AI + The New Human Frontier

CHAPTER 30Redefining What It Means to Be Human

A question that I find myself internally debating is: are biology and technology separate or are they one and the same? The sometimes tense relationship between the body and technology has captured the human imagination in many ways, from 16th century explorations of prosthetic technology to modern interpretations of the body itself as a machine. The two are not only inextricably linked, but it can be argued that they are one and the same. The divisions we make between “nature” and “technology” are illusory. Everything is natural; everything is technology. The designs we see in nature are not the result of chance. Take, for instance, the notion that the treelike pattern of neurons responsible for consciousness seems to be a structural feature of the universe itself. The Internet shares a similar structure, as does the distribution of dark matter in the Milky Way. Mycelium networks are the Earth's natural Internet. The patterns repeat themselves throughout. We also see this through the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio, exemplified in nature and the human body; in the process of photosynthesis; and in the idea that human DNA is now being looked to as the ultimate data storage device.

Shared patterns are also reflected throughout the animal kingdom. Researchers some years ago said that because the human population is growing at such an astounding rate, we are organizing ourselves more like ant super colonies, and our societal ...