Category Archives: Transhumanism

(Warning: Mild spoilers below.)

For a game with such an elegant title, "Prey" sure is the epitome of complicated history.

Consider, first, the history of Arkane Studios' new game: It arrives 11 years after the first "Prey" and three years after the cancellation of its sequel, both helmed by Human Head Studios.

Previews of "Prey 2" stirred hype with open-world bounty hunting evolved from the first game's generic alien shooting. But after publisher Bethesda Softworks ended the sequel's stalled development and quietly gave the property to Arkane, the "Dishonored" studio kept only the series' extraterrestrial threat, transhumanism and marketer's dream of a name. Otherwise, it started from scratch.

In a way, though, the studio didn't. Another complication of "Prey" is its gameplay DNA: "System Shock" filtered through "Thief," "BioShock,""Deus Ex"and other first-person action-adventure classics. Identifiable as those and other influences are, however, they don't feel disrespected or cheaply invoked. "Prey," in fact, honors its "System Shock" family by earning its own place in the tree.

Its stealth and wayfinding systems reward patience and wit much like "Thief" did:hacking to unlock doors, strength to dislodge obstructions and even a glue gun to spit puffy white platforms so you can reach high points. However, "Prey" much more often forces lethal encounters with itsenemies, the walking Rorschach blot Typhon aliens and the humans and robots they possess. Mimics disguise themselves as everyday objects only to spring at your face with damaging swipes, and Phantoms teleport out of sight only to blindside you with energy blasts. Fighting them mixes terror, frustration and exhilaration in a way less like "Thief" than "Dark Souls."

"Prey's"setting, the space station Talos I, is a ruined paradise like "Bioshock's" Rapture, if not as novel. However, it splices the underwater world's art deco with mid-century modernism and other aesthetics, and roughs up those clean surfaces with traces of scientific catastrophe and some zero G when the Typhon descend. The station's carnage asks for the same slow, attentive crawl as "Bioshock," and its email and audio logs ask for the same deductive assembly of its personnel's history. Exploring the station as you unseal its rooms and humanizing secrets may be "Prey's" strongest pull. For all you learn about the Talos I crew's guarded same-sex relationships or internalized body shame, though, the game struggles to bring its distant characters into your orbit.

+3

Steampunk suits "Dishonored 2."

"Prey's" story takes place along an alternate timeline that started with JFK surviving his assassination attempt, leading to more aggressive space exploration, leading to the Typhon's attack and subsequent capture. It revolves around not only the aliens, but the scientific breakthrough their biology allows: neuromods. Like augs in "Deus Ex," neuromods let the humans of "Prey" transcend their limits in ways mundane (instantly becoming a piano virtuoso) and mutant (projecting psychic energy). However, "Prey" twists its transhumanist plot device with compelling narrative results.

That leads to yet another complication of "Prey": Its protagonist, Morgan Yu, is a neuromod guinea pig. Not only is the Chinese-American Morgan a protagonist of underrepresented ethnicity like the first "Prey's" Tommy, who was Cherokee, but Morgan can also be a man or a woman per your choice. (That's why I'll be using feminine pronouns, as I chose a woman Morgan.)

Because removing neuromods means removing any memories formed while they were installed, mystery clouds Morgan's experience aboard Talos I. She struggles to survive the Typhon and piece together her life outside the laboratory in tension with her researcher brother, Alex, who doesn't want his progress on neuromods destroyed alongside the aliens. As he and other voices provide Morgan guidance and you decide whose to follow, the story of "Prey" is shaped by continual revelation about Talos I, about the Typhon and, of course, about her.

Morgan's neuromod proficiency also forms the foundation of "Prey's" open-ended gameplay. Like "System Shock" and other games it inspired, "Prey" lets you shape your experience with it via an extensive skill tree. You can invest the neuromods you collect into gun damage or Typhon attacks so you feel a little less frightened in their staticky presence, or you can max out your hacking, repair and strength skills so nothing stands in your way of sneaking around them.A dilemma also arises when, by scanning them, the Typhon's own abilities become available. Mind control and object mimicry are tempting, but the cost to Morgan's humanity has moral and logistical consequences, such as turrets recognizing you as Typhon and therefore firing on you.

