*** Copyright c 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995 by Nicholas
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Human Capacity

      While some scientists design bionic body parts, robots to mimic
our movements, and computers to model our minds, others examine the
outer reaches of our God-given capacities.
      It's the modern equivalent of the John Henry story. Remember the
song of the sinewy, hammer-swinging railroad worker competing against
the new-fangled steam drill? Part of the human animal delights in its
technological triumphs, the other needs to cling to the hope of human
superiority.
      And so it is today, with "artificial intelligence" and the engineering
of body parts.  Is there a human, flesh and blood alternative to this
technological struggle toward human perfectibility and "progress"?
      How would you go about designing a person, or thing, with the
following abilities?
      Speed: 60 miles an hour over land, 35 through water.
      Hearing: Up to 200,000 cycles (currently: 20,000).
      Navigation: Self-generated radar; internal clock and constant
recalculation of orientation to sun and stars; ability to sense and calculate
from earth's magnetic fields; automatic homing from up to 3000 miles.
      Heat sensing: detection of slight body or other heat from great
distances.
      Odor sensing: distinguish odors from few molecules; detailed
memory of smells.
      Chemical, electrical and light generating capacity.
      Sounds like a pretty sophisticated piece of equipment, doesn't it?
Maybe it's something from those wonderful folks who brought you the
$7000 coffee pot -- the Pentagon.
      Wrong. Every one of these specs is being met, today, by a living,
breathing organism -- though not human, and not a single animal.
      The cheetah can reach 60 miles an hour. The whale can swim at 35
mph, and hear sounds at frequencies we pick up on radios! Young birds
can do complicated navigation without thinking about it. Radar comes
easy to bats.
      The pit viper has a heat sensor. A rabbit has three times your odor
sensors. A salmon smells, and remembers, the stream of its birth in the
ocean. Some fish can generate 1000 volts.  Others can detect as little as
0.01 microvolts per centimeter. Ants use chemicals for signalling. Some
animals create light with almost 100% efficiency (no heat).
      The fact is, much of our military and other research has been
inspired by animals. Birds made us think of flight. Bats gave us the idea
for radar. The Navy studies whales and dolphins.
      It's said John Lilly abandoned his study of dolphins once he
concluded they were smarter than we are. But there are many forms of
intelligence. We are surrounded, in what's left of nature, with animals
superior to us in many ways.
      Those in the "human potential movement" believe most of us are
operating, in most respects, at something like five percent of our ability.
Even the achievements of our best intellects, athletes and artists seem to
support that idea.
      But the rest of our talented animal kingdom offers us, in many
ways, even more inspiring examples.
                                               [King October 12, 1986]
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