WEBVTT - Thought Experiment: Transhumanism and Space Exploration

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to How Staff Works. Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum,

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<v Speaker 1>a researcher and writer. Here at How Stuff Works. Every

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<v Speaker 1>week I'm bringing you three stories from our team about

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<v Speaker 1>the weird and wondrous advances we've seen in science, technology,

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<v Speaker 1>and culture. Except when I'm not. This week, we've got

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<v Speaker 1>a single segment for you. Occasionally, our writers and editors

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<v Speaker 1>that now explore their questions about the future through speculative fiction.

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<v Speaker 1>This piece is one of those thought experiments from our

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<v Speaker 1>senior writer, Robert Lamb. It's about trans humanism and how

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<v Speaker 1>humanity might involve for space travel. But I'll let him explain.

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<v Speaker 1>Humanity exists in a curious place right now, suspended between

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<v Speaker 1>past sci fi dreams of human oriented space exploration and

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<v Speaker 1>the threshold of technological singularity and virtual worlds. How will

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<v Speaker 1>flesh and blood human space travel fit into the grand picture?

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<v Speaker 1>Interestingly enough, I keep coming back to the nineteen paper

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<v Speaker 1>Cyborg and Space by Manford Declins and Nathan S. Klein,

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<v Speaker 1>a pivotal work of futurism that coined the word cyborg

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<v Speaker 1>and explored the necessary transformation of Homo sapiens for life

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<v Speaker 1>beyond Earth. While space agencies have largely bypassed the paper's

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<v Speaker 1>vision of space ready augmented humans. The concept continues to

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<v Speaker 1>resonate through our culture, from our smartphones to cutting edge biotechnology,

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<v Speaker 1>the human experience grows increasingly interwoven with technology. In keeping

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<v Speaker 1>with Donna J. Harraway's essay a Cyborg Manifesto, more and

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<v Speaker 1>more of us express an openness to ideological cyborg identity,

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<v Speaker 1>the realization that personal identity can itself be an intentional

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<v Speaker 1>hybrid status, unbound by the didactic expectations of the past.

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<v Speaker 1>So come with me as we engage in a science

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<v Speaker 1>fictional thought experiment, a creative simulation of what an interplanetary

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<v Speaker 1>human race might evolve to be. Silba gazes up at

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<v Speaker 1>the stars from the ice plains of Jupiter's moon Europa.

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<v Speaker 1>She limits her ocular vision to a near human spectrum,

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<v Speaker 1>as if entering deep meditation. She dims her awareness until

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<v Speaker 1>everything beyond her physical body is but a whisper patrol

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<v Speaker 1>drones sailing over the frost plains, submarines within the darkness

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<v Speaker 1>of the Moon's ice locked oceans, even the perfect spirals

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<v Speaker 1>of orbiting satellite's fade to ghostly tingles along some distant

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<v Speaker 1>second skin, sil Will becomes a single mind within a

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<v Speaker 1>single body, a practice she has rehearsed and anticipation of

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<v Speaker 1>the end bound guest, she chenses her gazelle like spike

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<v Speaker 1>appendages on the ice. She stands within a one clearing

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<v Speaker 1>of her own, making this in turn surrounded by a

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<v Speaker 1>vast forest of naturally occurring ice monoliths. It was easy

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<v Speaker 1>work for this robotic body, designed as it was for

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<v Speaker 1>excavation and modular assembly. Yet even with her senses dulled,

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<v Speaker 1>she can't help but sense the incoming spacecraft's trajectory. She

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<v Speaker 1>piques at the manifest data for cybernetic humans and most amazingly,

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<v Speaker 1>a pure flesh human, the first to ever venture beyond Mars.

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<v Speaker 1>Europa's occupation is typical. Mere probes arrived in the early days,

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<v Speaker 1>with more enlightened robotic avatars arriving thereafter. Distant human minds

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<v Speaker 1>and artificial intelligences empowered the first such colonists, but cybernetic

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<v Speaker 1>mind states like her own came to dominate the work,

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<v Speaker 1>a graceful fusion of the organic and the artificial. She

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<v Speaker 1>gazes east to where Jupiter swells on the horizon, a

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<v Speaker 1>most impossible world. When she contemplates it substantiated by storms

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<v Speaker 1>and orbited by dozens upon dozens of hostile moons. This

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<v Speaker 1>region of the Solar System offered only desolation and cataclysm

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<v Speaker 1>to early humans. For all the might of their technology,

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<v Speaker 1>they were a fragile species. The poles and mountains of

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<v Speaker 1>their own planet were death realms. The void even less forgiving.

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<v Speaker 1>So they deployed mechanical myrbidons and programmed minds. They embraced

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<v Speaker 1>a cybernetic existence. Silver feels the impending arrival as if

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<v Speaker 1>by the phantom lamb sensations of her satellites. She refuses

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<v Speaker 1>to focus those perceptions, yet she cannot completely ignore them.