Like "Dishonored 2," "Prey" cushions death with a speedy save/load option that becomes muscle memory early in the game. But Arkane's follow-up falls short in a few other presentational respects: Morgan frequently drifts or bobs back and forth despite not touching the controller, in-person voices frequently vie with those of audio logs for your main speaker channel, and I was locked out of a side quest because the game didn't register my acquisition of a quest item. Maneuvering Morgan in zero G can also fluster, especially when suicide-bombing Cystoid Typhon swarm you from every conceivable angle."Prey" may be a game of complication, but when it comes to its gameplay, some of its complications are more welcome than others.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

TL;DR: Arkane Studios ("Dishonored") takes its talent for absorbing open-ended adventure to the moon's orbit in this sci-fi thriller, though its characters are as cold as the hull of its space station setting and its gameplay hybridizes genre predecessors like something out of its transhumanist labs.

CONTENT RATING: Mature for blood, language, use of alcohol and violence

DEVELOPER: Arkane Studios

PUBLISHER: Bethesda Softworks

DISCLOSURE: I received a review code for this game from Bethesda Softworks and completed its main story and several side objectives on normal difficulty in about 25 hours.

See the article here:

'Prey' (PS4) review: More hybrid than human, and that's OK - Auburn Citizen

Transhumanism posits that humanity is on the verge of rapid evolutionary change as a result of emerging technologies and increased global consciousness. However, this insight is dismissed as a naive and controversial reframing of posthumanist thought, having also been vilified as the most dangerous idea in the world by Francis Fukuyama. In this book, Andrew Pilsch counters these critiques, arguing instead that transhumanisms utopian rhetoric actively imagines radical new futures for the species and its habitat.

Pilsch situates contemporary transhumanism within the longer history of a rhetorical mode he calls evolutionary futurism that unifies diverse texts, philosophies, and theories of science and technology that anticipate a radical explosion in humanitys cognitive, physical, and cultural potentialities. By conceptualizing transhumanism as a rhetoric, as opposed to an obscure group of fringe figures, he explores the intersection of three major paradigms shaping contemporary Western intellectual life: cybernetics, evolutionary biology, and spiritualism. In analyzing this collision, his work traces the belief in a digital, evolutionary, and collective future through a broad range of texts written by theologians and mystics, biologists and computer scientists, political philosophers and economic thinkers, conceptual artists and Golden Age science fiction writers. Unearthing the long history of evolutionary futurism, Pilsch concludes, allows us to more clearly see the novel contributions that transhumanism offers for escaping our current geopolitical bind by inspiring radical utopian thought.

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Transhumanism University of Minnesota Press

Ever since we first took bite of the proverbial apple and were ejected from Eden, human beings have been trying to better themselves. Whether through acquiring new knowledge or attempting to revert to a more natural state, the question of how best to further human progress is always at hand. One of the latest concepts is transhumanism.

A philosophy stretching back into the last few decades of the twentieth century, transhumanism proposes that the future of humankind is to not be human at all. Proponents of transhumanism believe that by altering how humans reproduce, genetically and technologically augmenting the body, and potentially dispensing with the body altogether in favor of neurological liberation, we can take charge of our own evolution for the better. While all of that may seem a ways off, one things shines through: in the future, sex as we know it may be a thing of the past.

Human beings are well on the road to altering how we reproduce. From in-vitro to surrogacy to children born with three biological parents, we are no longer a species that requires physical sex to generate offspring. Despite removing the reproductive incentive, however, our culture is incredibly focused on sex.

