It’s the End of the World as They Know It—and They Feel Fine
What does Ray Kurzweil have in common with Greta Thunberg? Surprisingly, they don’t have much in common. American computer scientist, One is a futurist who has been hailed as the prophet of the Future. “the singularity”—the moment when the line between man and machine disappears and our brains get an ever-improving software upgrade. A Swedish teenager, a teenager, made a name for herself by abandoning school to shout at the world’s leaders about climate change.
Adam Kirsch believes they are inextricably connected. He has named his short novel after both of them. The Revolt Against Mankind: We Can Imagine a Future Without Us. Kirsch argues that Kurzweil and Thunberg are part of a diverse group. “from Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural communities to academic philosophy departments” You might be thinking of a new and innovative idea. “that the end of humanity’s reign on Earth is imminent and that we should welcome it.”
These are the best “turn against human primacy” Two forms exist. The first is “Anthropocene antihumanism,” A “radical response to … ecological crisis” That rejects the philosophical concept of “humanity’s traditional role as Earth’s protagonist, the most important being in creation.” One is transhumanism. This glorifies technology progress. “the only way forward for humanity is to create new forms of intelligent life that will no longer be Homo sapiens.”
These ideas seem to be less common by the day. Climate doomsaying has become a common theme in media. Predictions of our imminent extinction are becoming less shocking and more prevalent. We laugh at Mark Zuckerberg’s cartoonish Metaverse, and we ask ChatGPT for bad jokes. But it is hard to believe that there’s a major shift in how we relate to computers. Our screens slip deeper into our lives, blurring the lines between real and virtual. This may not amount to transhumanism but it’s a significant step forward. The most influential tech leaders of our time, including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, are taking the idea seriously.
With The Revolt against HumanityKirsch is a poet and literary critic. He also serves as editor for the Wall Street JournalThese pen portraits, created by’s weekend Review section have been published.
Kirsch clearly explains how these ideas differ from what’s been before. For example, take the environmental antihumanists. There is a lot of commonality between their doomsaying and the nuclear-wipeout fears that were prevalent during the Cold War. These fearful sentiments have been making a comeback recently. Both are warnings about humankind’s own folly leading to its—and the planet’s—demise. Kirsch clarifies that climate change doomsayers are wrong. “more radically unsettling” warning: “It means humanity is endangered not by our acknowledged vices, such as hatred and violence, but by pursuing aims that we ordinarily consider good and natural: prosperity, comfort, increase of our kind. The Bible gives the negative commandment ‘thou shalt not kill’ as well as the positive commandment ‘be fruitful and multiply,’ and traditionally they have gone together. But if being fruitful and multiplying starts to be seen as itself a form of killing, since it deprives future generations and other species of irreplaceable resources, then the flourishing of humanity can no longer be seen as simply good.”
Kirsch is an impartial skeptic who approaches these ideas in a neutral manner. Although he understands their potential implications and does his best at understanding their prosponents, he still views them as a matter of fact. Although he enjoys having fun with antihumanist elements that are more bizarre, Timothy Morton, another example is Timothy Morton. He’s an adherent to “object-oriented ontology,” Or OOO. He urges for more solidarity “non-human people,” This includes animals, but also plants and other random objects such as rocks. Patricia MacCormack, an author who promotes a sober worldview it’s hard to believe. Her claim to being “deeply saddened that there has never managed to be an annihilation of the human species, in spite of plague and war.”
I doubt slogans like “rocks have feelings too” Oder “let’s all die” They are very popular. Thankfully. These fringe cases should not encourage you to ignore the obvious temptation of taking antihumanists too seriously. Kirsch seems to be aware of the urge to dismiss climate alarmism and transhumanists’ predictions about our cyborg futurity as alarmism. He calls for more engagement.
It is right here. The Revolt against Humanity is so persuasive. It is tempting to become cynical when faced with the rising trend among millennials to say they won’t have children due to climate change or the predictions of an imminent species-transforming technological revolution.
Kirsch knows that response: “Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye, said La Rochefoucauld. The disappearance of the human race belongs in the same category. We can acknowledge that it’s bound to happen someday, but the possibility that the day might be tomorrow, or 10 years from now, is hard to contemplate. That instinctive reaction contributes to an air of unreality that surrounds many of the ideas in this book. Calls for the disappearance of humanity are hard to understand other than rhetorically. It’s natural to assume that transhumanism is just a dramatic way of calling attention to the promise of a new technology, while Anthropocene antihumanism is really environmentalism in a hurry.”
Kirsch cautions against dismissing beliefs based on predictions that are too optimistic. Many religions that predicted the demise of mankind have failed to come through. As Kirsch points out, “In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his followers that the world is going to end in their lifetime. … This proved not to be true—at least not in any straightforward sense—but the promise still changed the world.”
Kirsch isn’t the first to compare climate-change doomsaying with transhumanist technology-utopianism or traditional religions. Kirsch believes that such movements should be regarded as a threat to traditional religions. “appeal to the people who are committed to science and reason, yet yearn for clarity and purpose of an absolute moral imperative.” Kirsch claims that this promise of an enlightened sacrifice is the reason why rebellion against humanity is so powerful.
Kirsch offers some disturbing insights when he points out the many differences between these voguish ideas, and older theology. Although many religious traditions foretell the end of humankind, they also offer more. “Rather than simply vanishing, we will be physically and spiritually transformed.” This is in contrast to the current idea of human extermination. “implies that our disappearance will change nothing. The planet and the universe will go on in exactly the same way after humanity ceases to exist, except that other animals and planets will have a better chance to flourish. The death of the human race is as cosmically meaningless as the death of an individual, since both are soon swallowed up by oblivion.”
This is an alarming foundation upon which to build a worldview. Even if this is an inaccurate prediction, Kirsch’s argument that these beliefs could still upend politics, economy, technology and culture is convincing.
The Revolt Against Mankind: We Can Imagine a Future Without Us
Adam Kirsch
Columbia Global Reports 104 pages, $15.99
Oliver Wiseman, deputy editor at the Spectator World, The U.S. edition is the oldest publication in the world.
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