AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

An Analysis Of Transhumanism in Deus Ex: Human Revolution Evolving Technologies Test Traditional Ethics Devin Matthews University of Texas at Austin Internet Cultures Research Paper 04/17/2012

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

Introduction Adam Jensen is the embodiment of all the hopes and fears of the transhumanist movement. He is both saved and cursed by augmentations; artificial limbs, reconstructed brain, sepia shades, all involuntarily installed as a consequence of a deadly attack from an augmented Black Ops team. The offense resulted in Adam being shot in the head, which would traditionally lead to an immediate death. However, due to bio-technological innovations and a clause in his contract with private bio-tech company Sarif Industries, he was resurrected without consent. His famous line, I never asked for this, dramatically illustrates the parallels of the transhumanist theme in Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011). Transhumanism is the cultural movement maintaining the elimination of physical, intellectual, and psychological failures of the human body (such as aging or loss of limbs) by employing the latest innovations in medical science. It is also used to describe the on-going ethical debate of exploiting these technologies. The answer to the question, Is this right or wrong? has never been more obscured than it is today. In these discourses, transhumanism has been juxtaposed with the eugenics movement, the trivialization of human identity, and the widening socioeconomic gap between the rich and poor (Garda & Bilal, 2012). Advocates of the transhumanist movement argue that the use of technology to improve the human condition is part of the natural progression of the human species, while the opposition emphasizes the departure from the fundamental nature of the human condition; the idea of death as a universal truth and an aspect of life that, if marginalized, completely changes what it means to be human. Deus Ex: HR explores these themes alongside our developing culture, representing both a present and a future of our own human revolution.

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

Deus Ex: HR engages a much larger discourse about transhumanism in our culture through the use of the protagonist Adam Jensen, effectively externalizing 'normal' life in a science-fiction setting in order to participate in a discussion about the ethics of human augmentation, specifically it's relation to eugenics, human identity, and the socioeconomic gap. Adam Jensen A Representational Protagonist Adam Jensen is the classic cyberpunk cyborg; a perfect melding of man and machine. He is doubly relevant due to the nature of his augmentation: Jensen's life is saved through these technologies, but he is also forced to accept his new body and reconsider his identity. The sci-fi setting ...may act as a prefigurative social theory by creating fictional worlds that make familiar elements of current societies strange and thereby open them to criticism, (Jordan, 1999, p. 32). Although the narrative of Deus Ex: HR takes place in 2027, we see evidence of the transhumanist discourse taking place today. Artificial limbs that respond to mental activity have been developed and are currently being tested for victims who have lost their natural appendages. One prosthetic recipient is elated to have a functional hand again, clearly ameliorated from the use of the bio-technological innovation (Discovery News, 2009). On the other side of the coin, such augmentations can also be used for warfare purposes due to enhancing military performance. A soldier with augmented legs would be able to travel faster, lighter, and could more effectively cause damage to the enemy. Robin Hanson on The Stream, brought in for his skepticism of the positive aspects of transhumanism, commented, ...just because in general we don't like military technologies that much doesn't mean we that should ban each and every thing that might be a military technology, (Garda, 2012, 19:39). Technological innovation, whether used for good or evil, is generally a 'good thing'. However,

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

Adam Jensen perfectly represents this augmented mercenary, capable of super-human feats and considered as a pawn for a private security company. This narrative choice demonstrates knowledge of the current debates surrounding body augmentation and attempts to engage it's players in questioning the ethics of transhumanism. There are also examples of Jensen's sepia shades appearing in present day, although Jensen's HUD appears because of his augmented eyes. Recently Google has announced Project Glass, a research and development project attempting to design real-life glasses that project information in an augmented reality view. The report has so far received mixed reviews; people are either excited, confused, or afraid of what the technology will do and where it is headed (Hill, 2012). Jensen's eyes are sleek and feature-rich; it displays all necessary combat information and also uploads what it sees to a database. The augmentation could represent the end of privacy with it's constant surveillance, or it might represent the narrative's approval of always-present information for the user. One definite aspect of the sunglasses is that it separates Adam from the world around him, which seems to be an intentional choice. The shades have the ability to retract into it's shell, allowing Jensen to once again be one with his surroundings. However, Adam only retracts the glasses once during the course of the game: during a personal conversation with Megan Reed, his ex-girlfriend. This is a deliberate action from the writers to impart a feeling of augmentations as contradictory to human nature, where the separation between Adam and the world must be removed for personal relationships to flourish. Adam's most deadly wound, the shot through the head, is repaired with enhancements in his brain. Through memory reconstruction and data uploading, his brain does not suffer longterm consequences of the injury. This aspect of Adam is where our reality does not quite match

