Radical Evolution Summary

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The main theses of the text, Radical Evolution is that Garreau was interested in how the technologies would affect being human. The Curve states that the information technology will continue to grow at the same rate from 1959 to the early 21st century. “These unprecedented rapid doublings of information power and dramatically reduced costs continue to spawn new transformative technologies, such as genetics, robotics and nanotechnology” (Garreau, 2005, p. 80). In the Curve scenario, there are curves of exponential change. These curves describe the increase in the capabilities of information technology. It is the curves of information technology which rises the new curves of exponential change to emerge in fields, such as genetics, robotics, …show more content…
In the Prevail scenario there are two key elements, which are that humans have a history of just moving through life and rising to the occasion. The main difference is that in Prevail we would pick and choose the technology to accelerate or slow down based on our viewpoint of them. Jaron Lanier who is the main supporter says that humans not technology have the power to affect the history. The key measure of success is the connectivity between humans. In the last scenario, Transcend, the view is that technology can make an improvement on human nature. The key person is George Annas, who says that you should not make changes without referring them to society. It speaks about Transhumanism which is loosely defined movement which has gained momentum with the GRIN technologies. “Transhumanists are keen on the enhancements of human intellectual, physical and emotional capabilities, the elimination of disease and unnecessary suffering, and the dramatic extension of life span” (Garreau, 2005, p. 231). It has three points which are: the competitive advantage that the GRIN technologies deliver to those who embrace them for various reasons suggests that these technologies will continue to advance at an increasing rate, so many of these technologies can change human conditions and may have an impact on what it is to be human, and that the history suggests that we will have consequences with surprising outcomes. “Transcend builds on, …show more content…
When there are simple rules and chance are present that is when complexity arises. A CAS is also densely interconnected, it works within itself, and history affects the systems’ new outcomes. There is a relationship between these ideas and Complexity theory and Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). This relationship can be exemplified by the many ideas that overlap between the ideas and are densely interconnected. All of them speak about an emergence of new features or species. Also all of them the elements can change and the detailed behavior over time are unpredictable. The GRIN technologies are similar to Complexity and CAS because all three of them are intertwining within the specific system. You can see the Curve in Evolution which is similar to Complexity. Singularity is similar to Complexity and CAS because they all have to deal with changes in the rules. In all the scenarios, certain humans will get more “complex” over time due to the