Who We Are

“Artificial in its own right” refers to the creation and burgeoning of artificial organisms. This includes everything from microbes to post humans. Biology, Nanotechnology, Posthuman, Transhuman.

Introduction

“Artificial in its own right” refers to the creation and burgeoning of artificial organisms. This includes everything from microbes to post humans.

I am postulating that the time when the measure of all things was “being natural” is now relegated to the footnotes of history. That the accustomed perceived positive value of natural is only relevant in its historical context and that this context has changed. The hegemony the “positive value of natural” is now a burden on our culture. If humans are to survive we must now build our future on the artificial. While nature still has her veto, she no longer defines the game. Evolution is no longer in the hands of nature[1] taking thousands or millions of years; today evolution is part of our culture and proceeding on the human time or post-human timescale.

I classify the artificial in to several groups and show their relationship. I then present some of the non-biological research that is relevant to artificial and future biology. This includes the systems biology, bioengineering, simulation and computational evolution. I hope to introduce you to what I will call the science of artificial biology.

I will divide the living world in to three groups. The first group includes biological based organisms, which include all the presently living organisms, which are carbon based, organic molecules and as far as we know have evolved over many thousands of years. The second group consists of all non-organic chemistry based organisms and as far as we know none exist today. The third group consists of all the organic based organisms which did not evolve directly from an existing biological based organism.

1. Biological

2. Non-organics

3. Organics

The argument is based on the premise that the rate of change is constantly increasing and that biological based organisms have the slowest rate of change of the three groups, thus the first group of biological organisms will not be able to keep up if their rate of change can’t be improved.

The rate of change is constantly increasing and it is approaching a rate that exceeds the capacity of not only one human mind but also the capacity of our institutions. Given this the natural evolution of natural creatures has played out its role. In the future the artificial evolution of artificial creatures will take over.

Natural evolution has only been able to make use of a limited selection of materials. The most prevalent materials are the organic molecules with few if any exceptions. On the other hand the artificial ecosystem has made extensive use of inorganic materials so far, and is only beginning to make use of organic materials. A crucial aspect of this development is the increasing use of nano-scale design using both types of materials.

In computer science there has been a great deal of research on “autonomous agents”. Computer scientists in their efforts to understand organization have come to study self-organization and the patterns it forms. This research has a parallel in the study of societies and the social sciences. Just as the biological sciences have their favorite “organisms” to study specific biological phenomena, the social sciences and the computer sciences have chosen insect societies to study “colony organization”. These “agent based studies” are based on the interaction of individual agents, be they insects, computer programs or human beings.

What I am concerned with here is the use of living biological materials. The production of living tools! One of the purposes of this paper is to discuss some of the issues around biology as an engineering discipline.

I use the word artificial for that which develops at an accelerated rate due to the impact of culture. This is independent of the material or direct human involvement.

So as our knowledge increases we slowly come to realize how much we see reality through ourselves, just how much all our thoughts and we are a product of our environment. The very fact that we see time as we do is totally dependent on our life span.

The basic argument depends on an extrapolation of present trends in to the future and that present day expectations continue present trends. I feel it is also essential that I make the future I am predicting, visible and more understandable. I will use the media of film to show futuristic examples of designed creatures and their place in society of the future. This has some difficulties, but given the present level of apprehension in this area, I hope the examples will show a somewhat more sympathetic view of future technologies.

The time is past when as Protagoras’ said, "Man is the measure of all things; of what is, that it is; of what is not, that it is not."[2] The naive acceptance of anthropocentrism as providing the horizon is no longer tenable. The days of Frankenstein are past, the future belongs to Frankenstein.

It is absolutely necessary that we develop bioengineering and genetic engineering science and technology if the organic creatures are going to compete with the non-organic creatures.

I would like to propose that the creation of new beings could be as attractive as the creation of a new architecture. The creation of “never before created creatures” is as creative as writing a sonata and can be as rewarding if we don’t let our fears get the best of us.