The Fatal Flaw That Threatens Us All
For a time in early June of this year, the news was filled with news of the fate of the Titan submersible, which lost contact with its support crew only hours into its dive to reach the wreckage of the infamous RMS Titanic. The Titan was owned and operated by a private firm called OceanGate, whose CEO Stockton Rush was operating the submersible, for the benefit of four passengers who were paying a reputed quarter of a million dollars each for the privilege. The sub was of unconventional design, and Mr. Rush (an all too apt name perhaps!) had rejected suggestions from many deep-sea diving experts that the sub be certified. Mr. Rush argued that such regulations were simply a means to stifle innovation.
The loss of these five lives is certainly a tragedy for their loved ones. But why has this incident captured so much news attention at a time when many more lives are threatened daily by–to name just a few examples–the war in the Ukraine, exceptionally extreme heat in many parts of the globe, on-going food shortages in many countries, etc.? There is something captivating about the Titan story–it’s link to the far greater tragedy of the Titanic (whose sinking on April 15, 1912, claimed some 1500 lives), and the attempt to use technology to ‘push the envelope’ and allow humans to venture into the vast unknown of the deep ocean.
There is here a larger cautionary tale about the limits of technology and an all-to-human ‘fatal flaw.’ Those whose culture was foundational to our own modern view–the Greeks–had a term for this fatal flaw: Hubris. Roughly speaking, hubris translates into “arrogance,” and it’s the weakness that brings down all of the heroes of Greek tragedy.
When the Titanic was launched, it was deemed “unsinkable.” And yet on its maiden voyage from Britain to America, it was claimed by nature in the form of an iceberg. Just over 111 years later, the Titan apparently suffered an implosion as it encountered the crushing pressure of the deep ocean. Here again, arrogance–this time on the part of Stockton Rush–is the most proximate cause. Discounting warnings from others who knew the challenge, and ‘pushing the envelope for the sake of exotic tourism only available to the wealthy few, and on top of that, having the goal to take them to view the deep-sea burial ground of 1500 souls who were themselves victims of kind of arrogance–well, as the Greeks might say, it was very much tempting Fate!
Tempting Fate seems to be a hallmark of modern Western culture these days. We live in an age where we are bedazzled by the promises of technology–most of it funded by private companies eager to turn a profit. OceanGate was inspired by ‘space tourism’ ventures that have involved billionaire investors such as Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. Even as we awaited news of the fate of the Titan, there was a broader technology story unfolding in the background about the promises and perils of so-called artificial intelligence “chatbots” as demonstrated with the advent of OpenChat AT’s product.
The prevailing assumption these days is that only more sophisticated technologies ‘pushing the envelope’ will deliver us from our challenges. There are plans to build a permanent presence on the moon, visit Mars, and–at least in Elon Musk’s fevered mind–save humanity by colonizing the latter. Meanwhile, technology will be engaged to plan our vacations, write research papers and other forms of communication, and inform the decision-making of our lives to an extent that has been impossible to contemplate until now.
At the same time, we are seeing growing signs of trouble: Climate change and other forms of large-scale environmental ‘push-back,’ growing economic and political polarization, instability in relations between the major powers and all of this playing out just as the world begins to recover from a pandemic that–if the epidemiologists are to be believed–may only be a precursor to others to come.
Those who put their faith in human creativity see these looming challenges as a reason to accelerate the pace of technological innovation and ‘push the envelope’ even further. Aside from colonizing Mars, one of Elon Musk’s projects is implantable digital technologies to “enhance” the brain. Even as the effects of hubris are being increasingly felt, the common answer seems to be “more hubris.”
As humans, we have been endowed with the amazing creative gift of our minds. We cannot survive without them. For hundreds of thousands of years, we have used those minds to craft tools to help us get along better with the world, from the earliest stone axe from millennia ago to the Titan and AI chatbots. Yet as earlier traditions recognized—including the Greeks—there were limits to what the mind could do. In its arrogance, it could “tempt the Fates” and get us into trouble. The important lesson is humility. It’s a lesson that is fundamental to all of the great spiritual traditions. It is a lesson that is so often overlooked in our culture.
We are part of a vast, mysterious universe that we will never completely understand. We will continue to make new tools and find them useful. But we need something beyond knowledge to guide us. We need the kind of wisdom that comes from many, many generations of experience. We need to look beyond the human to a timeless standard. This is the realm of the great spiritual traditions. I will have more to say about this in the future.
