"We are not free in the things we do, because we are not free in the things we want", Noah (Dark, 2018)
Let us sit back and ponder for a moment. What happens at the ends of humanity? When will the universe finally decide it had enough of us and kick us out?
Certainly a lot of thought has already been poured into these questions, in various works of fiction. There is the classical intergalactic empire and its inevitable downfall. The zombie apocalypse where in the end even the last human is teared to shreds. Thousands of stories told in late nights have done it to death. Over and over again.
And then there are the more "realistic" outlooks of what might be. Climate change or the eventual lack of natural resources could very well be the downfall of humanity. Some might even go as far as to say that this is the probable fate not just of our race but of every living and sufficiently advanced being in that giant empty universe of ours. "The great filter" if you will.
However one common theme spans almost all these theories.
It always goes badly. Something goes wrong, either we mess up, may it be nuking each other out of existance or everyone dying of a pandemic (let's hope we don't). However you look at it, good endings are an exceptional rarity. And it makes sense, given the nature of the question. If there was a silver lining, if things actually went right for humanity that would mean humanity wouldn't have ended yet, right? After all one thing seems pretty clear. We do not want to end. Evolution has created us with an innate will to survive, to further our existance. And that will will most likely never change.
But that argument is a very narrow view of the whole discussion. What if there was a happy ending for humanity? A perfect ending even. Leaving nothing to be desired.
Well, there is. But it will leave a bad aftertaste in your mouth.
Let us imagine a simple machine. It clicks, it makes beep-boop. And most importantly, there is a cozy seat inside it. What does the machine do, you ask? Simple, it makes whoever sits in it happy. Doesn't matter if it rained today or you stepped in dog poop. Once you sit down and get comfortable you are happy. Let's call it Happy pod for now.
So great, there is a shiny machine. It clicks, it makes beep-boop and it is very comfortable and makes you happy.
How does it do it? Well, at this point that might be anyones guess. But what it could do is intercept the electric current in our brain essentially modifying what we sense, feel, think and remember. We might no be able to build that right now, but in the future we might. For now let's just pretend we can.
Now what? Well, the thing is this clicky, beepy-boopy machine can single-handedly carry humanity to paradise. How?
Science has given rise to many innovations we now consider an integral part of society. We understand ourselves better now that ever before. But there is still a giant question mark floating in the room. How come we can even ask these questions? How come we even want to ask them? What even is we? What is I? And what the fuck is conciousness?
We might not know how conciousness works or why it exists. But we already know how to do one thing to it, and do it extraordinarily well. College kids are great at it. Alcoholics even more so. We know very, very (, very) well how to spice up the things it experiences. After all humanity is not new to the drug game...
What does that have to do with our Happy Pod machine though? Everything, pretty much. The machine we built really just is a drug after all. We might not smoke it, we might not inject it but it still is a drug.
With one distinct difference. If we build it right, it doesn't cause addiction, it costs a fraction of chemical drugs and is safe to use forever.
The perfect drug.
Sooooooo...
Should we do it?
Should we build this machine? The perfect drug.
"No, of course not. Drugs are for the weak. They are just a temporary escape from reality. Made by the weak for the weak."
"If we all just let our lifes slide by inside a Happy Pod, who will uphold our culture, our society and all the things we hold dear and close to our hearts?"
"Nobody will."
So we shouldn't do it right?
But at that point. Would anyone even have this problem anymore? We would all be happy after all. We wouldn't need to worry anymore. About anything.
Because society doesn't drive us to do anything. Our houses, our money, our cars don't drive us to do anything. Only one thing really does. We want to be happy. Society is just helpful in achieving that goal.
It doesn't seem that way thought, does it? We care about others more than our happiness sometimes, don't we? If I had to die right now, I'd much rather do so around the people I cherish and not with a big shot of morphine in my arm.
But would I say the same thing when I am already on morphine?
Or put simply. Would you care to be surrounded by people that bring you and them happiness, if you were already filled to to brim with joy? And if you still said no, think about the following: If drugs can trick your brain into thinking you are seeing giant pink bears soaring through the sky, why couldn't they just trick you into seeing the ones you love. Removing any need to actually see them.
Convinced or not let's see what happens when we build them. Throw away all our morals, fuck society and let's all hop into our Happy pods!
What happens now? Humanity has realized existence is pointless and Happy pods are way more efficient means to maximize our happiness. All of humanity is filled with eternal joy, we are so, so happy.
And then we just die.
Wait, we die? Oh right, we starved, died of old age, our happy pods ran out of battery and there are no more resources to build new ones. That wasn't part of the original plan. We just wanted to maximise our happiness and now we ended at the opposite end dying and losing all our precious happiness in the process.
An unsolvable problem. End of the line. Attempt failed. Back to the drawing board.
But. Like. Really though?
All these problems we might face are just superficial roadblocks to the final goal of humanity. Sustenance? Easy just let robots feed us through a tube. No battery and resources to build or repair our pods left? Build an intergalactic drone fleet that can mine minerals on foreign planets in effect giving us a limitless supply of resources. Energy? Just build a few dyson spheres. And pfft. Dying of old age, let us be real here, slightly nudging our genetic code in the right directions to disable the mechanisms responsible for killing us off, no brainer. And if we are too lazy to invent all that ourselves, then let us just wait another few years where machine learning models have scaled to a few trillion parameters, developed humanlike reasoning capabilities and then let them perform research at the edge of modern physics and biology to develop everything for us while we sit back and relax.
And then we have reached the perfect world. Existance filled only with joy, no fear, no envy, no sadness. It would be heaven on earth. And we would be god. Until the ends of the universe.
It world certainly be the perfect silver lining and a nice warm and cozy end to the story we call humanity.
But it still leaves this bitter aftertaste in our mouths. That nagging fear of giving up all the freedoms we possess. And that scary realisation that we most likely wouldn't even care once it happened.
We live in this elaborate bubble that we feed our minds with that we are somehow different from the rest of the universe. We LOVE to make ourselves feel special. But we pale in comparison to the rest of the stars and the cosmos. Giant red fireballs, dust-clouds bigger than anything our puny humans brains can ever even attempt to comprehend and all-devouring blackholes will most likely be there long after we have all perished, unphased by what went on in our tiny little monkey heads.
Maybe we are not as special as we think we are. And maybe, just maybe we are not as free in our thoughs and desires as we think we are.
This essay came to be after a great conversation I had with my friend Jan on a late Saturday evening (Was definitly worth the missed sleep!)