X-Message-Number: 31446
From: Mark Plus <>
Subject: Cowell and Cryonics, part 2 of 2
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 12:15:02 -0800
Technological Fundamentalism
The ecological precipice we now find ourselves on has been reached because of
our arrogant and ignorant application of technology in a fragile ecosystem whose
workings we only barely comprehend. Instead of adopting the precautionary
principle we have utilised unproven technologies without any acknowledgement of
the fact that the effects of those technologies are frequently unpredictable and
often disastrous. The results are polluted air and water, massive soil erosion,
the destruction of other species and habitats, and now the apocalyptic threat
of runaway climate change. Given that reality one might expect that the
introduction of new technologies would now be carried out in a far more
responsible manner but unfortunately in the grip of technological fundamentalism
we appear incapable of changing our practice and instead we barrel ahead in the
same arrogant way that has brought us to this parlous state. Amongst the more
striking examples of this arrogance are the various techno-fixes currently being
proposed to solve global warming. Those proposals include trying to boost the
albedo effect of the earth by methods such as hanging mirrors in space to
reflect sunlight away from the planet or lofting sulphur into the atmosphere in
order to create a "global dimming” effect. Regarding the latter the authors of
the Corporate Watch report 'Technofixes: A Critical Guide to Climate Change
Technologies' note that:
there are a number of significant issues with this particular approach. It
is essentially fighting pollution with more pollution. Sulphate pollution
causes a thinning of the earth's ozone layer. The sulphates will eventually
come back down to earth, with an unknown impact on ecosystems. Governments
have been working to reduce emissions of sulphates because they cause acid
rain. Nobel prize winner Paul Crutzen, who advocated research into sulphate
aerosols as a last ditch solution to global warming, predicted around half a
million deaths as a result of particulate pollution. New studies have shown
that the historic droughts in the Sahel region of Africa that caused
widespread famine in the 1970s and 80s were caused in part by industrial
emissions of sulphates in the West.
Given that many effects of the effects of the industrial/technological
revolution were wholly unpredicted there may be vastly worse consequences of
such proposals that we simply cannot envisage. The authors of the Corporate
Watch report warn us of the literal insanity of advocating such leaps in the
dark when we have already demonstrated how our monumental hubris can endanger
future life on earth:
Humanity is already conducting an uncontrolled planetary scale experiment
with the planet's climate through greenhouse gas emissions. Is it really
sensible to start another one which could have equally disastrous and
unpredictable consequences?
Cryonics - A "Science” For Our Times
The idea of cryonics is of course entirely typical of the two modern forms of
fundamentalism, and the Cowell story was likely taken seriously because a desire
for more life is a logical denouement of the celebrity lifestyle. Cowell is
estimated to earn upwards of fifty million pounds a year. He owns several sports
cars and a helicopter. He has changed his physical appearance with botox and
dated various models and socialites. It would be absolutely consistent with
consumerist fundamentalism that having acquired more or less everything money
can buy Cowell would then attempt to get more of what is inherently finite -
life.
In his book The Way of Ignorance, the essayist, novelist, small farmer and poet
Wendell Berry remarks that dominated by consumerism we have lost all sense of
what Erich Fromm called 'the art of living.' Without community, meaningful work
or any sense of shared goals we no longer have any understanding of form or
limits. And the idea of greeting death with a certain degree of equanimity
having enriched our community and the lives of those around us is by now an
utterly alien idea:
We seem to have lost any such thought of a completed life. We no longer
imagine death as an appropriate end or as a welcome deliverance from pain or
grief or weariness. Death now apparently is understood, and especially by
those who have placed themselves in charge of it, as a punishment for
growing old, to be delayed at any cost.1
Typical of consumerist fantasies the cryonic dream is also profoundly
anti-social; like many other luxuries it is by definition only possible for a
minority - since the earth plainly cannot hold more than one generation at a
time. Just as the planet could not long survive were everyone to consume at the
level of the average American or Western European it would be impossible for
cryonics to be available to all. It is also a dream that imagines a person as a
completely detached entity, adrift in space and time, divorced from all
community, human solidarity and in this case even family. That is a nightmarish
conception of human existence, it is also a conception of human existence that
gets closer to reality by the day.
Our techno-fundamentalist age has been characterised by an incredible disrespect
and contempt for nature. Consider for instance so-called "terminator
technology” - genetically modified plants whose seeds self-destruct thereby
forcing farmers to depend on agro-industry rather than saving their seeds for
each new season. The conception and implementation of such perversions of nature
are representative of what is in effect humanity's war on the biosphere. The
Indian physicist Vandana Shiva makes the comparison between those attempting to
live in some kind of balance with nature and those waging war on natural systems
for profit and market share:
When we plant a seed there's a very simple prayer that every peasant in
India says: "Let the seed be exhaustless, let it never get exhausted, let it
bring forth seed next year.” Farmers have such pride in saying "this is the
tenth generation seeds that I'm planting,” "this is the fifth generation
seed that I'm planting.” Just the other day I had a seed exchange fair in my
valley and a farmer brought Basmati aromatic rice seed and he said "this is
five generations we've been planting this in our family.” So far human
beings have treated it as their duty to save seed and ensure its continuity.
But that prayer to let the seed be exhaustless seems to be changing into
the prayer, "let this seed get terminated so that I can make profits every
year.”
The pseudo science of cryonics is similar in its contempt for nature - instead
of viewing death as healthy, inevitable and essential for life death is instead
re-conceptualised as a mere technical problem that will eventually be solved and
the question of whether it is wise or moral to interfere with one of the most
fundamental elements of all natural systems is considered irrelevant.
We would be living in a far better world if cryonics were purely an outlandish
fantasy but however technically unfeasible it may be, or however bizarre it may
seem, cryonics is a perfectly logical extension of our current mode of thinking.
It is a mode of thinking that has always threatened the mental and physical
well-being of ourselves, it now threatens the existence of the biosphere at
anything more than a grossly degraded level.
1. The Way of Ignorance, Wendell Berry, counterpoint
Alex Doherty has written for ZNet, Counterpunch, and the New Standard. He can be
reached at: Read other articles by Alex.
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