everyone, both machines and humans, then the rest of
humanity will be rendered obsolete. If the elite have the cruel
desire to get rid of unnecessary humans, they could use any
means of weapons, technological or biological, to exterminate
the mass of humanity, leaving only technology and their rulers
on earth. Even if this extreme hypothesis does not happen, and
the elite decide to take care of the rest of humanity, the result
will not be much improved. The 99% of humans not making
decisions will be satisfied and taken care of, having hobbies, be
in good health, and have environments that are psychologically
and physically hygienic. But this is no improvement, because
Joy points out that life will be utterly purposeless, and that the
majority of humanity will be, “reduced to the status of
domestic animals.” Genetic engineering will not improve this
outcome any, with people selecting favorable characteristics to
have, similar to how we artificially select the traits of domestic
animals today.
One of many technologies that Joy mentions in his article is
genetic engineering, or the altering of the human genome.
After the discovery of DNA and its structure, near unlimited
possibilities opened up for biologists. As stated in an article on
genetic engineering by Science Clarified, “If genes are chemical