You Are Judged By The Company You Keep

I was outside just now, pulling weeds again. And I'll get right back at it after finishing this - no lack of weeds, this year.

The dog is my constant companion in this task as in many outdoor tasks. He noses around in the corners, chases lizards, and comes around to smell each fresh bit of earth I turn up. I always know he is there, even when he is out of sight in the deep tall weeds. As I am out of sight, moving along in a crouch, hacking at the bases of the weeds which tower above me.

As I work, I reflect again upon the man-dog relationship, an ancient partnership with great value to both sides. I feel the weight of the old contract between us - I could be a hunter/gatherer harvesting food, vulnerable while crouched down among the weeds, but I have no fear because I know that Einstein has got my back and would warn me of any dangers. It is unlikely that, in my present urban/rural setting, there are any brigands lurking about ready to do me harm. But the defensive tools are even more ancient than the relationship with the dog, always "faintly on", and it is nice to be able to relax them for a while because the dog has Got My Back and I think how nice the feeling is, to have someone watching your back and I ruminate on how seldom I feel that during the course of each day.

Anyway, the dog and I are out there weeding and I am thinking about the nature of our relationship and all the while I am also thinking about virtual reality and cyberspace and the singularity. (The human brain: massively parallel and holographic and able to consider many possibilities at once.) And I started to ponder the place of pets in this possible future. But, more than pets: companions, partners. We have these partnerships which have arisen over time, with other creatures on this planet. What will become of them, and the partnerships, as we move into the "transhuman" state so beloved of the singularitarians?

Some of the singularitarians seem positively eager to leave behind all ties with the "dirt world", as though humanity should be embarrassed of its history - sort of like someone who came from a small town adopting a new sophisticated persona and pretending they have always lived in The Big City. These people impatiently await transmutation of materials and the ability to upload human consciousness into "clean" cyberspaces, there to pretend that they never had manure on their boots.

But I will remind these people that partnerships last only when there is benefit for both parties, and our relationships with dogs has lasted for a very long time indeed. (Sure, we have had longterm relationships with cows and pigs as well, for very selfish reasons. But we [typically] do not have dogs around for food.) And I do not think the benefits of the partnership, and the partnerships themselves, will disappear just because humans become more adept at entering virtual realms.

In fact, I maintain that we shall need those relationships more than ever, both for practical reasons and as an anchor to help us maintain perspective. And our humanity.

I was considering what it would be like to upload an animal's consciousness into cyberspace. Would it be able to cope? But then I figured that any of our companion animals have already essentially been pre-selected as being adept at living in human spaces, so as long as the cyberspace followed some familiar ground rules the creatures would likely adapt.

(The question arises of the ethics of uploading an animal's consciousness, since you would basically be doing it without their permission [or understanding]. While I am reasonably sure that most creatures, when asked if they would like to exist forever, would answer "Yes, please!", there is also the fact that I have seen many people who should not have pets and would people be any less likely to abuse the relationships just because the pet was a digital pattern? It is tempting to say that folks would be more enlightened by that point, but...)

As we explore new spaces and abilities, I think we shall benefit greatly from the already-demonstrated skills of our animal companions, whether in the form of programs based upon them or their actual consciousnesses. Moving through digital realms, I would like to have the keen senses and loyalty of a dog by my side, warning me of the approach of strangers and dangers. Likewise, the steady self-interest, curiosity, and reaction time of a cat should prove valuable, as well as having a ruthless hunter of vermin to take care of viruses which would do me harm.

Let's take it even further - what creature should be better at navigating digital seas than a dolphin? Already accustomed to handling constant information input from a vast related realm, dolphins or their analogs would be ideal pilots to guide us. A dolphin's sonar is like the heads-up displays already used in virtual spaces, constantly and updatedly informing them of the world around them (both near and far - dolphins know what is happening in their neighbors' gut as well as what is occurring leagues away), and as we approach their level and need of information processing we have much to learn from them.

My animal companions' senses are different, and in some cases vastly superior, from my own. I rely upon my dog to warn me of dangers as we walk in the dark of the night, as I rely on my cat to suppress the vermin which threaten my food supply. I do not see this reliance receding just because I am walking through a darkness of unformed digital space. Their world views are very different, each from the other and from my own, but all are complementary. And their demonstrated specializations nicely augment my vaunted human generalism.

But the practical aside, I would like my partners to be with me wherever I may venture, simply because I would miss them and I think I would be diminished by their absence. We are friends and colleagues, as well as partners. And as we approach whatever the "transhuman" state may bring I think we shall need our friends, and as many reminders of the humanity we came from as we can get.