I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. -J. Robert Oppenheimer
As technology advances, so do our capabilities to alter our own experiences as we become less reliant on nature to guide our evolution. In the last decade, massive advancements have been made in gene therapy and Crispr having the tools to find, remove or replace individual genes that can either change a person's DNA or make it inheritable in their offspring also.
I am not knowledgeable enough in the area to get into any specifics but I am very interested in where this may lead us. If the explosion in all of the various physical augmentation operations is any indicator, being able to operate at the genetic structure itself through as little as an injection is likely to be more popular again and, what kinds of changes are possible?
the most interesting one for me and the reason of this post, is that of intelligence. If it was possible to alter genes and increase the intelligence safely, would we? Would I make sure that my daughter was able to get the shot that makes her 50 percent smarter from her base? What happens if it is given to everyone, what happens if only those who can afford it have access?
A client and I were talking about this in a class the other day and he was saying that if the wealthy were the only ones who had access, they would better be able to manipulate situations to their advantage. This would make the gaps between classes even more extreme at all levels as the smarter will learn faster, earn more and be able to use their far superior intelligence to oppress those below. Relatively soon, dystopia would reign over the land.
But, need this be the case?
Taking a different line to what I would normally, historically speaking, the most intelligent among us have been rather humanitarian in their efforts even though much of their work was often twisted and used for destructive purposes and plays for power.
I think that because of their intelligence, they had an understanding that such disparities between groups would continually lead to a cycle of conflict, war and violent revolution. This has been demonstrated time and time again throughout history and manifests itself in our daily lives even now.
What I wonder is if there was very large boost in intelligence among those with the resources at the top, what actions would change? Would a large number come to the realisation that what they have been chasing, what they have been building and expanding is detrimental to not only humanity but, their long-term views? Would they be better able to become 'enlightened?'
How long after receiving their intelligence boost would they start solving real-world issues rather than collecting more resources to their person? How long would it be before a large group of them started offering the intelligence booster to those who cannot afford it directly? How would this change society?
Would it be better?
In my view, Yes. It is not that intelligent people are inherently good but, intelligent people are better at finding solutions to problems and if there is an increase of 50% across the board, that puts the average IQ around the level of Einstein and the lower extremities around the level of the top 5% now.
This would fundamentally shift the global approaches to life and likely provide a whole range of changes in what has been the status quo thus far. What these changes may be who knows but, I can't imagine that our predisposition for violence would level up similarly. Increased intelligence would likely make our understanding of ourselves higher and provide more ability to control our emotional centres also. We may become much more sensitive to those around us.
Would we as a species continue to destroy our habitat, pollute, degrade, enslave? I don't think that most of us would be able to stomach it and as we investigate our past actions, we may be deeply ashamed at our accepted behaviours. Not that shame would be a problem, we would understand that at the time we behaved that way, we knew no better.
Is this the solution?
Knowing no better has caused a lot of harm in our lives personally and as a global community and the solution to this is of course, knowing. Ignorance is not bliss, ignorance is an avoidance of or a lack of possibility to know and with increased intelligence, comes increased hunger to fill these gaps.
If you were 50% smarter, would you spend your days consuming poor food, poor entertainment, poor information or, would you be creating? Those very smart people from our pasts are known for a reason. It wasn't their IQs that were the highlights, it was what they did with them, the things they produced, the changes they made, the movements they started.
Not all led to an improved situation but is that their fault or the people that took their creations and turned them to satisfy the base traits of power and wealth? Perhaps if the people below them had been a bit smarter, rather than destruction something altogether different may have happened.
Perhaps Oppenheimer's quote taken from the Bhagavad Gita may have been altered to show the change in humanity's pathway and instead read:
I am become life, the creator of worlds.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