Our bodies and minds clamor for this release, and our art and entertainment reflect that right back to us. While there are exceptions, sex is not usually the subject of what we consider high culture. Instead, sexual content is considered base, and so is the act itself. We condemn it, restrict it, and are shamed by it. Perhaps if we entirely remove the biological necessity of sex by doing away with the 14-day rule that limits experimenters to embryos younger than 14 days old, we will remove the stigma of sex by completely test-tubing reproduction. Will this free our higher, cognitive selves from the base physicality that binds us to our bodies and to each other?

We have invented the tools to rule our own evolution, and each is designed to liberate us from our natural bodies. Reproductive technologies and artificial wombs, medical advancements in artificial limbs, hearts, lungs, all render our natural state primitive.

Many people think artificiality enhances life. We need not look far into the annals of medical science to see that the breakthroughs in artificial limbs, reproduction, and tissue and organ replacement make life better for many people. There is a difference, however, in correcting a physical detriment and altering the physical form wholesale.

Yet I cant be the only one who gets queasy at the concept of genetic enhancement. The ethical questions abound, in terms of genetic altering for gender, skin color, height, predisposition toward a particular skill set. The argument can be made eradicating genetic illnesses is an honorable mission. But how are these illnesses defined? Is Downs Syndrome something to eradicate? What about autism? Schizophrenia? Bipolar disorder?

We are naturalists about the environment, animals, and oceans, but dismiss ourselves as beings of nature and instead think of ourselves as contaminants. Our time teaches us that everything in nature is precious except for that perennial villain, the Homo sapiens. An ancient relic of a forgotten time, the Homo sapiensthe explorer, the nomad, the homesteader, the brave, the noble, the being made in Gods imageis in danger of extinction at its own hand. We have overthought ourselves so thoroughly that we are convincing ourselves that any reality the mind can conjure, the body should imitate.

Transhumanism presupposes atheism as the only reasonable perspective. It sets us up as gods who take charge of, and direct, our own evolutionary capabilities and assumes that a more technological being is preferable to one that relies on its own body. Yet we are still unable to create life from scratch, unable to manufacture the spark of existence. Without understanding how life is made, we are attempting to remake it.

Whereas mankind previously believed we were made in the image of God, we are now meant to believe that we should make ourselves over in our own, imagined image of what humanity can be. We hold God up as an example of the good we can attain to, despite our limitations.

If we become our own gods, we will be self-hating gods, eternally dissatisfied, tweaking all nature right out of ourselves. What will we remove from our genetic make-up in pursuit of the most efficient human? Fear? Sadness? Empathy? Eroticism? It is easy to imagine the drastic measures we would take to better ourselves, only to wind up entirely disassociated from what makes life worth living.

If the Age of Reason taught us about the mind/body split, the twenty-first century is schooling us on the mind/body divorce. Divorcing the mind from the body is exactly what the transhumanists intend once the concept of neurological liberation becomes practice.

The ability of scientists to upload a consciousness to an artificial neural net is not too far off. Cut off from the body, the mind has a very limited scope. It cannot gain information through sensory input. Human beings are made up of experiences as relayed to the brain through the senses. What is a brain without sensory input, and what is a being that cannot feel, smell, taste, hear, see?

This final state, a mind without a body, eliminates sex entirely. While the mind may be the ultimate erogenous zone, it needs the body to achieve release. The brain is not just a meat computer, it is a physical entity that performs physical functions within itself. Transhumanists ask us to imagine ourselves as minds without bodies, as though that is somehow a higher state of being that our natural ones. But it isnt.

Instead of looking at sex as something beneath us, we should consider it as one of the most beautiful expressions of our humanity. Sex can bring about an emotional and physical connection, and in long-term relationships sex takes on a more profound meaning.

It can be a way to communicate and tend to the needs of a lover in ways that words, commiserations, and even a hug cant get close to. The transhumanists would have us transcend the body, but the tools of transcendence are within us.

The idea of altering the human being into something that is both human and trans, or beyond the existing concept of humanity, assumes that we fundamentally know what it means to be human. It also presupposes that it is reasonable to accelerate cognitive development at the cost of our physical selves. We must consider, and value, what we would leave behind. The body is not a dead weight that our minds lug around. The body does more than hold our consciousness, it drives it.