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

the narrative, but we are getting closer. The same examination of death is also discussed on The Stream by George Dvorsky, This has been an absolutely inalienable part of the human condition: we live, and then we die...What does it mean to perhaps live hundreds and hundreds of years, if not thousands of years? What does it mean in terms of our existential type of placement in the world, or our relation to others? (Garda, 2012, 7:00). Our culture is currently gripping with the rapidly thinning reality of death. Deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, after posthumously releasing several albums, recently appeared as a hologram for a performance at Coachella 2012 with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg (Smith, 2012). The life-like image shocked the audiences and became an instant viral hit on YouTube. While this does not resemble true resurrection, it does provoke a philosophical discussion of what it means to be alive. If a complete synthetic person can be reassembled and presented as life-like, what does that mean for human identity? Is immortality simply the defeat of death, or is it the lasting influence on culture and science that so many of our ancestors have left behind? Neither of these questions can be easily answered, but both are proposed in Adam Jensen's and Tupac Shakur's resurrections. Deus Ex: HR, by virtue of choosing to resurrect Adam rather than repair him, made a conscious decision to promote these types of philosophical discourses. This arrangement is evidence that the writers want to involve their players in these unanswerable questions throughout their narrative. Transhumanism = Coercive Eugenicism? One of the most prominent arguments against transhumanism is the similarities it has with eugenics, an earlier form of scientifically-inspired classification of human genetics. The movement sought to separate the genetically fit from the unfit, having preconceived ideas of what humans should be like, thus attempting to purify the human species and better society as a

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

whole. Eugenicism was also a primary motivator for Nazi Germany's attack on the Jewish people, sparking WWII. Ari Schulman on The Stream explained how the eugenics movement differs from transhumanism, ...it was sort of a centralized body, deciding that other people's lives needed to be tweaked in this way, (Garda, 2012, 10:35). In Deus Ex: HR, we see the same discourse of eugenics in the protagonist's character. It is revealed during the course of the game that Jensen had been experimented on as a baby, resulting in his uncanny ability to bond with augmentations seamlessly. Most natural citizens require an expensive drug called Neuropozyne in order to continue living with their implants, but Jensen does not have this dependency. This would seem to provoke the question of eugenics relationship with transhumanism: whether it is morally right to experiment on children to make them more receptive to augmentations. It examines the act of the 'centralized body' doing the experiments and their right to 'tweak people' to accept implants without Neuropozyne dependency. It also appears to be a clear move toward delegating that certain people are chosen over others to be altered, reflecting the eugenics topic quite accurately. Human Identity What Does it Mean to Be Transhuman? The question of identity is one that Adam Jensen struggles with throughout Deus Ex: HR and also allows the player to choose who Jensen is through game-play decisions. In a virtual environment filled with people having these same discussions on transhumanist ethics, Jensen is torn between his willingness to live freely and his reluctance to accept his augmentations. This element creates a rich environment for players to construct Adam's identity themselves, either choosing to become embittered from his existence or make the best of the situation. The decisions given to the player extends to morality as well; in several missions Adam must make

