Capitalism & Cyborgs: Making Humanity

More Resilient
I recently had a conversation with a colleague about the clash
between science and ethics. Below is a brief summary of my
response to him.

The Concept of Eugenics Highlights the Conflict Between

Science and Ethics.The Eugenics issue is such an interesting
topic because it is one of the clearest and most intense examples of
how objective scientific inquiry can violently clash with subjective
ethical human behavior. Most rational humans probably appreciate
the value of science, but naturally, they do not place the value of
science above their own self-interest. Thus, the Eugenics debate
also highlights an interesting conflict of human ideals and interests.

We All Exist Along a Continuum of Human Performance. A

humans physical and intellectual capabilities exist along a
continuum of performance, generally ranging from being
comatose/brain-dead on the one end and being a prosthetically
enhanced cyborg on the other end. This is especially true today as
artificial intelligence and various types of prosthetic enhancement
become increasingly prevalent. Today, I think many humans realize
that, no matter how high they might rank on IQ tests or how many
pounds they might be able to lift in the gym, the days of enjoying
any kind of long-term congenital superiority are gone.
The Nazis Did Not Have Fear of AI & Cyborgs. Awareness of
humanitys increasing vulnerability to superior AI and cyborgs was
not possible in the 1930s during Adolph Hitlers reign. As a result, it
was much easier back then for Nazi scientists to intellectually (and
even morally) justify the value of Eugenics in human societies as
part of a grander vision of a genetically superior subset of the
human race. Thus, the Nazis sense of empathy and compassion
for their species was more easily suppressed back then, which
made it much easier for them to perform their human experiments
and atrocities with little or no remorse.

Hitlers Eugenics Program Was Atrocious. To be clear, Im

certainly not saying Hitlers Eugenics program was ethically
consistent with the values and principles of a civilized human
society; in fact, Eugenics is ethically and morally atrocious within
the context of any civilized human society. However, from a purely
objective scientific perspective, the Nazis had much less concern
about becoming victims of their own doctrine of superiority because
they did not experience the same fear and vulnerability that virtually
all humans feel today in response to AI and cyborgs.

Its No Longer Possible to Logically Embrace Sub-Species

Enhancement Policies. Since the Nazis had no fear for the human
species as a whole, the self-interest of the Nazis (from their
perspective) could be logically limited to a specific subset of
humanity (their so-called Aryan Race); whereas today, no individual
humans self-interest can be logically disconnected from the broader
interests of our entire species. Today, the moment a scientist begins
to think about a way to make one ethnic/racial group superior to
another, they are instantly reminded that anything they might do to
enhance the relative capacity of any subset of humanity will be
overwhelmingly eclipsed by the rapid emergence of superhuman,
AI-endowed cyborgs.

The Configuration of Capitalism Today Accelerates the Spread

of Cyborgs. In todays world, the debate has shifted from racial
purity to species purity. But in reality, beneath the veneer of civilized
society, this is a socioeconomic debate about who can afford the
most powerful human augmentations. I suspect there are very few
humans living today (and increasingly fewer with each passing
generation) who would not augment themselves with AI brain
implants, prosthetic devices, and genetic therapies to enhance their
capabilities as long as they were reasonably safe. Why? Because
the increasingly hostile competition among humans within
capitalistic societies today creates a socioeconomic arms race.
This, combined with the existential fear of AI and robots, is creating
an increasingly hostile world for humans. This ominous trend will
continue unless Capitalism is re-configured to be less hostile to
humans.

Increasing the Resilience of Humanity.This is one of the reasons

why I wrote the nonpartisan book, Broken Capitalism: This Is How
We Fix It. The book provides concrete solutions to achieve a more
sustainable and politically viable configuration for Capitalism, which
is much less hostile to pure humans, while simultaneously
preserving all the most important market-based economic
incentives. The configuration proposed in my book would make
Capitalism a much more powerful and efficient engine of broad-
based prosperity for an increasingly vulnerable human species.

About Ferris Eanfar

Ferris Eanfar has over 20 years of experience in technical, financial,
media, and government intelligence environments. He has written
dozens of articles and several books in the field of International
Political Economy, including Broken Capitalism: This Is How We Fix
It, which provides unique insight into what is wrong with the global
economy and how to fix it. To learn more about Ferris, please visit
the About Ferris page.

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