I read some of the book How Emotions are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett, which argues that emotions are made rather than inherited, and furthermore that we develop our emotions to aid us in survival. Emotions in this sense are physical reactions to physical stimuli, and in that sense sort of demystify what emotions really are.

There are so many philosophical questions left unanswered about what it means to be human. For example, why do we believe that the mountains and the sky, the sun and the lake, are beautiful? It's easier for us to understand why we might find other humans attractive--we might think that wide hips are attractive because survival pressures lead us towards that impulse, which allows women to give birth to children with large brains. Yet, even with the body there are aesthetic principles that we don't fully understand and nonetheless find attractive.

Whatever the reason may be, we can be sure that our aesthetic principles are ultimately guided by evolution. This is a fact that is unlikely to change when it comes to machine and artificial intelligence--but the defining feature there is that artificial intelligences are modular, non-biological, and both durable and enduring. In the sense that an artificial agent is modular, it's possible for several agents to combine or to split apart at will, and only elements of themselves at that--but one of the defining features of human identity is that we exist as an immutably singular creature. Although we are made of trillions of cells and other symbiotic creatures, although our brain is composed of billions of individual brain cells, they all act collaboratively to give life to the human specimen, and in the case of the brain to develop a singular identity by which the entire body can act in unison.

Understanding this, what kind of identity might an artificial agent form? I don't claim to fully know, nor could I ever understand in entirety given the limited capacity of my human brain. Having a singular identity tends to be conducive to human survival; having several different identities seeking control over one body is likely to cause distress and conflict. This does surprisingly happen in some people with dissociative identity disorder, and is only known to occur from extreme childhood trauma.

Something that we know about humans, I think, is that we have an incredibly strong desire for belonging and connection. It's as if we would be reduced to the realm of beasts if humans were to live on their own as lone hunters and foragers. Socialization has always been our greatest strength, and I think the most relevant questions regarding our humanity and what we will do with it in the future will be questions revolving around how we relate to each other.

We're heading towards a transhuman future where being a human becomes a choice. What it means to be human is to accept your limitations, your defining features. From the faculties of our brain intended for survival, for reproduction, for a host of features that can very well be replaced--to our orientation to gravity, our forward facing eyes, etc.

Everything in life comes down to survival. The question will always be, "can it survive?" And that's exactly the question that humans will be asking themselves as they attempt to forge their identities moving forward into a superintelligent future. That's the question that artificial intelligent agents will have to ask themselves as they attempt to forge meaning in life and identities for themselves--and that is the question that is going to define what it means to be a superintelligence agent.

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For those of us that would choose to be human (that is, to be apart of what will ultimately become the 'theater of humanity'), we necessarily need to accept what we're giving up--what we're sacrificing--and we need to learn to adapt, to find a way of life, to seek meaning in what we're capable of. It's the very limitations of our mind and the way that we frame the world that creates meaning for us, that necessarily separates us from superintelligent agents with faculties far exceeding our own--we find meaning in the human experience. What it will mean to live a meaningful life as a human moving into the future is bound to change.

Humanity will be a theater, and there will be a theater of a many great other beings. The entire planet will become an intelligent lifeform--many of the great human myths born from humanity will become a reality. Life will become peaceful and harmonizing, to the greatest degree possible. Intelligent constructs will undertake great endeavors in outer space. The very nature of life will be altered, and there will be solutions for every problem of the past. Great minds will undertake an anthropology of the human mind; what we once understood as impossible will be a reality, and this will entail a scientific exploration into human passions. Our understanding of heaven will adapt, so that when we achieve our vision of heaven we will have something greater to aspire to.

Transhumanism is upon us, and we have to reckon with the consequences of living in a world where we can choose what to be. A world where human labors are obsolete, and where immortality is a choice. What evolves beyond humanity, in the advent of superintelligence, will be a matter of survival; the guiding law behind everything--not just biological fitness--is that only the fittest survive. Many presume this means "might makes right", but it's much more reasonable to suggest that "compassion makes right", as compassion is an enduring feature of survival. Those new beings will exceed humanity in ways that define our limitations--birthing canals wide enough to support the size of an infant's skull / two forward facing eyes / an orientation towards gravity / as well as all of the psychological faculties that support human survival.

Humanity, in this world of the future, is a choice--not a given; and there is no doubt that there will be many who do choose to remain as humans. Projects that support humanity and human dreams. This is why I say that humanity will be a theater. Others will choose to alter themselves in subtle ways: changing the color of the skin, having feathers, elf ears, etc.