ABSTRACT
In addressing the confused, chaotic and crisis-ridden state of the world, we have to go back to the basic question; what does it mean to be human? The Ukraine war has reminded us that we are a species of both feuding and fellowship.
Modern science has probed the once assumed unique design of our universe, never mind our planet, and space programmes continue to redefine human relations with the extraterrestrial. Meanwhile, the emerging science of genome editing and genetic modification, as part of a new biotechnology, has raised alarmist concern about people in the future claiming a right to ‘designer’ children. Following the trail from early hominids through to Cro-Magnon to modern man, and speculatively beyond, can we ascertain that what constitutes the human involves a linear narrative from the primitive to the perceptive?
This takes us through new understanding about old arguments of nature versus nurture; the role of culture; the distribution and testing of intelligence; the degree to which humans operate on animal instinct; and the possibilities and risks of ‘human enhancement’.
These core questions inform our subsequent assessment of our changing demography’s imprint on the planet in the Anthropocene. Has the rendition of the human era gone from human centrality to cosmic insignificance to planetary dominance to transhumanism in the form of homo deus? In essence, what kind of species are we, and is there a universal presence known as ‘humanity’? The latter carries benign association with virtues like compassion, mercy, sympathy, civilization etc. But this concept of our ‘better angels’, extolled by scholars like Stephen Pinker, is countered by others like John Gray, who remain sceptical of the utopian projects that can accompany such human exaltation and the pretension of their scientific underpinning.
Paradoxically, just at a time when humans have the means to live longer and stronger, does human abuse of the planet show a sub-conscious death wish, or is it more likely due to the blinkered quest for immediate gratification? This leads us into the next chapter, which addresses the sources and prospects of existential risks to us as a species.