Sex, and the pleasure drive, is a gift. It is a gift to be able to extend our own boundaries to include another person. Sex gives us the ability to feel ephemeral and grounded all at once and to feel thoroughly connected to another human being. That is not something to give away.

Sex has been the raison detre of humanity since our beginning. No matter what we may think we will get in return, for the continuance of our life or the collective consciousness of our fellow humans, sex is not something to relinquish to technological advancement.

Continue reading here:

Transhumanism Is Just Fancy Sex-Shaming And Self-Loathing

Deutsche Welle

Spectrum: Transhumanism, human uploads, and Homo Deus Deutsche Welle Spectrum: Transhumanism, human uploads, and Homo Deus. It's all about artificial intelligence - the rise of our machine overlords. What's going to happen? When's it going to happen? Or has it already happened? We're going to delve into these and - a ...

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Spectrum: Transhumanism, human uploads, and Homo Deus - Deutsche Welle

Ever since we first took bite of the proverbial apple and were ejected from Eden, human beings have been trying to better themselves. Whether through acquiring new knowledge or attempting to revert to a more natural state, the question of how best to further human progress is always at hand. One of the latest concepts is transhumanism.

A philosophy stretching back into the last few decades of the twentieth century, transhumanism proposes that the future of humankind is to not be human at all. Proponents of transhumanism believe that by altering how humans reproduce, genetically and technologically augmenting the body, and potentially dispensing with the body altogether in favor of neurological liberation, we can take charge of our own evolution for the better. While all of that may seem a ways off, one things shines through: in the future, sex as we know it may be a thing of the past.

Human beings are well on the road to altering how we reproduce. From in-vitro to surrogacy to children born with three biological parents, we are no longer a species that requires physical sex to generate offspring. Despite removing the reproductive incentive, however, our culture is incredibly focused on sex.

Our bodies and minds clamor for this release, and our art and entertainment reflect that right back to us. While there are exceptions, sex is not usually the subject of what we consider high culture. Instead, sexual content is considered base, and so is the act itself. We condemn it, restrict it, and are shamed by it. Perhaps if we entirely remove the biological necessity of sex by doing away with the 14-day rule that limits experimenters to embryos younger than 14 days old, we will remove the stigma of sex by completely test-tubing reproduction. Will this free our higher, cognitive selves from the base physicality that binds us to our bodies and to each other?

We have invented the tools to rule our own evolution, and each is designed to liberate us from our natural bodies. Reproductive technologies and artificial wombs, medical advancements in artificial limbs, hearts, lungs, all render our natural state primitive.

Many people think artificiality enhances life. We need not look far into the annals of medical science to see that the breakthroughs in artificial limbs, reproduction, and tissue and organ replacement make life better for many people. There is a difference, however, in correcting a physical detriment and altering the physical form wholesale.

Yet I cant be the only one who gets queasy at the concept of genetic enhancement. The ethical questions abound, in terms of genetic altering for gender, skin color, height, predisposition toward a particular skill set. The argument can be made eradicating genetic illnesses is an honorable mission. But how are these illnesses defined? Is Downs Syndrome something to eradicate? What about autism? Schizophrenia? Bipolar disorder?

We are naturalists about the environment, animals, and oceans, but dismiss ourselves as beings of nature and instead think of ourselves as contaminants. Our time teaches us that everything in nature is precious except for that perennial villain, the Homo sapiens. An ancient relic of a forgotten time, the Homo sapiensthe explorer, the nomad, the homesteader, the brave, the noble, the being made in Gods imageis in danger of extinction at its own hand. We have overthought ourselves so thoroughly that we are convincing ourselves that any reality the mind can conjure, the body should imitate.

Transhumanism presupposes atheism as the only reasonable perspective. It sets us up as gods who take charge of, and direct, our own evolutionary capabilities and assumes that a more technological being is preferable to one that relies on its own body. Yet we are still unable to create life from scratch, unable to manufacture the spark of existence. Without understanding how life is made, we are attempting to remake it.

