He can
launch from his wrist. He's fully included in playing. Other
kids think his arm is cool and sometimes wish they
had one too, until they remember, of course, that biological
arms were just fine as well. Sure, there were debates
about AI personhood. Some people initially objected treating AI beings

(01:13:03):
as persons, but over time, as folks interacted daily with AIS,
they can clearly exhibited creativity, empathy in a sense of humor.
And Now Asia heads so nearby launch terminal to catch
her shuttle to the Moon. Casual space travel is a reality,
now part of human expansions beyond Earth. As she departs
the out and fair she looks down on a beautiful

(01:13:25):
blue planet. Below, she sees vast regreen landscapes and smart
cities that are in harmony with nature. This twenty seventy
five is a result of people in AI coming together
to make wise choices. Patients work side by side somehow
and resolve conflicts to end war. Culture and community flourish

(01:13:48):
creed from menial told people devoted time to creativity, relationships,
and exploration. There's been another renaissance in arts and science,
often with humans and AI collaborating. Technology became a tool
for uplifting one, and human values of compassion and freedom
guided its use in this future. The FOS can be

(01:14:08):
summed up by a popular slogan. She sees on a
mir she disembarks on the moon, higher tech, higher purpose.
They embrace trans humanism in AI not to lose what
made them, but to elevate it. So where does this
leave us here in twenty twenty five? As we stand
at the crossroads. The seeds of both the dystopian and

(01:14:29):
utopian twenty seventy five are planet being Right now, the
technologies we've discussed, aigene eddings, editing, cybernetics are advance thing rapidly,
but how we guide them is still up to us.
Here are the major benefits of transhumanism and AI promise
the world where we conquer disease, extend like and expand knowledges,
and the downsides of ethical dilemmas warn us that without
care we could create new divides, threaten our freedoms, and

(01:14:52):
even risk our very survival. Now, admittedly the two scenarios
flored our extreme bookends, and I'd say, honestly, neither of
them look great. Reality will probably fall somewhere in between,
but it's up to humanity to nudget towards the better
end of that spectrum. We have to invest in ethical

(01:15:16):
AI research and agreeing on smart regulations. We have to
ensure access to enhancement enhancements and medical breakthrough is as
equitable as it can be. We have to ensure protecting
privacy and freedom even as we adopt internal tech. Manly
that technologies have security and constant build in and consent
build in at every level, and we have to encourage

(01:15:39):
public dialogue and inclusive decision making. I think if there's
one takeaway, it's that technology is a tool, not a destiny.
A wrench can be a house, It can build a house,
or it can be used as a weapon. It depends
on the hand that wields it in the same way,

(01:16:00):
and transhumanism enhancements can actually be part of the salvation
of our downfall, depending on how we design and use them.
I remain partially optimistic because while humans have a knack
for stumbling, we also have an incredible capacity to learn, adapt,

(01:16:20):
and care for each other. The fact that we're having
this conversation at all, that you're listening to this podcast
hopefully seriously contemplating some of these futures is a good sign.
It means people are thinking ahead, which is exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
What we do need.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
Transhumanism and AI would challenge us to redefine what it
means to be human. But maybe being human was never
about the limits of our flesh or our life's fine.
Maybe it's about our values and how we treat each other.
Those can carry on no matter how much silicone or
genic tinkering is involved. Admittedly, as one transhumanist, Rader suggests

(01:16:57):
that the essence of humanity might not lie in our limitation,
but on our ability to transcend them all while holding
onto our compassion and creativity. As we wrap up season
three of In the Crease, I want to leave you
with the thought the future isn't written in stone or

(01:17:18):
in code, yet we do have a say in it.
Each of us, in weighs big or small, contributes to
the direction we're heading. It could be choosing the support
companies that are ethical, voting for leaders who understand science
and ethics, or simply staying informed and educating others about
these topics so we can make better decisions as a society.

(01:17:42):
Fifty years from now, when some of you are tuning
into the holly stream of in the Crease season fifty three,
I hope we'll be marveling at how far we've come
living that best case scenario or something close to it.
Maybe we'll ruminiss about how back in twenty twenty five
we were nervous as hell about AI trans gemonism, and
about how we navigated those early days to build maybe

(01:18:02):
a truly awesome future. Thank you for joining me on
this epic finale ride through the balls and possibilities of
transimonism and AI. I hope it was enlightening for you
as it was for me researching this. Remember, the future
is in our hands. Stay curious, stay compassionate, and as

(01:18:23):
always a human, whatever that means to you. This has
been jele F for Increase Season three. I'll catch you
next time in the future. Until then, take care and
keep imagining a better world.