From: hal@finney.org
Date: Fri Nov 12 1999 - 11:43:09 MST
The article is readable on www.nature.com using free registration, but I
believe in the past some people have said this does not work for them.
Since the article is freely available by this means, I have taken the
liberty of copying it here, with apologies to Nature. The author turns
out to be science fiction writer Bruce Sterling.
============================
Homo sapiens declared extinct
Yes, human beings have finally gone, but the 24-hour global party continues.
Bruce Sterling
A D 2380: After a painstaking ten-year search, from the Tibetan
highlands to the Brazilian rainforests, it's official - there are
no more human beings.
"I suppose I have to consider this a personal setback," said
anthropologist Dr Marcia Raymo, of the Institute for Retrograde Study in
Berlin. "Of course we still have human tissue in the lab, and we could
clone as many specimens of Homo sapiens as we like. But that species
was always known primarily for its unique cultural activity."
"I can't understand what the fuss is about," declared Rita "Cuddles"
Srinivasan, actress, sex symbol and computer peripheral. "Artificial
Intelligences love to embody themselves in human forms like mine, to
wallow in sex and eating. I'm good for oodles of human stuff, scratching,
sleeping, sneezing, you can name it. As long as AIs honour their origins,
you'll see plenty of disembodied intelligences slumming around in human
forms. That's where all the fun is, I promise - trust me."
The actress's current AI sponsor further remarked via wireless telepathy
that Miss Srinivasan's occasional extra arms or heads should be seen
as a sign of "creative brio", and not as a violation of "some obsolete,
supposedly standard human form".
A worldwide survey of skull contents in April 2379 revealed no living
citizen with less than 35 per cent cultured gelbrain. "That pretty well
kicks it in the head for me," declared statistician Piers Euler, the front
identity for a collaborative group-mind of mathematicians at the Bourbaki
Academy in Paris. "I don't see how you can declare any entity 'human'
when their brain is a gelatin lattice, and every cell of their body
contains extensive extra strands of industrial-strength DNA. Not only is
humanity extinct but, strictly speaking, pretty much everyone alive today
should be classified as a unique, post-natural, one-of-a-kind species."
"I was born human," admitted 380-year-old classical musician Soon
Yi, speaking from his support vat in Shanghai. "I grew up as a human
being. It seemed quite natural at the time. For hundreds of years on
the state-supported concert circuit, I promoted myself as a 'humanist',
supporting and promoting human high culture. But at this point, I should
be honest: that was always my stage pretence. Let's face it: gelbrain is
vastly better stuff than those grey, greasy, catch-as-catch-can human
neurons. You can't become a serious professional artiste while using
nothing but all-natural animal tissue in your head. It's just absurd!"
Gently fanning his wizened tissues with warm currents of support fluid,
the grand old man of music continued: "Wolfgang Mozart was a very dull
creature by our modern standards but, thanks to gelbrain, I can still
find ways to pump life into his primitive compositions. I also persist
in finding Bach worthwhile, even in today's ultracivilized milieu, where
individual consciousness and creative subjectivity tend to be rather rare,
or absent entirely."
Posthumanity's most scientifically advanced group, the pioneer Blood
Bathers in their vast crystalline castles in the Oort Cloud, could not
be reached for comment.
"Why trouble the highly prestigious Blood Bathers with some trifling
development here on distant Earth?" demanded President Arno Hopmeier
of the World Anti-subjectivist Council. "The Blood Bathers are busily
researching novel realms of complex organization far beyond mere
'intelligence'. We should feel extremely honoured that they still bother
to share their lab results with creatures like us. It would only annoy
Their Skinless Eminences if we ask them to fret over some defunct race
of featherless bipeds."
A Circumsolar Day of Mourning has been declared to commemorate the
official extinction of humanity, but it is widely believed that bursts
of wild public enthusiasm will mar the funereal proceedings.
"When you sum them up," mused Orbital Entity Ankh/Ghih/9819, "it's hard
to perceive any tragedy in this long-awaited event. Beasts, birds,
butterflies, even the very rocks and rivers must be rejoicing to see
humans finally gone. We should try to be adult about this: we should
take a deep breath, turn our face to the light of the future, and get
on with the business of living.
"Since I've been asked to offer an epitaph," the highly distributed
poetware continued, "I believe that we should rearrange the Great Wall of
China to spell out (in Chinese of course, since most of them were always
Chinese) - 'THEY WERE VERY, VERY CURIOUS, BUT NOT AT ALL FARSIGHTED. '
"This historical moment is a serious occasion that requires a sense of
public dignity. My dog, for instance, says he'll truly miss humanity. But
then again, my dog says a lot of things."
[End]
Bruce Sterling (http://www.well.com/conf/mirrorshades/) is the author
of Schismatrix and many other novels and stories; the nonfiction work
The Hacker Crackdown; coauthor (with William Gibson) of The Difference
Engine; and editor of Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.
NATURE| VOL 402 | 11 NOVEMBER 1999| www.nature.com
(C) 1999 Macmillan Magazines Ltd
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