Elise Bohan is a Senior Research Scholar at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute (FHI). She holds a PhD in evolutionary macrohistory (Big History) and wrote the world’s first book-length history of transhumanism as a doctoral student. At FHI, she is part of a cohort of scholars who are dedicated to understanding, and tackling, humanity’s most pressing problems.
Today, Elise Bohan is here to answer a few of our questions about her new book, Future Superhuman: Our transhuman lives in a make-or-break century! Read on …
Elise Bohan
Please tell us about your book, Future Superhuman!
EB: It’s a book that explores the weird and wonderful times we live in and attempts to make sense of them. Whether it’s work, relationships, sex, dating, having kids, or the search for meaning and purpose, the old life scripts feel like they’re crumbling fast. I argue that that’s because we’re living through a major evolutionary transition – the transhuman era, where technology is rapidly transforming what it means to be human.
Where did your interest in Artificial Intelligence come from?
EB: From learning about how fast computing power ratchets up. We’ve already seen that trend transform human societies in our lifetimes and it isn’t slowing down. So I wondered, what happens when computers become smarter than us? Wouldn’t that change the whole game of what it means to be human? Every model that we have points to something like that – a big paradigm shift – happening this century. Even if that doesn’t happen AI is transforming human communication, research and thinking, and stands to generate almost unfathomable levels of economic growth. I don’t think that’s something any thinking person can afford to ignore.
Why was it important to you to write this book?
EB: I wrote the book that I wanted to read. I was hoping Yuval Noah Harari would dig into the concept of transhumanism and the theme of a make-or-break century more deeply in Homo Deus. But the mentions there were fairly cursory and I think modern humans need better signposts to help them explore why things feel like they’re changing so fast today and what that means for our future.
Can you briefly describe what a ‘superhuman future’ might look like?
EB: That’s a tricky one. By definition a superhuman state would be so far beyond us that our human frameworks break down when trying to imagine it. Superhumanity is the trajectory I point to as the likely (and most sustainable) direction to aim for – at least if we hope to preserve what we love most about humanity: sentience, intelligence, exploration, curiosity, and innovation.
That said, I can tell you what I expect from these transition times as we become more enmeshed with smart technologies: the decline of the 9-5, the rise of preventative, precision and personalised medicine, a decoupling of economic growth from human labour, a continued decline in global fertility rates, and the rise of AI lovers and friends. A lot of that sounds confronting – and it is! But there will be amazing opportunities to ameliorate suffering, live longer, healthier lives, better understand consciousness, expand our capacity for empathy and connection, and further unravel the mysteries of life and the universe.
What excites you the most about a superhuman future?
EB: The proliferation of higher forms of intelligence.
Everything we love most about humanity is hanging on precariously in the 21st century. We have too many complex global challenges to solve and not enough bandwidth to solve them. Using technology to infuse the global system with more intelligence and enhanced our problem-solving capacities is not merely novel and exciting, it’s necessary.
‘Superhumanity is the trajectory I point to as the likely (and most sustainable) direction to aim for – at least if we hope to preserve what we love most about humanity: sentience, intelligence, exploration, curiosity, and innovation.’
What do you think is the biggest misconception that people have about AI and the technological future?
EB: The stock answer to that question is usually something about ‘killer robots.’ But I’m more worried about the failure to understand the general purpose nature of AI. The way to think about AI is not as a cute chatbot like Siri, or something that can generate weird and mind-bending art. It’s a force that will ultimately be like electricity, humming away in every facet of our world: from global trade networks, to research centres, hospitals, homes, and transport systems. It will be so omnipresent that it’s almost invisible – while changing everything about our world in short order.
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming a writer and academic?
EB: Writing is how I process life and make sense of the world. It’s as natural and necessary to me as breathing. Becoming an academic was the best excuse I could come up with to write and think for a living. Time is the most precious commodity in life, and I can think of no better way to spend a working life than having the freedom to think, learn, write, and passionately seek to understand the awe-inspiring complexity of the world we live in.
What is the last book you read and loved?
EB: I really enjoyed Peter 2.0 by Peter Scott Morgan. It’s a memoir by a man with motor neurone disease (MND) who refuses to accept the imminent death sentence that accompanies his diagnosis. So he turns himself into a cyborg instead, pioneering new surgical procedures and strategies for living with MND in the process!
What do you hope readers will discover in Future Superhuman?
EB: That they’re living in the most interesting time in human history so far. A truly profound moment on which the fate of earth-originating-intelligent-life hangs in the balance.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
EB: Something very different. Watch this space.
Thanks Elise!
—Future Superhuman by Elise Bohan (NewSouth Publishing) is out now.
Future Superhuman
Our transhuman lives in a make-or-break century
We’re hurtling towards a superhuman future – or, if we blunder, extinction. The only way out of our existential crises, from global warming to the risks posed by nuclear weapons, novel and bioengineered pathogens and unaligned AI, is up. We’ll need more technology to safeguard our future – and we’re going to invent and perhaps even merge with some of that technology.
What does that mean for our 20th century life-scripts? Are the robots coming for our jobs? How will human relationships change when AI knows us inside out?...
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