Mon, 2007 May 21
The Ethics of Slow History
Bear with me here. I’m getting to a point. Also, I’m not a futurist and I don’t read futurists and I can’t actually believe that’s a career, so other people may well have discussed some of these items far better. Oh, well.
I was pondering the consequences of scientific advances in relation to food. That is, if we as a society–and this seems likely–create a method of “synthetic” photosynthesis, along with advances in synthesizing proteins and vitamins, eating as we know could become a purely luxury activity, with nourishment coming perhaps in the form of pills, or a machine people carry around that performs the photosynthesis, or whatever method–none of these thoughts are in the least original.
That led me, naturally, to the thought that at this point, many of the human organs–particularly digestive–could become expendable; follow the train a bit and the potential for a human which is basically just brain. I’m not at all implying that such a lifestyle would appeal to most, but perhaps to a few. Again, nothing particularly innovative here. But then, I found myself in a fun new line of thought.
From what I read, the speed of light is constant, and the inability to accelerate to it is one of the grand frustrations of sci-fi writers. Who, after all, is going to live long enough to explore distant solar systems? Ah, but I stumble upon a solution. Slow down history. That is, if all humans–or at least all of one culture, say, the random space-exploring-brain-only culture–are pretty much just brains inside some casing, would it not be conceivable to establish some wave, some function within that casing that slows all brain activity, even by tens of orders of magnitude? Then, all of history–for that group–would slow down and create the perception of much speedier distance travel. One could indeed travel to distant solar systems and return within what feels to that society as only a few years, few months, few days. If applied wholesale, the galaxy could become a much smaller place.
This ploy sounds rather silly to me, but even then I found myself considering ethical issues that this society would face. To wit, it would immediately seem useful to allow law enforcement to break into “normal” time in order to solve cases more quickly. The opportunity to prevent a serial killer’s next strike seems inviting enough. This becomes possible if the slow time mechanism is applied on an individual basis. But we all know that the criminals can easily catch up with the innovations of law enforcement. Indeed, this would be trivial. They need only to turn off their individual mechanism.
So, now, in order for this society to function, the slow time mechanism must be applied to a planet or solar system at least, or be applied in such a way that requires some authoritative intervention to turn it off. Ah, but do we trust the government–or any institution–with the power over time. I do not. It must be wholesale then.
But what of those who want to see the seasons, to live as God or nature or whatever “intended”? Perhaps they should be “re-educated”. No? Then sent to a distant system. Of course, they may choose to attack those who stay, requiring normal time armies for the slow time community. Think a military draft is bad now? Those serving will age rapidly. Indeed, an additional society will have to be formed that reproduces in normal time. Inherently separated from the main society, born on to serve them. A slave class. Who can rebel before the rest of society even knows.
I’m beginning to think this slow time would be problematic.