Whereas mankind previously believed we were made in the image of God, we are now meant to believe that we should make ourselves over in our own, imagined image of what humanity can be. We hold God up as an example of the good we can attain to, despite our limitations.

If we become our own gods, we will be self-hating gods, eternally dissatisfied, tweaking all nature right out of ourselves. What will we remove from our genetic make-up in pursuit of the most efficient human? Fear? Sadness? Empathy? Eroticism? It is easy to imagine the drastic measures we would take to better ourselves, only to wind up entirely disassociated from what makes life worth living.

If the Age of Reason taught us about the mind/body split, the twenty-first century is schooling us on the mind/body divorce. Divorcing the mind from the body is exactly what the transhumanists intend once the concept of neurological liberation becomes practice.

The ability of scientists to upload a consciousness to an artificial neural net is not too far off. Cut off from the body, the mind has a very limited scope. It cannot gain information through sensory input. Human beings are made up of experiences as relayed to the brain through the senses. What is a brain without sensory input, and what is a being that cannot feel, smell, taste, hear, see?

This final state, a mind without a body, eliminates sex entirely. While the mind may be the ultimate erogenous zone, it needs the body to achieve release. The brain is not just a meat computer, it is a physical entity that performs physical functions within itself. Transhumanists ask us to imagine ourselves as minds without bodies, as though that is somehow a higher state of being that our natural ones. But it isnt.

Instead of looking at sex as something beneath us, we should consider it as one of the most beautiful expressions of our humanity. Sex can bring about an emotional and physical connection, and in long-term relationships sex takes on a more profound meaning.

It can be a way to communicate and tend to the needs of a lover in ways that words, commiserations, and even a hug cant get close to. The transhumanists would have us transcend the body, but the tools of transcendence are within us.

The idea of altering the human being into something that is both human and trans, or beyond the existing concept of humanity, assumes that we fundamentally know what it means to be human. It also presupposes that it is reasonable to accelerate cognitive development at the cost of our physical selves. We must consider, and value, what we would leave behind. The body is not a dead weight that our minds lug around. The body does more than hold our consciousness, it drives it.

Sex, and the pleasure drive, is a gift. It is a gift to be able to extend our own boundaries to include another person. Sex gives us the ability to feel ephemeral and grounded all at once and to feel thoroughly connected to another human being. That is not something to give away.

Sex has been the raison detre of humanity since our beginning. No matter what we may think we will get in return, for the continuance of our life or the collective consciousness of our fellow humans, sex is not something to relinquish to technological advancement.

Originally posted here:

Transhumanism Is Just Fancy Sex-Shaming And Self-Loathing - The Federalist

Transhumanism is not only the future, it is already here Find Info the the Book and Film: http://www.omnisense.org/2016/10/cove... All 25+ Original Tracks in Covert Transhumanism Produced by Omnisense; https://omnisense.bandcamp.com/album/... ___ The Electronic Control Grid: https://youtu.be/wmvsk0Q9UIs ___ Stay Up to Date with Omnisense's Work; https://twitter.com/mkultraRF https://www.facebook.com/coverttransh... ___ Covered in Covert Transhumanism; A Mind Control Documentary: Electromagnetic Mind Control (At the Speed of Light) Whistleblower Testimony Government and Scientific Sources Verifying Mind Control Cutting Edge Mind Control Capabilities Explained How Mind Control is Done History of Mind Control Psychological Warfare (PSYOPS) Black Ops Perpetrated via Black Project Technology Technological Mind Tricks / Technological Illusions Telepathic Impersonations Black Project Post-Singularity Artificial Intelligence 21st Century Targeting ~ Targeted Individuals Electronic Warfare / Electronic Harassment Tactics Used Against Targeted Individuals Aspects of 21st Century Targeting Gangstalking / Organized Stalking / Zersetzung / Street Theater Technological Possession Suicide Programming Electronic Telepathy/Synthetic Telepathy/v2k Mind Control Patents (RF Energy / Microwave) Brain Waves are Electromagnetic Waves (RF Energy) Cell Phone Tower Conspiracy (RF Energy) ELF Waves (RF Energy) HAARP (RF Energy) Electronic Telepathy Patents (RF Energy / Microwave) NSAs SIGINT ~ Remote Neural Monitoring (Thought Surveillance) Manchurian Candidates Trauma Based Mind Control Mind Control Techniques Modern Day Mind Control Programs Black Project Technology New Age Psychological Operations Common Remote Influencing Technology Facades Technological Channeling Analysis Technological ESP Synthetic Sensations via Directed Energy Weapons Synthetic Dreams ~ Virtual Reality (VR) Black Project Spending Brain/Mind Mapping Operation Paperclip Operation Armageddon Artificial Intelligence based Demonic Possession Facades Defenses to Mind Control The Shadow Government The Surveillance Grid Psy Op Methodologies Mechanics of Perception Technological Conspiracy Quotes Transhumanization of Society What I call The Covert Transhumanism Era