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<v Speaker 1>Excitement mounts within her mind state. Such a strange journey

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<v Speaker 1>to this point. Over the course of centuries, humans became

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<v Speaker 1>unfixed from the physical, unmoored from the limits of physical existence.

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<v Speaker 1>Cultural expectations sex and gender, or religion and nationality melts

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<v Speaker 1>it from the underlying form they broke free to from

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<v Speaker 1>chain link servitude of genetic expectation. There was a cost,

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<v Speaker 1>of course, one paid in blood and misery. The inevitable

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<v Speaker 1>seismic horrors of vast cultural transformation shook the species, risked

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<v Speaker 1>everything it had accomplished until the war is finally withered

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<v Speaker 1>and social unrest assumed its resting decay state. The survivors

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<v Speaker 1>became something beyond human, yet irrecoverably tied to the origin

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<v Speaker 1>of their accession, an interplanetary civilization grown from the seed

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<v Speaker 1>pod of a planetary species. Silva has processed all the

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<v Speaker 1>literature on the topic. She holds one of her silvery

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<v Speaker 1>lancelike appendages to the lights of Jupiter and the Sun.

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<v Speaker 1>She splits the spike into five separate digits and bends

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<v Speaker 1>them to mimic, albeit and perfectly, a human hand. It's too,

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<v Speaker 1>is life, a self organizing principle, emergent from the data

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<v Speaker 1>that came before. I am the primate and the crowd.

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<v Speaker 1>I am the bacterium and the circuit. Before this mission,

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<v Speaker 1>the necropolis of Mars stood as a testament to the

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<v Speaker 1>lost dream of human space exploration and colonization, pyramids from

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<v Speaker 1>another dead cosmology. Even as probes reached the Brand System

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<v Speaker 1>and beyond, unaugmented humans remained confined to their home world.

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<v Speaker 1>The most influential mind states campaigned intensely for beyond Earth

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<v Speaker 1>human presence. Every moon, our planet, and human space must

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<v Speaker 1>know the touch of its unmodified origin. Sylva knows there

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<v Speaker 1>is a vanity in such aspirations, but also a nostalgic pride.

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<v Speaker 1>This is what we arose from the Least we can

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<v Speaker 1>do is bring life to the old dreams, no matter

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<v Speaker 1>how symbolic the gesture. And so Silba gazes up from

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<v Speaker 1>the frigid ice. The landing module appears, at last, visible

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<v Speaker 1>against the stars. It takes all of her resolve to

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<v Speaker 1>contain her consciousness to the single body, to will herself

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<v Speaker 1>into a shape individual, female and humanoid, But as the

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<v Speaker 1>capsule grows closer, she can't help but expand her awareness.

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<v Speaker 1>She reaches out to touch the onboard life support systems.

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<v Speaker 1>She ignores the four augmented mind bodies aboard, each hardened

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<v Speaker 1>and engineered to thrive beyond Earth. She focuses instead on

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<v Speaker 1>the module's core, a single human, hermaphroditic and ambi racial

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<v Speaker 1>and all encompassing of the human experience. A perfect ambassador.

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<v Speaker 1>She feels the pulsations of its heartbeat, and glimpse is

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<v Speaker 1>the florid patterns of its shifting brain waves. She could

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<v Speaker 1>read them if she wanted, but this is sacred. The

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<v Speaker 1>great pear shaped module descends through Europa's then atmosphere in

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<v Speaker 1>a swirling birth call of molecular oxygen. The heartbeat quickens.

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<v Speaker 1>The landing invokes a vicious storm of ice, but Stilba

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<v Speaker 1>stands against the blast. The crystal shred away some of

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<v Speaker 1>her body's more delicate sensors, but these she can repair later.

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<v Speaker 1>Certain probe sensations slicker and die, but all she needs

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<v Speaker 1>is the here and now. When the module's door finally open,

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<v Speaker 1>five figures stand at the threshold and identical space suits,

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<v Speaker 1>but the middle figure alone radiates an importance she can

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<v Speaker 1>scarcely define. The visitor is both ancestor spirit and contemporary heart.

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<v Speaker 1>She raises her shining metal hand in greeting. Your name too,

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<v Speaker 1>is Zilva, she says, for we have birth, traveled this

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<v Speaker 1>fast distance to find ourselves. That's our show for this week.

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<v Speaker 1>Thank you so much for tuning in further thanks to

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<v Speaker 1>our segment narrator Amy Reese, our audio producer Dylan Fagan,

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<v Speaker 1>and our editorial liaison Allison Laddermilk. If you liked Mr

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<v Speaker 1>Robert Lamb's work, check out his short fiction collections on Amazon.

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<v Speaker 1>You can subscribe to now Now for more of the

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