Interview
Eudald Carbonell
ARCHAEOLOGIST
“If we want to survive, we have to dehumanise”
Our consciousness can self-destruct, but it can also avoid it by generating a tendency for transformation
You say we’re heading for collapse?
It’s already happening. In my book El futur de la humanitat (The Future of Humanity) I set out how to avoid collapse in 10 points that recall the 10 commandments.
Do we need leaders?
Leadership is biologically backward. It’s in the past of societies that have nothing to do with those of the scientific and technological revolution. Fifty years today are like 10,000 years in the past. Animals living in groups use leadership but we, as rational animals, have evolved and see that leaders can be the worst thing there is.
But what can be done in a society as manipulable as ours?
Societies have always been manipulable; the best constructed fake news in history, at least in the West, was Adam and Eve. Through repeating it, people end up with hope through faith. Rationality is harder to integrate into social processes as it depends on logic, on asking the right questions. As conscious humans, the first thing we do is misinform, to get a selective advantage. Those with fire do not explain how they make it, which helps them grow in power.
How do we reverse this?
The capitalist system cannot solve the problems it has generated. It’s exhausted because it’s 300 years old and has no chance of growing in accordance with social functioning, and any system that does not solve the problems it generates ends up collapsing.
What is the solution?
One of the 10 commandments I mentioned earlier is collective individuality. It’s a mistake that we don’t listen to people, and it’s important to listen, especially when you have issues you’re not sure you can solve. When we don’t listen, people become individualistic. “No one listens to me, I’m better off by myself,” is individualism. We need collective individuality, building what is communal from the individual. Future communism, as social interdependence and solidarity, should be based on people feeling heard as the protagonists of collective history.
To socialise thought?
And critical thinking. If everyone acts in a way that allows change and transformation, you can change the world. In other words, the world must be changed based on people. And right now if the whole world, with the possibilities of modern communication and technology, starts doing the same everywhere, transformation is possible.
But could AI be a threat to us?
I’m convinced of it, but this will be good. For an ultrahuman mechanism that we have made to extinguish us, so that our consciousness, our work, maintains a balance with the planet, would be the most logical thing.
Has the system reached its end?
We’ve pushed the system to the limit and now it will collapse; it cannot be fixed. Once it has collapsed, all these elements we are now discussing can be put into operation.
Is our species designed to survive?
In our species and that of any animal, consciousness has evolved for survival. In the same way that our consciousness can self-destruct, it can also avoid it by generating a tendency for continuous transformation. In the future we’ll be able to transform ourselves to take on a type of non-human energy adaptation that goes beyond the principles of the natural forces we know. And that will depend a lot on generative and creative AI.
Will this give rise to a new species?
There could be many species by the end of the century. Many will not want to be modified, due to conservationist or religious reservations, and while religion was fundamental in us becoming human, its disappearance will be fundamental to dehumanise us; if we want to survive we must dehumanise.
Is our future to conquer the cosmos?
If we want to survive we have to conquer space. For life to thrive, the fundamental factor is reproduction, and finding a place to do so is the foundation of our future.
Interview archaeology
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