Imagine that you are able to teleport to the not too distant future. In this world you discover that disease and poverty are no longer causes for human suffering, world hunger has become eliminated from society, and space travel is as easy as snapping your fingers. Cryonics, nanotechnology, cloning, genetic enhancement, artificial intelligence, and brain chips are all common technologies at a doctor’s office. You gasp as a friendly sounding electronic voice cries out, “Welcome to the future Natural!” You are unsure of whether being called a Natural is an insult or not, so you feign a half-hearted hello at the posthuman in front of you. Getting over the initial shock you ask the posthuman, “Who are you?” The posthuman gives an electronic sounding chuckle and shakes his head. He replies, “I am a Posthuman, and you Natural, are in Utopia. Welcome.”
Sounds pretty science-fiction based right? Well, to those who follow the Transhumanist philosophy, a “utopian” world could be a reality. Susan Schneider a philosophy professor at University of Pennsylvania defines Transhumanism as a “philosophical, cultural, and political movement which holds that the human species is now only in a comparatively early phase and that its very evolution will be altered by developing technologies” (271). In simple terms, transhumanists believe that the human species is in its early phase. Our species is a work in progress and our evolution will be altered by advancing technologies. With these advancements in technology, transhumanists have optimistic plans about the future. Transhumanists hope that as our current technology advances we will soon be able to create superhumans or “posthumans”. According to the World Tanshumanist Association a...
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...d, working definition of what a person is, enhancing will be newest fad. Humankind is on an irreversible evolutionary journey where super-intelligence will be the normal IQ for children, war and death are no longer terms in the english dictionary, and being 1,000 years old is considered young. It is a bright and prosperous future looking through the lens of a transhumanist. One that I cannot wait to see through bionic eyes.
Works Cited
Brooks, R. A. 2003. Prologue, In: Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us, Vintage.
Elliott, C. 2003. Humanity 2.0. The Wilson Quarterly, 27(4): 13(8).
Schneider, S. 2008. Future Minds: Transhumanism, Cognitive Enhancement, and the Nature of Persons. Forthcoming in: Penn Bioethics Reader. Accessed online July 20, 2010:
http:/repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=neuroethics pubs
The authors therefor saw the ‘utopian’ societies to be a trap for weak minded publics, and that once in place, such systems would be able to perpetuate indefinitely due to the efficiency at which they protect and propagate themselves. Through fear, diversion and sedation the utopia can maintain a strong grip on the people it encompasses before anyone realizes the sacrifices made. The popularity of these books does rule out the possibility of such a society coming into existence in the future, however. The state of people is not about to change, and their ignorance will continue regardless of the harshness of the wake up calls issued.
Hollinger, Veronica. "Cybernetic Deconstruction." Storming the Reality Studio. Larry McCaffrey, ed. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1992.
What is posthumanism? As the name might imply the concept of posthumanism is essentially the next step, so to speak, in the human nature. A transcendence, of shorts, of mankind. This could take various forms, be it from feasible and current ways such as genetically engineered food, prosthetics due to injury to far-off and futuristic concepts such as cyborg technologies (prosthetics for the purpose of body or mind enhancement rather than appliance to amputees), digital preservation of our conscience (even after death) and even the achievement of parapsychology concepts such as telekinesis, mind reading etc.
Advancement of the human race through technology is the goal of evolution and is the reason human beings are on earth. The ability to allow future generations to reach their full potential through technology should be the goal of all human beings. The two main criticisms to this argument are, first it is considered unnatural, and secondly it is considered to be “playing god”. Transhumanists dismiss the claim of unnatural because most of what human beings do with any technology is unnatural, yet these uses are accepted as benefits, not harms (Post, 2004). As for the second concern most transhumanists consider themselves agnostics or atheists so playing god is not a legitimate concern for them. The issue is one of great concern to people...
“The Robot Invasion” is written by Charlie Gillis in 2012. Gillis gives informed information of the present state of robotics and how it can affect us in the future. Presently scientists have been working on small robots that could soon perform tasks humans could forego. “Andrew Vardy posted footage on YouTube of toy-sized robots he’d modified to sort plastic pucks randomly placed on a surface” (Gillis, as cited in McWhorter, 2014, p 478). Vardy’s experiment is one of many experiments that could bring us closer to a future where robots are apart of our daily lives. Another example of small robots would be quadrotors. “Quadrotors teams can be seen doing light shows, navigating obstacle courses and ferrying around a submachine gun” (p 479). Kiva Systems makes and sells an automated warehousing system where hundreds of robots move merchandise from storage to shipping bay. “The system is said to triple distribution productivity, and had been adopted by a host of big-box
Jason Pontin. 2007. Artificial Intelligence, With Help From the Humans, The New York Times, March 25th, 2007.