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

choices with a moral aspect, such as killing opponents versus non-lethal take-downs, or escaping a dangerous gun-fight versus defending friend and co-worker Faridah Malik from certain death. These player selections create Jensen's identity and personality, not based on who the character is, but how the player feels he should be. Again, Deus Ex: HR is deliberate in it's writing to emphasize the question of identity. The creation of an identity for Adam Jensen by the player's judgment embodies the debate of human identity by suggesting that only an individual can decide whether transhumanism is a 'good or bad' thing. The developers participate in the discussion by submitting that no one can answer the question of human identity; the individual can only come to that conclusion on their own. The Expanding Socioeconomic Gap A final interpretation of Deus Ex: HR's themes regard the transhumanist deliberation on how augmentation effects the wealthy and destitute differently. There is a fear that the rich would control the technological innovations to assert dominance over the other classes, which also happens to be a theme of the film Gattaca (1997). Hanson addresses this argument on The Stream, expressing that, ...in the past, new technologies always went to rich people first, because they could afford it, and they helped pay for the innovation that eventually allowed for everyone else to have it, (Garda, 2012, 13:48). This particular argument is incorporated in Deus Ex: HR as well through the relevance of the Neuropozyne, physically separating those who can afford to pay for expensive prescriptions to survive and those who cannot. The drug is in severely high demand and is controlled by powerful corporations who seek to profit off its commercialization. In a mission called Lesser Evil, Jensen uncovers a fellow employee who has been stealing the company's supply of Neuropozyne and is blackmailed into continuing. When

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

Jensen finds the blackmailer, he explains that he was just giving it away to the poor people of Detroit who could not afford to buy it. Again, the narrative design of Deus Ex: HR presents the real and current discussion about economic inequality in affording these new technologies that are becoming increasingly necessary for basic survival. The inclusion of the Neuropozyne is a conscious action by the developers to guide the player toward the moral ambiguities of universal access to augmentations, further complicating and enriching the theme of transhumanism in the game. Conclusion Through several examples, it becomes clearer how Deus Ex: HR and Adam Jensen not only nod to their older 1980s cyberpunk counterparts, but also respect the genre for what it is meant to be: a strangeness that externalizes the familiar culture we are used to in order to critique and examine the issues. Through the 'othering' of events and devices that are the cutting edge of modern technology today, audiences can more readily engage with the daunting subject matter. It also serves as an opportunity for the game developer to take it's own position on each topic, an idea that is fairly new in the past couple of decades. Adam Jensen is our generation's version of William Gibson's Case. But instead of the classic noir anti-hero, Jensen resembles more of a character who is open to interpretation. We do not know what the future brings, but we can play with our predictions and test how we feel about them through these types of interactive media, intensifying our discussions of what new technologies mean for humans. It is inevitable that technology will continue to grow at an exponential rate. What is not certain is how we will deal with these issues when the time comes, but Deus Ex: HR stands as a firm contribution to the transhumanist ethics topic.

AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM: EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES TEST TRADITIONAL ETHICS

References Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Computer software]. (2011). London, England: Eidos Montreal, Square Enix. Discovery News. (2009, December 7). Tech: Man Controls Robotic Hand with Mind. Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, History, Adventure, Human, Autos. Retrieved April 17, 2012, from http://news.discovery.com/videos/tech-man-controls-robotic-hand-with-mind.html Garda, I., & Bilal, M. (2012, March 28). The Stream [Television broadcast]. Doha, Qatar: Al Jazeera English. Retrieved April 17, 2012, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXGY2o6GJPA Hill, K. (2012, April 6). How Google Glasses Make A Persistent, Pervasive Surveillance State Inevitable - Forbes. Information for the World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com. Retrieved April 17, 2012, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/04/06/how-google-glasses-make-apersistent-pervasive-surveillance-state-inevitable/ Jordan, T. (1999). Cyberspace and the Matrix. Cyberpower: the culture and politics of cyberspace and the Internet (pp. 20-33). London: Routledge. Smith, E. (2012, April 16). Tupac Shakur 'Hologram,' Seen at Coachella, May Go on Tour WSJ.com. Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com. Retrieved April 17, 2012, from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304818404577348243109842490.html