An allegory about human idealism based on sensibility, beauty, femininity, and gracefulness. This project illustrates, with support from factual information and important ideas, a utopian future possible to achieve.
Next Human Project is a multimedia, interdisciplinary movement based on a manifesto condemning the brutal and aggressive behavior attributed to machismo and patriarchy in all societies. As a solution, the project presents an allegory of human idealism — for it is a practical parallel to frame “how we should and shouldn’t be.” This allegory, the Next Us, represents the future evolutionary metamorphosis of our own species and it is characterized by the many virtues inherent to femininity and motherhood. Next Human Project offers a far-reaching — yet possible to attain — prescription, extrapolated from scientific research published by distinguished universities and institutions.
With this, I'm attempting to encourage thought and dialogue about how to: progress as a species; put our own ephemeral existence into perspective to spark cooperation and a sense of oneness; underscore the virtues that will conduct us toward a more certain future; and inspire hope for humanity.
The idea for Next Human Project as conceptual artwork arose organically, and has become an essential component of my latest body of work, the series Future. In the past, I've opted to use narrative through landscapes without people — only focusing on the things that we build. However, to explain the landscapes in the series Future, it became necessary to illustrate the beings inhabiting these fictional scenes. I concluded that rendering a place where our most pressing issues don't exist would be a place where we don't exist — as we exist today. Partially based on research in science and technology, this new series submerges into a world of unobstructed possibilities, bypassing social and political problems. I use escapism as an accessible way to evoke interest and will, in order to forge a lasting tomorrow.
There will be a point when our species will branch out and take the next evolutionary step. We humans will die off eventually, and just like we differ from the Neanderthals or the Homo Sapiens Idaltu, the Next Us will differ from ourselves. However, unlike our common ancestors (or even us), they will have absolute control over their evolution.
Genetically, both sexes will have very similar karyotypes. Though, in males, key genes found only in the Y chromosome will be reengineered to work harmoniously and in synchronization inside the X chromosome. This will allow a new type of masculinity, characterized by the XX+ chromosomes.
Physiologically, they will achieve a perfect balance between biology and robotics. They will be made up of smart bio-robots instead of living cells. Nevertheless, these microscopic super machines will interact with microbes and their natural ecosystem, and will function and appear just like flawless versions of our cells, and will appear completely natural. They will be very different than what we call “robots” or “plastic”. From a molecular level, they will be partly composed of indestructable synthetic polymers that will prevent decaying and be more resistant. The Next Us will live indefinitely, and at a certain age they will reach the “immortalization phase,” a time in their lives when they halt development and maintain a constant metabolism throughout eternity. In the case of injury or malfunctioning body parts, the next humans will be able to harvest body parts from scratch and surgically reattach a perfect match to the part of the body that is missing.
Their species will have greater diversity than ours, as they will choose to mutate into other breeds — e.g., beings adapted to live on Mars, Europa, or in zero gravity; submarine mermaids or beings with feathered wings.
Pregnancy will happen outside their body, in an organic, specifically engineered egg-like cocoon. Because this womb can be supervised, and also be attached to the mother or the father’s abdomen, that special mother-child bond will be shared, and maximized with improved pre-natal therapy. Offspring will resemble their procreators, and these mutations will determine unique psychological aptitude tendencies linked to specific physical characteristics. Other mutations will include so-called racial differences, which will be randomly selected in the fetus with the purpose of maintaining diversity in the species’ gene pool as well as to prevent from unknown diseases.
The next humans will be mentally interconnected, highly attuned to their surroundings and the environment — more than any other species on Earth. They will be apt to learn and handle most tasks just by receiving information into their brain via a much more sophisticated type of internet. Facts and information will be instantly received as the mind inquires them, and fed as memories directly and wirelessly, thousands of times faster than any human mind living today. Recording memories — to avoid information overload — will be a way to remember after hundreds of millions of years.
Malevolent behavior will be seen as malfunctioning brain activity, registering a distinctive signature easy to detect by others in dialogue with her or him. Ill-natured conduct will be fixed by either self-correction or surgical procedure — depending on the severity of the problem.
Body
- Leading women’s health expert and cardiologist, Dr. Noel Merz, explains the differences between male and female cardiovascular systems, as well as the high success rate of female stem cells.
