Interview With The Ambassador, Part 2
Transcript of MOSH Radio 102.9 interview with Ambassador Bell.
Continued from
Part 1
NEW YORK
Ambassador Bell: I have always been what marketers would call an "early adopter." Whether it was computers, cell phones, the Internet, life extension, or augmentation I was always one of the first in line.
This was called the "bleeding edge." And with early adopters of augmentation, it was a literal description. But each of these steps along the way prepared me individually and society as a whole for the Singularity.
Consider the home computer in the early 1990's. It was usually unnetworked - a bulky box sitting by itself with a tiny drop in the ocean of power computers have today. Yet even then it was revolutionary. My parents wrote college essays with pen and paper or on a typewriter. The ability to cut and paste, to insert, or to delete portions of a document while keeping the rest - today most people don't appreciate how important an improvement this was to written communications. It was as important as the printing press. The removal of the old barriers to composition marked the beginning of an exponential rise in written information.
A few years later the Internet was adopted by the public. All of those documents that were being written could then shared instantaneously with anyone or everyone. Information became more valuable because more people could gain access to it. Demand for information further accelerated the information age. The blogs were an obvious outgrowth of that.
One criticism that natural people have of those who are augmented is that we've left behind our human essence - that we've allowed technology to change us. I would agree that technology has changed us, but it always has. The invention of the car and the airplane made people think differently about geographic distance. Likewise, does anyone really think that all those politicians, activists, journalists, scientists, and community leaders that stepped forward in the late 2000's would have been prepared to do so without the experience of blogging? Technology changes us, but that does not have to be a bad thing.
Ron Jones: It would appear that technology changes some people but not others.
Ambassador Bell: Technology changes everyone, but at different speeds. This is nothing new. I was a freshman in college when the terrorists attacked in 2001. I recognized in that attack the desperation of a society that refused to modernize but which envied the fruits of modernization. That attack was not about what the United States or the West had done to Islam, it was about Islamic shame. The failure of the Islamic world to compete with what was perceived to be a decadent culture.
Ron Jones: You are not comparing natural humans with those terrorists, are you?
Ambassador Bell: I am not. Natural humans have, for the most part, not resorted to open warfare against civilian augmented people. I do suggest that there are some parallels
between the wider Islamic world at the turn of the century and natural humans today. These parallels should be a cause of concern for both natural and augmented people.
Ron Jones: What parallels?
Ambassador Bell: One reason for the failure of the Islamic world was it's subjugation of women. Literally half of the potential brain power of that culture was locked away behind burkas and the walls of their own homes. Natural humans today enjoy equality of the sexes, but the vast potential of the natural mind is untapped.
Natural humans today see the accomplishments of augmented people. You enjoy the fruits of those accomplishments but feel left behind by their development. The Islamic world could likewise see and envy the accomplishments of the West on Western-made satellite dishes. Lack of potential was not the problem with Islamic people then nor is it the problem with natural humans now. The problem is one of belief. If natural humans continue to believe that augmented people have lost their soul to technology, you won't embrace advancement any more than Osama bin Laden would have embraced the infidel West.
Ron Jones: The comparison between radical Islam of the past and today's natural human population will no doubt be controversial.
Ambassador Bell: It is not my intention to offend anyone. But ignoring these issues doesn't help either.
Ron Jones: Many feel that augmented people have crossed a sacred line.
Ambassador Bell: I never saw a line. Those who argue that augmented people have abandoned their spiritual nature misunderstand us. This comes from not knowing us.
May I ask Mr. Jones, how old are you?
Ron Jones: Ninety-three.
Ambassador Bell: You don't look a day older than I did when I finished grad-school at age twenty-seven. No doubt you're undergoing periodic life extension treatments.
Ron Jones: Of course. I'm maintaining my health.
Ambassador Bell: But far beyond what was available to past generations. Would you agree that age brings wisdom?
Ron Jones: For some.
Ambassador Bell: When you surpassed the knowledge and wisdom that would have been available to you without life extension, didn't you in some sense become augmented? Can you be certain that you have not crossed some line?
Ron Jones: The alternative is death.
Ambassador Bell: And you could have chosen that alternative. You could have died of old age a decade or so back. No doubt someone would have built a monument to your stiff upper lip.
Ron Jones: No thanks.
Ambassador Bell: I could have lived without augmentation. But, "no thanks." I chose to live up to my full potential.
Ron Jones: You said you never saw a "line." Did you augment gradually or undergo a single radical procedure?
Ambassador Bell: I adopted each technology as it became available. The first elective augmentation procedure I underwent was LASIK eye surgery in 1999.
Ron Jones: You consider that "augmentation?" Many natural humans have undergone that procedure.
Ambassador Bell: It is a simple form of augmentation. It's an elective procedure that improves the patient's ability to comprehend the world. By the early 2000's the procedure had been perfected to the point that a person with 20/20 vision could improve their vision with the surgery.
Natural humans are visually oriented. You might think that with our additional senses vision might be reduced in value for augmented people. It has not. When augmented people learn or recall, we often still use some of the same visual references that natural people would use.
When I think back on the Singularity I visualize The Tower.
Ron Jones: The first space elevator?
Ambassador Bell: Yes. And that's funny because The Tower wasn't a technology that was critical to the Singularity. But aspects of the Singularity grew out of that project. Thinking of it gives me a "flavor" of that time.
Ron Jones: Weren't you personally involved as an engineer on that project?
Ambassador Bell: I was a young engineer trying to make a name for myself. It was an important time. Scientists and engineers from all over the world flocked to Shinar Island off the coast of Brazil. Many of those people came straight from the Gibraltar Bridge project.
Those of us who worked The Tower project were some of the first to adopt integrated universal translation.
Ron Jones: That's an early form of augmentation.
Ambassador Bell: Yes. That procedure was not supposed to increase our intelligence above that of natural humans, but it did. It allowed us to all communicate with each other in our own language - a near-perfect translation. I remember thinking that it didn't feel like a translation at all. After a time it "felt" more like I was thinking the language of the speaker.
The same technology also networked our minds. Try to imagine the power that gave us. Regardless of our geographic positions, each member of the team was in constant contact with the others. We began to think that nothing would be restrained from us. Problems that seemed insurmountable before were quickly solved.
Ron Jones: Of course The Tower was successful.
Ambassador Bell: Yes, after many failures. The team finally resorted to full augmentation to complete the project.
Ron Jones: Was that really necessary? Couldn't you have completed the project as natural humans?
Ambassador Bell: No doubt we could have had we been given unlimited time and resources. But we were over-budget and behind schedule. Some of the sponsoring nations were beginning to back out. We had to complete the project quickly.
When Redmond's A.I. project became self-aware and self-advancing, we knew that we wanted her on our team. After that we had to continually augment just to keep up with her.
Ron Jones: Unfortunately we are now out of time. Thank you Mr. Ambassador for being here today. Will you stop by and visit us again?
Ambassador Bell: Count on it.
Ron Jones: Thank you.
END TRANSCRIPT
Posted by Stephen Gordon at March 21, 2004 01:47 PM
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