Our contemporary world is haunted by a koan:
“If Technology is the son of Man, and Man is the son of God, is Technology the grandson of the Almighty?”
The genealogical connections seem to be correct, but I don’t think the answer can be conclusively a “yes”. Usually koans are like caustic molotov cocktails thrown at the puritanical establishment of the rational mind. The zen master attempts to implode the disciple’s mind with an impossible, befuddling question that pins absurdity up against profundity. “Yes” in this case seems too trite, mechanical, scripted and preprogrammed. I think a better answer would be:
“The Almighty has a cane. The cellphone is holding an ice cream cone, kite, and the withered old hand of God. Together they walk down the picturesque boulevards while Dad snores and slobbers.”
Maybe the Almighty isn’t technology’s grandfather after all? Maybe the Almighty is more akin to an avuncular figure.
Almighty: “How have you been? Haven’t seen you in ages.”
Technology: “Yeah, I know. Time Flies. Exponentially, in fact.”
Almighty: “Do you still have that sweater I gave you?”
Technology: “The one with the cubist pattern on it? Yeah, but I grew out of it.”
If the answer to the koan happened to be an emphatic “yes,” we would be forced to capitulate to the notion that the future belongs to technology. According to Ray Kurzweil in the essay, “The Law of Accelerating Returns,” the grandson of God will soon evolve beyond our own know-how, adroitness, and acumen.
“Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to the Singularity—technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.”
This may mean that the analog and the digital, the organic and the inorganic, and the cybernetic mind and human mind will eventually merge together in the future. This coalescence of disparate forms and mediums could resemble a Jackson Pollock painting that has come to life. This merger would probably not transpire in slow moving “meat-space,” but rather would transpire in a hyperspatial dimension that we are unwittingly being pulled towards. This merger would probably also give birth to a “Cyber-Christ”-like state, or, in the words of Kurzweil, the “Singularity”. In Kurzweil’s opinion, the Singularity “…represents the nearly vertical phase of exponential growth where the rate of growth is so extreme that technology appears to be growing at infinite speed.” Presumably, this infinite speed would cause a titanic rupture in the human historical drama of meat-space, an immense tremor that would be incalculable to us. Kurzweil hopes we will enter the next phase of evolution at this momentous point.
Another koan must be posed at this time:
“When all biological systems and technological advancements coalesce into one incalculable hyperspatial process, will the grass blades still sway with the wind, and will grandpas still buy ice cream for their grandchildren?”
Even though I don’t know how to answer this koan, I would personally like to think so.
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