Heart Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Read PDF - How female stem cells are superior to males for cardiovascular repair
American Journal of Physiology — Regulatory, Integrative, and Physiology
Read PDF - Dr. Noel Merz: The Single Biggest Health Threat Women Face
TED :: March 2012
View Video - Preliminary evidence of superhuman tetrachromats in women (why color vision deficiencies are more common among men)
Ryan Sutherland :: April 2001
Read PDF - Test the accuracy of your color vision with this 100-hue test (Fun fact: Just 1 out of 255 women have some form of color vision deficiency, compared with 1 out of 12 men)
View Link - The Neuroeconomics of Distrust: Sex Differences in Behavior and Physiology
American Economic Review :: 2005
Read PDF - Men or Women: Who’s the Better Leader?: A Paradox in Public Attitudes
PEW Research Center :: August 2008
Read PDF - Quantitative Analysis of pre and postsynaptic sex difference in nucleus accumbens (sex differences in drug addiction due to women showing superior neurological circuit complexity)
Department of Neurobiology and Physiology, Northwestern University
Read PDF - Research suggests that women from countries with healthier populations prefer more feminine-looking men.
Wall Street Journal :: March 2010
View Link - Online psychology experiments for facial and vocal attractiveness.
View Link - Online research lab focusing on facial characteristics and attractiveness
Perception Lab University of St Andrews, Scotland
View Link - What Do Women Want? (Various aspects of female sexuality, referencing neurological and psychological research by leading experts)
The New York Times :: January 2008
View Link - Learn more about karyotypes: define and play match that gene!
Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah
View Link - Evolution of the Y Chromosome, from the lecture series The Meaning of Sex: Genes and Gender
Howard Hughes Medical Institute :: 2001
View Link - Male Sex Chromosome Losing Genes by Rapid Evolution, Study Reveals
Penn State, Eberly College of Science :: July 2009
View Link - Explore the parallels between both genders' genetic differences and the wide spectrum that gives men the potential for anything from greatness to criminality.
American Scientist :: The Most Dangerous Equation :: June 2007
Read PDF - Testosterone disrupts human collaboration by increasing egocentric choices
The Royal Society, Biological Sciences :: Feb 2012
View Link - Definition of Technological Singularity
View Link - The Pentagon’s Cyborg-Army (documenting interesting technological research done by U.S. Department of Defense)
Wired.com :: October 2010
View Link - Talk given by an artist who can only see color through musical notes using an electronic sensor. He is able to experience the world at a whole new level and encourages the public to become cyborgs like him.
TED Talk :: Neil Harbisson – I Listen To Color :: July 2012
View Link - Amazing computer animation of cellular functions and mechanics.
TED Talk :: Drew Berry – Animations of Useable Biology :: January 2012
View Link - Watch an explanatory video about polymers
National Science Foundation :: Chalk Talk
View Link - Tardigrades: the indestructible 8-legged microscopic “bears of the moss”.
American Scientist :: Tardigrades :: October 2011
View Link - Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
New York Times :: November 2012
View Link - Book review of Immortality: Do You Really Want To Live Forever?
Reason.com :: May 2012
View Link - Anthony Atala: Printing a Human Kidney
TED Talk :: March 2011
View Link - 3D printing body parts
The Atlantic :: December 2011
View Link - UCLA Face Transplant Procedure
Wired.com :: June 2012
View Link - A blood substitute, PolyHeme, could save lives in a life-or-death situation. However, it still doesn’t function exactly like natural blood, and can act as a replacement for just a few hours.
Wired.com :: June 2012
View Link - Another blood substitute, this one using stem cells.
August 2012
View Link - Blood transfusions via Stem Cells Translational Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine :: May 2012
Read PDF - Learn about Jupiter's icy moon, Europa. The ocean beneath its surface may hold life.
View Link - A complete compilation of the effects and dangers of living in space
View Link
Reproduction
- Definition of "phenotype"
View Link - Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms
Cambridge University Press :: 2003 Read PDF - Reproductive biology: women can make new eggs throughout their lives
Nature—International Weekly Journal of Science :: November 2012
View Link - Stem cells from adult mammalian ovaries: a step closer towards control of the female biological clock?
Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology :: 2009
Read PDF - Definition of "in vivo"
View Link - The Artificial Womb
Annals of The New York Academy of Science, Reproductive Science :: 2011
Read PDF - Is There an Error Correcting Code In the Base Sequence of DNA?
Center for Complex Systems :: Biophysical Journal :: 1996
Read PDF - Cell trafficking between pregnant mother and fetus.
Journal of Pediatric Surgery :: Robert E. Gross Lectures :: November 2007
Read PDF - This paper explains the complex patterns of inheritance by studying mitochondrial deficiency.
Center for Genetics Education :: The Australesian Genetic Resource Book :: 2007 :: November 2010
Read PDF - Juan Enriquez: Will our kids be a different species?
TED Talk :: June 2012
Watch Video - Mirror-image Cells Could Transform Science, or Kill Us All
Wired.com :: November 2010
View Link
Mind
- Watch conversations with professionals at the forefront of neurological and behavioral brain studies.
Charlie Rose :: The Brain Series (episodes 1–12)
Watch Video - This podcast, hosted by Ginger Campbell, MD, deals with everything about the brain — from plasticity to conciousness.
