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Welcome to the era of transhumanism


Welcome to the era of transhumanism

http://newatlas.com/transhumanism-mainstream-era-popular/47941/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=79ef3472ac-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-79ef3472ac-81813962


In a compelling webseries from 2012 entitled H+, we were introduced to a future world where much of the population has a hi-tech implant, allowing individuals a direct neural interface with the internet. As often is the case in science fiction, things don't turn out well for those technological pioneers. A virus infects the implant and chaos quickly descends on a human race that has become biologically fused with technology.

The series was an overt examination of a transhumanist future, with the title H+ being an appropriation of the common transhuman abbreviation. Five years after the series' birth, we live in a present even more entrenched on a path towards the realization of transhumanist ideals.

Early in February 2017, innovative billionaire Elon Musk reiterated an idea he had floated several times over the past year: Humans need to merge with machines. Musk sees a direct brain/computer interface as an absolute necessity, not only in order for us to evolve as a species, but as a way of keeping up with the machines we are creating. According to Musk, if we don't merge with the machines, we will become useless and irrelevant.

While Elon Musk does not self-identify as a "transhumanist," the idea of fusing man with machine is fundamental to this movement that arose over the course of the 20th century. And as we move into a tumultuous 21st century, transhumanism is quickly shifting from its sci-fi influenced philosophical and cultural niche into a more mainstream, and increasingly popular, movement.

Zoltan Istvan, a prominent futurist and transhumanist, is currently making a bold political run for the position of Governor of California. "We need leadership that is willing to use radical science, technology, and innovation – what California is famous for –to benefit us all," Istvan declared in a recent editorial published by Newsweek. "We need someone with the nerve to risk the tremendous possibilities to save the environment through bioengineering, to end cancer by seeking a vaccine or a gene-editing solution for it."

What is transhumanism?

Simply put, transhumanism is a broad intellectual movement that advocates for the transformation of humanity through embracing technology. Thinkers in the field opine that our intellectual, physical and psychological capabilities can, and should, be enhanced by any and all available emerging technologies. From genetic modification to make us smarter and live longer, to enhancing our physical capabilities through bioengineering and mechanical implants, transhumanists see our future as one where we transcend our physical bodies with the aid of technology.

The term "transhuman" can be traced back several hundred years, but in terms of our current use we can look to 20th century biologist and eugenicist, Julian Huxley. Across a series of lectures and articles in the 1950s, Huxley advocated for a type of utopian futurism where humanity would evolve and transcend its present limitations.

"We need a name for this new belief," Huxley wrote in 1957. "Perhaps transhumanism will serve; man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing the new possibilities of and for his human nature."

Huxley's ideas were arguably inspired by influential speculative fiction of the mid-20th century from the likes of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein, and consequently his more specific transhumanist philosophies went on to influence a generation of cyberpunk authors in the 1980s. It was in this era that the first self-described transhumanists began appearing, having formal meetings around the University of California.

With the pace of technological advancement dramatically accelerating into the 21st century, transhumanist thinking began to manifest in more specific futurist visions. Cryonics and life extension technology was one focus of transhumanists, while others looked to body modification, gender transitioning and general biohacking as a way of transcending the limits of our physical bodies.

What could go wrong?

Plenty of criticisms have been lobbed at transhumanists over the years, with their extreme views of the technological future of humanity causing many to question whether this is a direct pathway to losing touch with what makes us essentially human. The fear that we will merge into some kind of inhuman, god-like, robot civilization quite fairly frightens and disturbs those with more traditional perspectives on humanity.

Science fiction classically reflects many fears of transhumanist futures, from Skynet taking over the world to a Gattaca-like future where genetic modification creates dystopian class separation. But prominent transhumanist critic Francis Fukuyama has soberly outlined the dangers of this modern movement in his book, Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution.

Fukuyama comprehensively argues that the complexity of human beings cannot be so easily reduced into good and bad traits. If we were to try to eliminate traits we considered to be negative, be it through genetic modification or otherwise, we would be dangerously misunderstanding how we fundamentally function. "If we weren't violent and aggressive we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves; if we didn't have feelings of exclusivity, we wouldn't be loyal to those close to us; if we never felt jealousy, we would also never feel love," he writes.

Some of the more valid concerns about the dawning transhumanist future are the socioeconomic repercussions of such a speedy technological evolution. As the chasm between rich and poor grows in our current culture, one can't help but be concerned that future advancements could become disproportionately limited to those with the financial resources to afford them. If life extension technologies start to become feasible, and they are only available to the billionaire class, then we enter a scenario where the rich get richer and live longer, while the poor get poorer and die sooner.

Without exceptionally strong political reform maintaining democratic access to human enhancement technologies, it's easy to foresee the rise of a disturbing genetic class divide. As environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben writes: "If we can't afford the fifty cents a person it would take to buy bed nets to protect most of Africa from malaria, it is unlikely we will extend to anyone but the top tax bracket these latest forms of genetic technology."

Remember eugenics ...

The looming specter of eugenics hovers over a great deal of transhumanist thought. In the first half of the 20th century the term became disturbingly, but not unreasonably, associated with Nazi Germany. Sterilizing or euthanizing those who displayed characteristics that were deemed to be imperfect was ultimately outlawed as a form of genocide. But as the genome revolution struck later in the century a resurgence in the philosophical ideals of eugenics began to arise.
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2/17/2017, 1:00 am Link to this post PM Rigby5
 
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Re: Welcome to the era of transhumanism


I'm against it.
As much as I enjoyed the information access, we should not start adapting to machines or technology.
We especially should not start trying to tamper with human nature.
2/17/2017, 1:01 am Link to this post PM Rigby5
 
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Re: Welcome to the era of transhumanism


I find it scary but think it will probably happen. They will be fooling around with what we have evolved to be and our very humanity but we have this instinct to "go where man has never gone before" and that will drive us into it. That and curiosity.

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"libido sciendi"..... the passion to know.
2/17/2017, 10:29 am Link to this post PM Noserose
 
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Re: Welcome to the era of transhumanism


I'm against this. I won't even get a flu shot. I've learned in my 65 years...the less i see a doctor...the healthier i am. I believe in letting nature take it's course. There has to be a natural culling of the herd. It's a natural process in other animals. I prefer homeopathic remedies and less perfection.
2/17/2017, 2:35 pm Link to this post PM msdulittle Blog
 
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Re: Welcome to the era of transhumanism


quote:

Noserose wrote:

I find it scary but think it will probably happen. They will be fooling around with what we have evolved to be and our very humanity but we have this instinct to "go where man has never gone before" and that will drive us into it. That and curiosity.



I agree it not only will probably happen, but has been happening for decades.
For example, the way they pass out Ritalin at public schools.
They are deciding what they want human nature to be, and changing it until it fits their definition.
But embedded microprocessors would allow this in far more dangerous ways.
If nothing else, potential sensory overload.
There seem to be far more mass murder/suicides for example.
Could be just too much stimulation?
Imagine if we had broadband into our brain available, all the time?
2/17/2017, 5:54 pm Link to this post PM Rigby5
 


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