Book Review: Upgrade Me
This book by Brian Clegg is a very good read on why human enhancement has been good for us and why we should continue to enhance ourselves. Although the subtitle of the book is “Our Amazing Journey to Human 2.0,” the first two-thirds of the book is a look back in history. It explains in detail the central point that all technology is an attempt to transcend human nature. We have been enhancing ourselves since the beginning - the first woven garment, for example, appeared as early as 25,000 B.C. From wearing eyeglasses to drinking coffee, once a new technology has proven to work and become affordable, we all love to embrace it and gradually take it for granted.
The big difference today is emerging new technologies are not just providing add-ons and networking capabilities to the human body, but also approaching the threat hold of modifying the core of human nature. So the rest of the book effectively addresses various concerns about changing ourselves.
Will cognitive enhancement make us dumber somehow? No, the author points out that
“When the slide rules were replaced by the calculators, everyone said the next generation won’t understand math the same way – it didn’t happen. When computers came along, many predicted that learning as we know it would collapse. It didn’t.”
Will genetic tinkering lead to catastrophe? Not necessarily. In fact, commenting on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story, Clegg said, “Biologically speaking, every one of us is a particular kind of monster – a mutant.” Rather than random mutations that mostly end in biological defects, our self-enhancement with conscious direction has much less of a tendency to produce impractical monstrosity.
Finally, there is also a lot to be said about the philosophical concern, raised by President Bush’s Council on Bioethics, that enhanced humans would lead “flat empty lives, devoid of love and longing, filled only with trivial pursuits and shallow attachments.” Clegg points out that the ability to avoid doing all the grunt work does not necessarily lead to a quality deterioration of our lives. Indeed, modern day professional work in design, engineering, business administration, etc. is far more creative and rewarding than assembly line or hamburger flipping low-skill work.
The book ends with a healthy dose of realism: “It would be foolish to portray our ability to enhance ourselves as wholly positive.” Risk is unavoidable, though it can be managed with our conscious efforts.