Follow Podcast - Brains Are Different in People With Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory
Science Daily :: July 2012
View Link - Scientific paper on the understanding of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memories or (HSAM)
University of California, Irving :: May 2012
Read PDF - The book World Wide Mind, by Michael Chrost, proposes that "humanity can incorporate the computer into its collective soul."
View Link - Neural Recordings (Recording memories)
Georgia Tech :: May 2012
View Link - Neuroactive Hormones and Interpersonal Trust: International evidence (Correlations have been made between countries’ populations with better environments for entrepreneurship and economic development, and hormonal activities in their brain, such as higher rates of oxytocin release.)
Elsevier :: Economics and Human Biology :: 2006
Read PDF - Monetary sacrifice among strangers is induced by endogenous oxytocin release after physical contact (Hugs and warm embraces release hormones in the brain that induce generosity towards strangers.)
Elsevier :: Evolution and Human Behavior :: April 2008
Read PDF - Empathy Towards Strangers Triggers Oxytocin Release and Subsequent Generosity (Showing empathy towards strangers releases oxytocin, which triggers monetary sacrifice.)
Annals of The New York Academy of Science :: Values, Empathy, and Fairness across Social Barriers :: 2009
Read PDF - Marc Goodman: Crime in the Future (what the future of criminality may look with the ever-growing interconnectivity of our infrastructure, lives, and technology)
TED Talk :: July 2012
Watch Video
They will be astute problem solvers and will work more efficiently, more effectively, more collaboratively, and in very specialized roles, which the next humans will practice and perfect — always pushing the boundaries to the limit. Experience and talent will determine the teachers, the leaders — the most respected individuals in their society. However, hierarchies will not exist, just mutual respect and appreciation for every individual.
War and conflict will not exist, since needs, desires, and intentions will be common knowledge, and aggression, cruelty, and selfishness will be eradicated from their minds. They will work to achieve universal and local ambitions, both, independently and through cooperation. With no religion or politics, rather a system based on transparency, run by free-willed individuals who do what they are supposed to — because they desire the betterment and advancement of their species and home. They will live by ethic reciprocity, or the Golden Rule: “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.”
Because the next humans will communicate honestly and share information with everyone, there will not be a need for a system of laws. Instead of following rules, they will be guided by duty, a deep sense of morality, and sets of goals. Accomplishing said goals will determined success and reward will bring respect from others, leadership in their field, and boundless freedom. There will not be an economy, currency, or accumulation of wealth; anyone who holds an integral place in their society will have merit and what we understand as luxury and comfortable living.
They will be highly social individuals, and live in active and cosmopolitan cities. They will have a nuclear family, and consider the whole species their extended family and the whole world their nation. Even if they never meet, they will all know and help each other, and communicate freely via telepathy — though, face-to-face and verbal interaction will be practiced as much as humans generally do today.
As our species mutates into a more advanced species, love (in all its expressions) will be kept intact. Human affection (for friends, family, and for romantic and sexual partners) will be explored and experienced more intensely by understanding and revealing feelings more appropriately, more directly, and in other forms by eliminating negative thoughts and actions. Interconnectivity and openness since early life, will mold friendships and create perfectly matching relationships. Celebratory rituals signifying the union of two or more people will be part of their society.
A nylon-thin body suit that provides extra strength — much like an exoskeleton — by expanding and contracting its hexagonal-pattern structure. The body suit will adjust to muscle responses, and also receive electric signals from the nervous system through the epidermis. It will also provide protection against the elements, maintain a constant body temperature, and heal wounds by identifying their location, distributing chemical aid, and self-repairing to protect the wound until further medical attention is received. The body suit will be its own power plant, harvesting kinetic and thermal energy from the body. It will be applied onto the body in liquid form through showering, and self-assemble according to its molecular and chemical structure; and removed by showering away the material.
A dress partly made out of a thin, ultra-light superconducting fabric, which additionally cools and maintains the fabric’s temperature below the critical point for quantum locking. The shape of the dress is A-line to balance the body, as the flux from the Earth’s magnetic field run through the superconducting fabric, creating quantum levitation. The dress will generate its own power that keeps its low temperature, by harvesting energy from the sun, movement, and friction against the wind.
In addition to the brain’s enhancements, a headpiece can be worn for increased abilities during very specific or intensive activities (such as flying, multi-server virtual interaction, or synchronized telekinetic capability). It will also record and store memories.
Shoes that propel. They will be connected to the body suit, which they receive power from.
Purpose
- The Power of Myth— A Joseph Campbell interview by Bill Moyers.
PBS :: 1988
Watch Video - “The Botany of Desire,” by Michael Pollan is a PBS special which explains how some plants have evolved to capture our attention, whether it is by beautiful looks, or by producing certain chemicals that alter our mind’s consciousness
PBS :: September 2009
View Link - Helen Fisher: Why We Love, Why We Cheat
TED Talk :: September 2006
Watch Video - Helen Fisher: The Brain In Love
TED Talk :: September 2008
Watch Video - Entropy can lead to order, paving he route to nanostructures.
