I’m actually re-reading “Homo Deus” by Yuval Noah Harari. If you aren’t familiar with it or him, he’s the historian who wrote the best selling “Sapiens” a few years back which told the story of Homo Sapiens based on what we know from 70,000 years ago up until the present. “Homo Deus” is more of a futurist take on what humans (at least some of us) might become in 25–300 years or so.
One of the big ideas in his book that in the future we will be ammortal, meaning you can still die if your body is subjected to something like being run over by a steamroller, but age and disease are problems tech will solve. At least for some of us . He makes it very clear that this could turn out to be something only the very wealthy and powerful benefit from. This is of course a mind blowing idea as it is, but it’s not the one that really spun my head.
On page 167 Harari talks about The Web of Meaning and objective, subjective, and inter-subjective reality. Objective reality is of course things like physics, chemistry, and biology, which all exist even if humans don’t. Subjective reality are things that I personally believe, but aren’t objectively true. I wore my lucky green shirt three years ago on Friday the 13th and nothing bad happened, so if I always wear it every Friday the 13th this will always be the case.
Inter-subjective reality though was a new idea for me. Maybe not new in that I understood that things like the economy and religion were not objectively real even though enough people believed in them and acted upon those beliefs to effect the world in major ways. It’s more about what that potentially means. Yuval Noah Harari claims that a lot of very wealthy people in Silicon Valley believe that being ammortal or at least the near indefinite ability to increase longevity is right around the corner. In fact, a lot of them are dumping tons of money into the research and development of it. And many of them also seem to be okay with the idea of using technology to augment and enhance our brains and bodies.
The important point though here is how we interpret “our”. As I said in the sentence a few paragraphs above in bold:
“At least for some of us .”
It’s possible that greatly extended lifespans and enhancements to the brain and body via genetic tinkering or through tech might only be available to the very wealthy. Even though things like cosmetic surgery are fairly routine it still remains out of reach for the majority of people in the world unless they are willing to go into debt or risk disastrous results to get it done cheaper.
What if in the near future the only people that can compete in high paying jobs, professional sports, or certain types of careers in the entertainment industry where good looks are essential are the ones who can afford to buy these sorts of advantages?
Which brings me back to the Inter-subjective reality idea. My son is seven years old, but I think I’m still (along with everyone else not in the 1%) thinking in terms of the old middle class “silent desperation” model of go to college, get a job, work hard, and retire at 60ish. Assuming my son tries to follow that model he will hit the job market fresh from college somewhere around 2030 or so. I don’t think we will see Blade Runner style replicants or anything like that by 2030, but I have read a lot of articles that seem to indicate it is basically the legal and ethical questions that are holding us back or in check and not the lack of know how or tech. Not too mention all the very real indicators that if my son were to opt out of the college to job route by 2030 most of the blue collar jobs that he might do instead are going to be done by AI and robots.
So, what’s a parent to do and think? I think about it a lot, but have no idea what to do. In 2012/2013 the Anarcho-Socialist in me was starting to believe that things were heading more in the direction of Social Democracy and that with a leader like Bernie in the White House maybe the impending loss of jobs might be at least somewhat mitigated by Universal Basic Income, but the political tide has shifted massively around much of the world at least for the next couple of years and possibly for many more years to come.
If it were just me I’m sure I could just buy an RV and live simple and cheap off whatever retirement I end up with and be perfectly happy. But the thought of such a seismic Inter-subjective reality shift happening during my life time makes me truly fear for my son’s future.