Catching crumbs from the table
This week, my partner and I talked about Ted Chiang’s Catching crumbs from the table.
How do technologies, abilities, systems, creativity, design, surface in the work?
The work emphasises a stark contrast between the abilities of humans and the augmented ‘metahumans’. The metahumans are described to be better at every field that can be judged by merit; so much so that regular unaugmented humans have practically stopped trying to explore those fields.
Every new invention or discovery is developed by the metahumans, and slowly trickles down to humans through translation. Although not explicitly stated, in this new society, unaugmented humans seem to be at the bottom of this systemic social order.
A divided society. Source
What underlying values seem to guide the writing?
The work is written from the perspective of a regular, unaugmented human being. Through the course of the writing, this fictional human being presents arguments both in favour of and against the social order of the augmented metahumans. The work strongly believes that even if humans are not as conventionally smart or intelligent as the ‘metahumans’, they still have value and they still have a distinctive perspective to offer - thy have a unique perspective that will allow them to notice things that the supremely intelligent metahumans night have missed.
How is the work engaging the concept of augment?
The work creates a distinctive boundary between regular human beings and augmented metahumans, almost as if the augmentation makes them a different species. Humans and metahumans do not communicate with each other, except for through translated texts. Even parents of augmented children soon end up unable to talk to their own children because augmented children have thinking and processing abilities that far exceed what even the most intelligent human could hope to accomplish.
An implant that allows different forms of information flow. Black Mirror, 2017.
Is there anything about the work that is confusing or unclear?
I think the passage presents a pretty clear picture of a changed reality. I am curious about how exactly this reality came to be - how the number and power of metahumans with their superior intellect became so large that society fractured into these two factions that barely communicate with each other at all over the course of a single lifetime.
Does the work resonate for you? If so, how/why?
I think the underlying premise of the work - that even though they are unaugmented, humans have inherent value and unique perspectives - is very striking. In many ways, it is applicable to our society today - even though we don't have augmented super intelligent ‘metahumans’, there is a certain kind of intelligence that is valued over all others in today’s society. However, almost all human beings, even those deemed stupid or foolish by the education system or by capitalist society, have their own unique points of view and have something to offer.
Does the work make you uncomfortable? If so, how/why?
The whole concept of society being visibly fractured and divided into a clear hierarchy makes me a little uncomfortable, but I feel like that is the point - our society today too is divided with a million invisible lines, most of which are redundant and entirely manufactured by human beings themselves.
Augmented humans here divided society in a different way by becoming power hungry. Star Trek, 1982.
Write a working definition of augmentation in the context of the work.
The work talks specifically about human augmentation. Augmentation, in this context, is a form of genetic therapy that is used to enhance human minds and provide them with superior intellectual and communication abilities, through which augmented humans form their own closed society cut off from other regular unaugmented humans.