In the nineteenth century, man believed in the perfectibility of mankind and in the real possibility of an ultimate utopia, a time when man could all live together in peace. However, the events of the twentieth century have weakened that belief. Both cold and hot wars have followed each other in succession. Revolutions and civil wars have taken place and totalitarianism has become a fact that can hardly be ignored. Therefore, the modern age has become a time in which more anti-utopias have been envisioned than ever before.
I recently found a Youtube video about transhumanism titled “Transhumanism Agenda 2017”, which explained and talked about the implications of transhumanist technology. The video itself was an collection of voice clips from various experts in fields ranging from eugenics to nanotechnology, and focused on evidence that we are entering a post-human society. Technologies such as microchip-brain implants and nanotechnology were mentioned and discussed in context with the subject matter.
Transhumanism is the idea that supports enhancement of mankind through technology. The word “Transhumanism” is a big word that will intimidate some people, but it is easier concept that it sounds. Throughout the history, there has always been countless attempts to improve human qualities in many forms, like education and cultural enlightenment. In addition, transhumanism takes it to whole another level by bringing in medicine and technology. Transhumanists’ ideas comes from secular view of humanism; they view humanity as “work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in
Mann, Steve with Hal Niedzviecki, Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer Double Day Canada, 2001
In Fukuyama’s short writing Transhumanism, he describes his view on what transhumanism is in the modern-day and he describes problems with the current economy, the possible repercussions of a world with transhumans, and possible side-effects of becoming a trans- human. It would not only affect society by having cyborgs and robotic super humans walking around, but he says that there would need to be a massive change in the government and the laws. There would have to be a defining line that stated the difference between a trans human and a regular human being; he then begins to ask very serious questions that would have to be answered about the sanity and safety of creating transhumans. I will break down his published writing with three topics; Outdated Infrastructure, Physiological effects of biomedical surgery, and apocalyptic transhumans.
Transhumanism is a philosophy based on the technologies of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR), and artificial intelligence that argues for the transcendence of human limitations by harnessing the power of science and technology to an advantage. Transhumanism is also used to denote a philosophical field that examines the possibilities and ethics of such dramatic technological change as represented by GNR and artificial intelligence. With the idea of transhumanism is today’s world, there is a very obvious conflict. There are always two sides to an argument and you could definitely say that both sides of transhumanism both state some very good points. I’d say my stance in this whole argument is somewhere in between both sides because
Transhumanism is going to start out small with slight enhancements to help athletes, special needs people, etc.; but like most things, that will get old. Once the wonder is lost, scientists will need to continue to do more and more to keep people interested. Eventually, people will be pieced together in labs. Parents will be able to go to the doctor and decide what genes they want their baby to have. What will happen when humans start to play God? The world will be in for a lot of trouble. Who is going to decide when it stops? Who is going to decide which humans are good enough to live? At what point will people wake up and realize what they have done? Ronald Bailey is a science correspondent for Reason magazine, and the author of “Transhumanism: The Most Dangerous Idea? Why Striving to Be More than Human Is Human.” In his essay, Bailey says, “Human liberation from our biological constraints began when an ancestor first sharpened a stick…followed with fire, the wheel, domesticating animals…transplants and contraception.” (CITE) This argument would make sense if Bailey were talking about how humans have altered the world around them to create better living conditions, but he is not. Bailey is trying to use this evidence to support the altering of humans. Altering the world in which you live is much different than altering the people that live in the world. Metahumans are obviously going to be superior to
...e over every aspect of human life, meanwhile, people are forcibly stopped doing stuffs by themselves. Finally robots dominated human race, not in the way of military forces but in lifestyle behaviors. The story was interesting yet it also hilarious. Human’s intelligence created technology, and they are created to serve human. No matter how smart the technology will be, they are still the intelligence of humans. I wonder why sometimes people are afraid of their intelligence. Don’t imagine your life without technology because the progression of technology will never stop, and it will continue to benefit us.