Recently, I stumbled across a new cable television series that
started showing up on the National Geographic cable channel called Year
Million (2017).
The documentary-style show is the type of series that makes an immediate
impression on the viewer. The series takes a speculative look at how
human beings and human society will evolve (devolve?) in the next several
hundred years (the term “Year Million” not specifically referring to a million
years from today; it’s more of a catchy way of saying “the future.”) This
is the kind of program that sticks with you long after a viewing, that makes
you think, question your reality, and alternately, can invigorate/frighten you
to your core, in its display of the future worlds depicted.
Here's a description of the show, via Google:
"Given how rapidly
technology and intelligence have advanced humankind in the past 10 years, one
can't help but wonder how different the world may be in another 10 years.
National Geographic, however, is thinking big. The six-part docudrama
"Year Million" paints a visual story of what it will be like to be a
human 1 million years into the future. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, the
series features top futurists, scientists, scholars and notable science-fiction
writers guiding viewers through the latest advances in technology, ideas and
innovations and to an existence where we're living beyond our bodies, beyond
our planet and beyond our solar system. Illustrative, imaginative storytelling
describes humanity's fate through the lens of a typical futuristic American family,
which includes an android daughter."
I've seen three episodes of the series thus far. Here's the
titles, with a brief description of each episode, via the series website:
Episode 1-Homo Sapien 2.0-A look at advances in
neuroscience and engineering in regard to artificial intelligence. Advances
in neuroscience and engineering are bringing us closer toward a reality first
described in great science fiction, one in which artificial intelligence will
become indistinguishable from – or perhaps even surpass – human intelligence.
This could lead to a future in which AI beings become our essential
collaborators or a threat to human value and life. What are the major
milestones that are leading us towards this singularity, and how will that
affect the evolution of the human species?
Episode 2-Never Say Die-How the futuristic idea of
living forever will change what it's like to be human. In the future,
will we move beyond treating individual diseases and, instead, treat the aging
process itself? How would a dramatically protracted life change not only the
fabric of society, but what it means to be a human being?
Episode 3-Dude, Where's My Body?-With human
activity transferring to virtual spaces, will reality suffer the
consequences. Advances in graphics and computing power have
given rise to a renaissance in virtual technologies from world-building
platforms like Second Life to manufacturers of VR headsets like Oculus Rift.
We’re seeing more and more of human activity transfer to virtual spaces,
offering people profound experiences via online personas and even transforming
the way the real-world functions. Will we reach a tipping point where reality
becomes a pale shadow of the rich, imaginative, virtual worlds we’ve created
for ourselves? What will that mean for our perception of humanity? What do we
risk losing?
My biggest issue with this series? The impact of
theology on human future society is completely ignored, a rather unfortunate
misstep of this series. Additionally, in
the episodes I have watched, the disciplines of philosophy and psychology, and
their impact on future human societies are to a large (but not total) extent,
ignored. Theoretical physicists are interviewed, yes, which is a welcome
and necessary component of the program. One theoretical physicist does
reference such diverse thinkers as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. But no philosophers are interviewed in the
series? No theologians?
There’s no discussion by the existing on-camera commentators on
what impact religious faith will have on these future biological, electronic,
et al advances of humanity, which I find curious, to say the least. Yes, I am only three episodes into the
series, but I find the omission of non-secular P.O.V. thus far contributes to
an incomplete feeling whilst watching the show.
For example, in the first episode, Homo Sapien 2.0, we are told
that in the future, electronic automation will eliminate most jobs, even those
occupations considered “safe,” like those in the medical or legal field. The patriarch of a future family (that is followed
throughout the series) is shown at one point to lose his job as an architect to
computers/automation/robots that can do the job quicker, cheaper, and more
effectively. What are human beings, such
as this individual, going to do when they no longer have a job to go to every
day?
I believe that in the absence of employment, a large majority of
unemployed individuals will turn towards psychology, philosophy, and yes,
religion, to make sense of their lives following the massive loss of
occupations. Machines potentially can
replace psychologists and philosophers, but they can never replace, say,
Catholic priests, who are required to be human to fulfill their duties. So, at least some jobs in the clergy sector
will be irreplaceable.
Yes, I am well aware of the argument that a system of guaranteed
basic income might be a solution to widespread unemployment caused by job loss
as a result of omnipresent automation in future human society. In that case, humans will have ample
opportunity to pursue leisurely activities, as they won’t need to earn money
for a living. This, of course, is
assuming that some sort of basic income can be affordably provided to the
citizens of a nation, or that the philosophical nature of a particular nation
will allow for that guaranteed basic income in the first place. I’m entirely not convinced a developed
country like the U.S. would (or should) plan on a future guaranteed basic
income to short-circuit mass poverty (or could even afford such a system in the
future, were it to become an economic neccesity.)
As far as what the series Year
Million gets right? Well, there are
a number of touches I really like.
It was a really inspired choice to choose actor Laurence Fishburne
to narrate this series. Fishburne is
synonymous in many a mind as the character of“Morpheous”in the set-in-the-future
Cyberpunk Matrix movie series of the
late 20th-early 21rst century; his voice lends an air of
authenticity to the proceedings.
I also like the choice the series producers made in following a futuristic
family that we gradually get to know and love as the series progresses. We feel a kinship with the family, even as we
feel separated from them by multiple decades (and even centuries.) By the third episode we are fully emotionally
invested in the fate of this little group of related individuals.
Bottom line, I am very curious to see how this series plays
out. Truth be told, if some of the predictions
of the future of humanity thus far illustrated come to pass as depicted in this
series, the seeming-utopia presented seems to me (as a man of faith) to be more
of a dystopia, and one that I am not all-too-interested in seeing come to
fruition.
