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It's haunting how much things like MMORPGs mirror contemporary society: roaming around performing tasks we care little about for rewards that are only slightly more interesting. And, possibly because we involve ourselves in such meaningless tasks so frequently, we often obsess over displaying our "achievements," to prove not so much our skills, but the fact that we have put the time in. Higher learning now mirrors running a high-end raid more than it does any classical notion of education. Once you get your "badge," you're allowed into a higher echelon, but it reflects so little of your person. And, most importantly, so often nothing is produced. We throw away time for the sake of pursuit; it's addictive, and we're defensive about examining that addiction.
I feel like the post-industrial notion of consumption has penetrated deep into our philosophical core at this point. "Upgrade" is almost an entirely separate thought from "improvement" now, with the former being understood as an inherent necessity. We now treat people with the same disposability as our possessions. "Human resources," a notion once reserved for macroscopic planning, has now made its way to interpersonal relationships in the way of networking. Under the guise of "networking," people collect friends like Pokemon, sifting through hordes to select those who show the promise of helping them in some way. We've becoming so cripplingly cynical that even relationships are openly reduced to cost/benefit analysis.
The modern independent professional (and I include myself in this group) benefits from self-actualization in the sense that he or she does not depend on institutions or other individuals to provide core professional motivation. While this is a sound strategy for general success, taking it to its extreme has produced a generation of distinctly self-absorbed individuals of a different sort than those that came before us. Unlike the quiet narcissism of the Baby Boomers or the naked, unmotivated consumerism of Generation X, we are a generation of roleplayers: leveling up and treating everything outside ourselves as a grid of potential resources. As a whole, we're more motivated than our predecessors (largely, I posit, because we were shaped by active digital media rather than television), but we are just as, if not more, spiritually bankrupt.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not bemoaning the evils of modern technology or pining for a simpler time. As a whole, we're better off than we've ever been, but that also means the evils we face are less obvious. The more information a society produces, the less space there is for self-reflection, and I fear what that really entails. The things we've created are impressive and (largely) useful, but as a species I don't think we possess the proper faculties to utilize them to their fullest. As we advance, I'm stuck with the image of a pet dog left with a giant bowl of food as his family goes on a trip. Any animal taken outside its natural element and given free reign over resources is going to abuse that power (moderation is not selectively advantageous), and humans are no different. We are either incapable or unwilling to approach large or personal relationships with the goal of fundamentally changing ourselves, and it is for this reason that the world we create will continue to become more efficient at massaging our egos and protecting us from human interactions that may disrupt our surprisingly fragile sense of self.
It is for the above reasons that I am a transhumanist: not because of some pie-eyed optimism in technological utopias, a fetishization of augmentation or a messianic belief in AI deliverance, but because I think we're fundamentally unfit for the future. Homo sapiens has long been removed from its natural habitat, and we don't do well in captivity. However, unlike other creatures, we were naturally selected to change our habitats to suit our wants, which in turn sabotage our core programming. A gorilla or a humpback whale may not be happy in captivity, but at least they don't instinctively build zoos around themselves. Humanity is fundamentally unstable, and our modern society is a caricature of our contradictions. We've built a world clever enough to coddle us, and it won't be long before our last ounce of purpose is drained by the convenience that we perfect at an exponential rate.
I've come to realize that I'm a pretty old-fashioned guy. Things like morality, conscience, discipline and self-sacrifice shouldn't be co-opted by the right-wing and the insane; they should be guiding, universal principles. We should approach the future with humility, and always with the assumption that there's much within ourselves that can be changed. This applies not just to the day when we have to choose how to physically augment ourselves (though that day will come), but to our everyday choices that shape the society and technology of the present. It needs to be more than entertainment, narcissism and networking. We need to produce real things, not just level up and distract ourselves from a reality that is rapidly leaving us behind.
