Reviews
Review by Dr. Faith LaGay.
EVOLUTION AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY: Homo sapiens galactic future.
comment by Faith LaGay, Ph. D., Medical Ethicist, AMA, Chicago.
GFH is a paleo-biologist with a comprehensive understanding of Evolution. In Evolution and the Future of Humanity: Homo sapiens’ galactic future he looks at the past and future of human physiology, human consciousness and human society through the lens of evolutionary pressures. Evolution demonstrates that what works best will, in the end, win out. Because Homo sapiens is now calling the shots in its own next evolutionary steps, Dr Hart challenges us to discover, preserve, and perfect that which is best and most “human” in our species. Evolution and the Future of Humanity is the achievement of a master synthesizer; the book holds much intellectual gratification for readers, even those of us who shudder at the thought of its main character [Robotico earthensis] coming to life.
faith_lagay@ama-assn.org
Review by William Ross
EVOLUTION AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY: Homo sapiens galactic future.
comment by Bill Ross, M.Sc., Science Manager, Denver.
Dr. George F. Hart, a retired professor of Palaeontology from Louisiana State University, utilizes the latest advances from the fields of palaeontology, neontology, genetic engineering and information technology to forecast an incredible vision of humanity’s destiny – a world where humankind harnesses the immense power of our exploding bio- and technologic capabilities to blaze an evolutionary path to the stars. In this brave new world of genetic engineering and increasingly smart robots Dr. Hart anticipates titanic battles between the religious Luddites and corporate-world champions of technology. The social and political struggles created by the profound technologic advances ahead will compel humans to asks the question: ‘What is the essence of humanity?’, and ‘What must we preserve?’, as the distinction between humans and machines begins to blur. Predicting that a strictly scientific world-view is our only salvation in the face of the coming age , GFH implores humanity to begin the challenging work of designing our descendants, which must merge with robotic intelligence, to survive and ultimately colonize our Universe.
Evolution and the future of Humanity: Homo sapiens’ galactic future has, as a goal, to predict the future of humanity. GFH’s unique contribution to the forecasting of human history is predicated on the assumption that the natural processes that control natural phenomena [i.e. the laws of instability, actualism , and combinatorial outcomes] can be utilized to guide our prediction of future events. Professor Hart sees humanity evolving, with an assist from technology, into genetically self-engineered chimeras and ultimately into super-intelligent robots that will colonize our Universe. A key question is how to design both our biological and robotic descendants so that they will contain the essence of humanity. The hope is that the robots, if imbued with our humanity [somehow], will not stand in opposition to the intellectually inferior humans.
Along the way to this robotic future we’ll need to deal with the moral and political opposition that will naturally occur in the face of such radical technologic advances. A major theme is the profound need to adopt a strictly scientific world-view to ensure our future.
As an overall theme the subject is compelling, and I like a lot of what is written regarding the future of humanity, especially the musings on how conflicting cultural gamodemes and business/political organizations will compete for dominance….and the review of the essence of humanity. The bluntness index is a bit off-scale in a few places, but most of it is solid reasoning that will be appreciated for its frankness and unique perspective.