I used to be a huge comic book fan – still actually – I have boxes and boxes of old comics, very well preserved in plastic sleeves with non-reactive cardboard. As a Marvel fan (I always felt that Marvel was the more realistic of the two major players in the space – of course since I started collecting, the whole market has exploded), I collected and read most of the typical favorites, Spiderman, Avengers, and Fantastic Four, etc. But there was always a special place in my collection for X-Men. One of the cool things about the X-Men was, of course, as a typical geeky teenager during the 80s, I totally identified with the outsider aspect of the team – how that all had these abilities that just happened to usually emerge during puberty, which set them apart from the rest of humanity. Something that struck me interesting in particular was Professor Xavier’s phrase to describe these “mutants” – it was “homo superior.” Now back then, I had no idea if it was a real turn of phrase or not, but I really loved this term – since I’d always dreamed that someday, humans would evolve beyond their current state. And of course, as a geeky, nerdy, unpopular teenager (yes, it’s true, back then nerds and geeks were the unpopular ones, now they have actors portraying them on TV, and it’s a hit show. How times have changed ;))
If you ask me that day is here, in fact, it has already passed. We have already evolved to a state of “homo superior” – we have yet to admit it. We have already evolved to our next state of being, as long as you realize that we are not simply human. We are human + our devices. Homo Superior = Our Devices + Ourselves.