By Rick Gordon, e-Management

What is evolution? Well, Darwin’s theory of the origin of species acknowledges that species have changed over time to adapt to their environment. To take this information and form a conclusion about the existence or activity of God is natural, and in my opinion a worthy discussion, however, the problem is that so few are able to distinguish between what is science and what is religion/philosophy.  Personally, I feel that science and religion are compatible when people understand that each occupies different domains.  Science attempts to describe what is, and religions gives meaning and understanding to what is. Science is based on observation. Whereas religion/philosophy is grounded in inspiration. They should not exclude each other, but rather keep each other in check, as Einstein once said:  “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”  The reason this is germane to the conversation is that it is impossible to examine the direction of human evolution without questioning the meaning behind it.

Now on to Technology…
Evidence of human technology goes back some 2.5- 2.4 million years.  But aside from simple stone tools, the evolution of technology remained fairly slow, until about a hundred or so years ago with the birth of the industrial revolution.  Within that time, we have gone from riding horses to flying in jet aircraft, from exchanging ideas via messenger to a world wide web of electronic communication.  I believe the sudden growth of human technology is linked to changes in our culture and societies that allow for free time to come up with new ideas, and also a culture that better exploits innovation.

Living Technology
Now some would argue that technology is not alive and that you cannot look at it in the same way as human evolution, but I beg to differ.  Technology has all the aspects of early life. It moves, it interacts, and it changes over time to adapt to its environment.   Yes, I am saying that  the evolution of  the phone  for instance,  from the early wired box in the center of town to  the modern cell phone carried by all , is  comparable to  the evolution of human beings. For instance, from early primates to modern Homo sapiens. I am saying that the diversity of iPhone apps is comparable to diversity of finch species in the Galapagos.

Technology Evolution Has One Advantage
Technology does not have to wait for the birth of a new generation to try out new ideas. In biological evolution a species reproduces, and with that reproduction comes some change, either an emergent characteristic as a result of a new combination of genes, or through mutation. Those changes are tested by surviving in nature and those that survive become the latest model. With technology new ideas can be tested in the laboratory and new innovation can be added directly to existing models. The biological equivalent would be if we were able to get new genes as new ideas came about for making us better.

Biology is Technology
Think of biology as advanced chemical machines.  Currently we are going through a convergence of these two technologies, biology and human technology.  We have done simple things like upgrade a hip to titanium implant, and we have done extraordinary things like the Cochlear implant that gives hearing to the deaf, or the retinal implant that offers sight to the blind.  We have even done profound things like using stem cells to grow human heart valves.

Technology has taken only a hundred years to reach the level where it can make a human eye and clone a sheep, compare this to the millions of years biological evolution took to do the same. Biology is currently superior to the technological alternative.  But given the pace of technological evolution, it won’t be long before the human made eye is superior to the biological one, and it won’t  be long until technological evolution replaces biological evolution,  and we become indistinguishable from our technology.

Technology to Overthrow Humanity
The idea of technology taking over is not new, we seen the idea explored in movies like the Terminator, and the Matrix. However, the reality is that unless we make an effort to control technology the take-over will be more subversive.  Humanity will simply wake one day to find that it has become more machine than biology, and more slave than master. In the wake of technology, all other biological life maybe lost.  We are currently living in a period of mass extinction, the fastest one in the history of the planet, a mass extinction that is driven by human technology. Now this is where religion/philosophy may need to give meaning and value to world and humanity as we now know it; so  that we may preserve the best of it; so that those immortal techno-creatures  of  the future, as portrayed in the 2001 Steven Spielberg movie A.I. may have human souls, to go along with their transistor driven hearts.

So Am I on the Right Path?
What do you think about the idea of human technological evolution?  Can it be stopped? Should it be stopped?