In this blog post, based on Yuval Noah Harari’s “Sapiens,” we explore the impact of scientific and technological advances on the future of modern humans and the possibility of extinction.
In the movie “The Matrix” (1999), future humans are cultivated like commercial crops by machines and artificial intelligence. As soon as they are born, they are confined to small tanks, where they receive the nutrients they need directly from machines, and a virtual reality program called “the Matrix” is injected into their brain cells. However, completely unaware of their miserable external circumstances, they live in a virtual reality created by the Matrix, following the same lifestyle as humans in 1999, the year the film was released. Can we say that the humans of the future are a different species from Homo sapiens, the species of humans living today?
Since the scientific revolution of the 17th century, science and technology have been developing exponentially. Many critics and futurists have expressed concerns about these scientific developments. They believe that, just like in the movie “The Matrix,” the development of science and technology could lead to the extinction of the human race. The author of “Sapiens,” Yuval Noah Harari, makes a similar argument. He claims that the development of applied science and technology, such as biotechnology and cyborg engineering, could lead to the extinction of the human race.
In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari uses two definitions of “extinction.” In the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), many people die from the lethal side effects of a new drug developed using biotechnology. As shown in this example, the advancement of science and technology can lead to unintended problems. In such cases, the first definition of extinction is when the population decreases rapidly and fails to maintain the minimum number of individuals necessary to form a species.
The second definition of extinction used by Yuval Noah Harari is similar to eugenics. This is because eugenics is a discipline that aims to increase the population with superior traits through genetic improvement, and the second definition of “extinction” also assumes the enhancement of humanity, just like eugenics. Yuval Noah Harari used the second definition of “extinction” to refer to the improvement of humanity through the development of science and technology, resulting in a species different from Homo sapiens. However, unlike eugenics, Yuval Noah Harari cited not only the genetic improvement of humanity through the development of biotechnology, but also the replacement of human body parts with machine parts through cyborg engineering as examples of enhancement.
I believe that the first definition of “extinction” used by Yuval Noah Harari is inevitable. This is because I believe that science and technology will continue to develop at an even faster pace in the future. In other words, as science and technology rapidly advance, various mistakes made by humans may occur, and if these mistakes accumulate, fatal problems that threaten the very existence of humanity may arise. Humanity will not have enough time to properly respond to these fatal problems, and the population will rapidly decline, as in the movie “Planet of the Apes” mentioned earlier, and the species will not be able to survive.
I would like to focus more on the second definition of “extinction.” This is because Yuval Noah Harari lacked understanding of the concept of species when he used the second definition of “extinction.”
Yuval Noah Harari defined extinction based on the concept of biological species widely used in modern science. This concept of biological species was proposed by Ernst Mayr, an evolutionary biologist who was active in the 20th century. According to Ernst Mayr’s book, “Systematics and the Origin of Species,” a biological species is a natural group of organisms that are capable of interbreeding and are reproductively isolated from other groups. Ernst Mayr’s argument was revolutionary at the time and has been widely accepted to this day. Therefore, it may seem common sense for Yuval Noah Harari to base his writings on this concept of species. However, I believe that Yuval Noah Harari’s writings are incorrect. This is because I believe that the concept of species currently applied to humanity is conceptually inadequate compared to the rapid development of science and technology.
Before presenting specific reasons, I would like to point out that concepts created by humans can change over time. Humans have intellectual abilities that are incomparable to other life forms on Earth. With these intellectual abilities, humans have built civilizations, explored nature, and accumulated knowledge. However, we know from the past that this knowledge and information are not absolute. For example, in medieval Europe, people believed that humanity was created by a supreme god and that the sun revolved around the Earth. At that time, this information was an absolute truth. However, few people today would accept the same beliefs as those of medieval people. We accept as fact that humanity has evolved to reach this point and that the universe is not as simple as it was believed to be in the Middle Ages.
Like humanity’s worldview, the concept of species has also changed. For example, Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher and the father of biology, based on the theory of ideas of his teacher Plato, argued that a species is an idea that constitutes a living thing, and that individuals are concrete entities based on these ideas. As we approach the modern era, the concept of species has rapidly changed by biologists such as Linnaeus and Lamarck, leading to Meyer’s concept of species mentioned above.
Like the biotechnology and cyborg engineering mentioned by Yuval Noah Harari, it has been less than a century since the birth and development of science and technology that apply biology. Ernst Mayr’s concept of biological species was a theory proposed in the 20th century, so it would have been impossible to predict the development of such science and technology. In other words, the current concept of species may not fully reflect the rapid development of science and technology.
An example of this is the movie “The Matrix.” In the movie “The Matrix,” humanity does not live in a normal ecosystem but is cultivated by machines. Humanity in such a situation cannot be represented as a biological species. However, common sense tells us that humanity will form a single species as a living organism.
I believe that mental elements are suitable for filling the gap between the modern concept of species and science and technology. In other words, unlike biology, which has focused only on the physical elements of living things, the future concept of species must be defined based on mental and intellectual elements. In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari cited the development of cyborg engineering as one of the scenarios for the extinction of humanity. With the development of cyborg engineering and related fields, humanity will soon be able to transcend its current biological body, leaving only mental elements behind. These mental elements will be stored in computers or other media that exist in the future. Under the current concept of species, such a situation would be considered the extinction of humanity and cause concern. However, if mental and intellectual elements are included in the concept of species, it can be viewed from a different perspective. Regardless of the physical structure of future humans, if they are similar to present-day humans in terms of their mental elements, then future humans and present-day humans can be considered the same species.
If we change the concept of species in this way, humanity will be able to enjoy the benefits of science and technology from a new perspective. The reason for this is that the current concept of species imposes restrictions on the development of science and technology, hindering the practical application of innovative technologies. For example, stem cell technology is an innovative technology that can extend life and improve quality of life. However, stem cell research requires research on female eggs and fertilized eggs, and some people raise ethical issues about this. They argue that using fertilized eggs in research is contrary to the sanctity of life because they have the potential to become living beings. If the concept of species focuses more on mental and intellectual elements, we will be able to take a different perspective on fertilized eggs. In other words, ethical issues will no longer hinder the advancement of science and technology. This concept of species will make humanity freer and more convenient.