Michigan Engineering :: July 2012
View Link - Entropy of Crystals: Predictive Self-assemble of Polyhedra into Complex Structures.
Science Magazin :: July 2012
View Link - Fractal Geometry: online course
Yale University :: July 2012
View Link - In this podcast, Dr. Campbell interviews Terrence Deacon about his book Incomplete Nature: How the Mind Emerged from Matter
Hear Podcast - "Top-Down Causation as the Operation of Context Sensitive Constraints" (audio of presentation given by Alicia Juarrero)
CTNS/STARS Conference :: Cancún, Mexico :: January 2007
Hear Podcast
System
- Steven Pinker: The Myth of Violence
TED Talk :: September 2007
Watch Video - Paul J. Zak: Trust, Mortality, and Oxytocin
TED Talk :: Nov 2011
Watch Video - Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0
TED Talk :: January 2012
Watch Video - The passionate writer, social critique, and legendary debater Christopher Hitchens was the author of several books and articles about organized religion and geopolitics. Here is a collection of his work.
View Link - Go to Stanford University’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy to learn more about Deontological Ethics
View Link - The best summary of Kantian Ethics I've found.
View Link - Virtue Ethics philosophy and Aristotle
View Link - Arete, or excellence or virtue
View Link - Phronesis, or practical or moral wisdom
View Link - Eudaimonia, or human flourishing
View Link - Definition: "rule utilitarianism" and "rule consequentialism"
View Link - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Rule Consequentialism
View Link - Lord of The Ants (ants, bees, and us)
PBS/NOVA :: May 2008
View Link - Wikipedia’s book sources for The Social Conquest of Earth by E.O. Wilson
View Link - Richard Dawkin’s book review of The Social Conquest of Earth by E.O. Willson
View Link
Garment
- Exoskeleton ("HULC")
Wired :: May 2012
View Link - Nanotubes and Buckyballs
Nanotechnology Now :: May 2012
View Link - Products that Heal themselves
Forbes :: November 2009
View Link - Boaz Almog: Superconducting Levitation
TED Talk :: July 2012
Watch Video - Learn more about quantum levitation
View Link - The Pentagon’s Cyborg-Army (documenting interesting technological research done by U.S. Department of Defense)
Wired.com :: October 2010
View Link - Learning Method Through Vision
National Science Foundation :: December 2011
View Link - Neural Recordings (Recording memories)
Georgia Tech :: May 2012
View Link
The structural materials for most buildings will be molecularly engineered to form whatever shape the next humans need, and these will “grow” on site — much like a tree would, or crystals form, though much faster — and stop growth, depending on what these have been programmed to construct. The amenities for any home would be comparable to very comfortable living seen today, yet outfitted with much superior technology and always-impeccable taste. Some of their own cities will be grown above what they decide to preserve from our cities and ruins.
Other worlds in our solar system will be colonized, and their populations will adopt different physical characteristics. At the same time, entire families will become explorers to other solar systems, and because of their nomadic lives, they will also adopt specific characteristics uniquely built for space travel.
City
- The world's tallest structures (engineering)
View Link - No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’
New York Times :: December 2008
View Link - Meet Passivhaus Institut, a German architectural firm that constructs living spaces requiring minimal energy for heating or cooling.
View Link - Harnessing the subsoil’s almost-constant temperature
View Link - Learn about the physics of clouds.
View Link - Green roofs from around the world (photo gallery).
National Geographic News :: May 2009
View Link - Rachel Armstrong: Self-repairing Architecture ("growing" architecture on-site)
TED Talk :: October 2009
Watch Video - A stimulating talk given by Mitchell Joachim, founding co-President of Terreform ONE, a non-profit design group that promotes green design in cities.
TED Talk :: October 2009
Watch Video - Mitchell Joachim: Grow Your Own Home
TED Talk :: July 2010
Watch Video - Grow Your Own Architecture
Designboom :: September 2009
View Link
History
- 10 high-tech buildings with solutions for urban heat island problems.
National Geographic News :: July 2012
View Link - “Design and the Elastic Mind” was a 2008 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art dealt with many aspects of our culture and its future, from a design point of view.
View Link - Watch Charlie Rose’s interview with Paola Antonelli, the curator of MoMA’s exhibit “Design and the Elastic Mind.”
PBS :: May 2008
Watch Video
Home
- NASA: Life on Mars
View Link - Is There Life On Mars?
PBS/NOVA :: August 2011
Watch Video
Illustrating a brighter and better future for us all, artwork for Next Human Project is meant to inspire hope and creativity.
