Super Human — The Insanity of the Never Ending Race for Self-Perfection
From productivity apps to intelligence-stimulating brain implants and designer babies, humans need one thing above all, it seems, and that’s to be optimized. Aren’t we good enough the way we are? And are we even using our full HUMAN potential yet?
“Optimize your memory”, “Increase your productivity”, “Reach your dream weight”, “Become the best version of yourself”. Every day, advertising messages like these scream at me through social media and other channels.
The message is clear: We are not enough the way we are, and they have something to change that. We often follow this perfection-craze like heroin addicts looking for the next fix. Until we can finally be loved for who we are. At least that’s what we hope. But, alas, in this way, that will never happen.
Optimization addiction begins with pain and ends with pain.
Unless we become aware of what our real motivations for this insanity are and start going directly for what we need and want, instead of incessantly working on our self-perfection.
Fancy Some Wires in Your Brain?
Elon Mask’s Neuralink doesn’t stop at small productivity increases and optimizations through body-external apps or the like. The multi-million dollar company wants to intrude directly and sustainably into your brain. Literally!
With a kind of robotic sewing machine, hair-thin wires are pierced into the brain mass. All you have to do is drill a few holes in the skull, the company explains. This is, as the researchers themselves admit, a tiny little bit unpleasant. Laser drills will make this more pleasant in the future, they say.
A small micro-processor a few millimeters in size at the front of the skull bone will then supposedly be able to collect large amounts of information from electrodes on ultrathin wires that protrude a few centimeters into the brain.
But what for? In William Gibson’s science fiction novel “Neuromancer,” test subjects can learn languages in seconds through similar technologies implanted directly into the brain. Other information can also be downloaded from the computer into the brain, or so the vision goes.
I talk a lot to AI experts of decades who are far away from the AI media hype and favor science over fiction. None of them would volunteer for such shenanigans. “The stuff just doesn’t work”, they say.
If it worked, there could be useful medical applications, of course. E.g. to control prostheses or to stimulate the optic nerve, speech control, or the auditory apparatus after injuries in these faculties. In these cases, it is worth a try because the benefits may be greater than the risks. But for perfectly healthy people this benefit-risk ratio doesn’t apply.
Before every man and woman can and wants to have wires drilled into their heads, however, there is still a long way to go and the question remains: What signal do we send to people by telling them the existing human material is so deficient that it must be optimized by any means?
Life is Messy
No matter how hard we try, we will never be able to perfect our lives.
And it’s not even desirable to do so. Every obsession with the perfect brain, the perfect body, the perfect job, etc will ultimately lead to even more dissatisfaction.
Life ist not perfect, it is messy. But that’s also the beauty of it.
Additionally, we will never reach our own standards because the finish line will keep moving further away. We cannot win this race against ourselves. And that’s ok.
Does this mean that the desire for self-improvement or striving for excellence is not to be welcomed? Not at all. It’s good to take care of ourselves, nurture our growth, and change detrimental habits and beliefs. But the key question here is: What motivation drives us to work out, change our diet, increase our productivity, or try putting electric wires into our brain?
Why do we need to perfect ourselves all the time? Why do we think we are not good enough in the first place? Who told us we were not good enough? And were they even right? What bad things would happen if we dared to not be perfect?
Intrinsic Value
Every human being has an intrinsic value that can neither be increased nor decreased.
Before we escape our human being-ness through technologies, settle colonies on Mars, and turn ourselves into cyborgs, we should put some work and energy into being truly human and treating others in a human way as well. Or do you get the impression that we are already particularly good at this?
We don’t need optimized people. What we need is more HUMAN people. Humans full of compassion, curiosity, creative fire, and manifold uniqueness.
No person is like the other. In our fierce uniqueness every one of us contributes to this world in their own unique way.
And isn’t THAT just perfect, after all?
This piece was originally published in the Austrian technology magazine e-media in my monthly column “Code Red” (German edition) in a slightly different version.
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