The Future of Mankind and the Humiliations

The future, as I see it, is going to be a little humiliating. History shows how often our arrogance and religious zealousness has been challenged . Copernicus, Darwin, Crick and Watson changed the way we see ourselves. What else does the future hold to further dent our pride and question further the religious indoctrination we have been fed since children?

We have always thought of ourselves as special, and for good reason. As far as we know we are alone in the universe in churning out great works of art and literature, in formulating the laws of physics, and in the spectacle that is break dancing. Three major upheavals in scientific thinking have served to remind us that we are not so special after all. Upheavels that shook society and threatened religious thinking.

First came Copernicus in the16th century. He argued that the Earth was not at the centre of the solar system. He relegated our planet to one of many orbiting the sun and backed it up with mathematics. At once the whole notion that the earth was special was rendered obsolete and that must have been damn humbling , especially for the church. If Copernicus ruffled a few feathers saying Earth wasn't special, Darwin got more personal 300 years later by implying that humans weren't special either. The origin of the species, Darwin promoted the theory of evolution by natural selection, immediately suggesting that humans were just another kind of animal. It meant we weren’t the crowning glory of evolution; we were just hairless apes that happened to be a little smarter than our cousins "built" in Gods image?

A hundred years later, James Watson and Francis Crick unravelled the structure of DNA. It led to a further challenge to human and religious arrogance. We are in short, simply vessels of self replicating molecules, whose only purpose was to pass them on to another generation. All of these discoveries reeked havoc in the churches and in their in doctrines. Imagine 2000 years of "belief" questioned by irrefutable scientific evidence. No wonder early scientists were burnt at stake as heretics.

Now, my question. What's next? What will be the fourth revolution (revelation?)? Will it, like those before, force us to question once more what it means to be human? Whatever shape it takes, it may help humans to understand their condition rather than knock it down further.

The big question is why these revolutions don't make us profoundly sad. We are reduced to bags of chemicals with no free will, living on a normal planet, but we still find it exiting. I believe it's because we see ourselves as part of some grander scheme (maybe organised by God) but now with greater understanding. We're part of something larger than ourselves and once we identify with that, it is not degrading but ennobling. Can we expect in the next hundred years to understand in a general way how the human brain gives rise to what we perceive as the human mind?

The solution should be interesting, very complex but not in the end mysterious. It will be a great philosophical challenge to take on board, but we shall succeed because of our tremendous ability to adapt. We should feel, first, a modest pride in our ability to achieve such understanding, and more importantly a huge sense of collective responsibility in what we do with it. A humility that disclaims responsibility for its actions is dangerous and offers a real risk that our journey of exploring the universe will be cut off just as we are beginning in earnest. It could be that the next revolution will come from a combination of huge advances in genetics and stem cell research. Would it lead to a more egalitarian society?

Assuming that all humanity has access to these advances, everyone will benefit from regenerative medicine, which means we'll cure disease at an accelerated rate, we’ll live longer and finally we’ll be able to affect our genetic makeup. Making us all similar to one another because everyone will want the same thing. It raises huge ethical questions. There are those who do not wish mankind to achieve these abilities. But we are in an accelerated evolutionary phase. Personally, I don’t believe it can be stopped. Are we alone?

Look the elements that are most abundant in the cosmos; hydrogen, helium and oxygen, making the most common compound water. Next come carbon and nitrogen so four out of the five most common elements can make the organic compounds we all know and love. That says to me there is an accident waiting to happen. Total arrogance to think that life hasn't originated elsewhere in this great cosmos. Now how about if life on another planet was based on another code other than DNA? How will the churches explain away something so radical. Dont tell me it's theoretical, so was Darwins', Copernicus' and Crick and Wilsons' wasn't it?
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