In a nutshell; "It seems AI has the power of the Matrix(in the movie) without the need for us to be in a pod plugged in." ~Andrew Hale

Link:

Covert Transhumanism: A Mind Control Documentary - YouTube

First Posted: Mar 23, 2017 04:34 AM EDT

Chappie as seen in the movie that introduces us to transhumanism. (Photo : Sony Pictures Entertainment/YouTube screenshot)

When one sees the fictional characters in movies, especially the immortal ones like the robot in the movie Chappie, would not one feel if that were possible in real life? If yes, could a person be immortal somehow? Technically, that is an elusive possibility, which is what Marc O'Connell's famous book on transhumanism speaks of.

People's organic body rots away with time, but there is a process that can stop it. Scientists have been using cryogenic facilities to keep various organs alive and healthy, so why not apply that to a fully functional human body?

As per research work at Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which performs cryogenic researches, as a person dies, the body can be immediately taken to a liquid nitrogen-filled chambers and frozen to keep it fresh. Either the whole body is frozen or just the head, and it is kept that way till the day comes when proper facilities are available to transfer the consciousness or similar attributes in humans into machines, according toNPR. The process is quite similar to what people do with fruits and vegetables. They are stored in refrigerators to keep them fresh. The same when done with human bodies or organs to also keep them fresh for very long periods.

When speaking to O'Connell, he noted of his obsession to understand the scientific ways to achieve immortality in humans. His book, To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death,notes of the humanly desires to become an actual God. Even the opening page of his book offers a famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson saying, "A man is a God in ruins." This gives readers an insight that his books are planned towards a quest to learn more or achieve human immortality.

As noted by O'Connell, man is considered to be a defective God. He notes that since the occurrence of "The Fall," humans have lost their powers of immortality. Thus, they have been searching ways to restore it. Will science be able to help achieve it? Or is the dream of achieving human immortality just a myth? Let us assume that scientific ways are there to make it possible, but it would require one to be transferred to a non-human entity. Will people be willing to give up their organic self to achieve this?

The concept behind achieving human immortality is based on transferring one's life essence into an artificial machine. But, O'Connell says that it is impossible to do so at the moment. According to him, the human body is the very essence of life. Also, transferring it to some machine would not be achievable with merely codes and connections.

However, people should know that transhumanism exists. Even their interacting with the world through cell phones is a mode of transhumanism. Therefore, people might look up for mixing with machines and moving a step towards human immortality.

Tagstranshumanism, cryogenics, Human Immortality, Marc O' Connell

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Can Transhumanism Help Achieve Human Immortality? - Science World Report

Did you know that the word transhuman literally means beyond human?

All over the world, scientists and intellectuals are joining the transhumanism movement. Those that adhere to this philosophy believe that the time has come for us to use technology to take control of our own evolution. By doing so, they believe that we can give ourselves superhuman powers and radically extend our lifespans. Right now, the most popular movie in America is Avengers: Age of Ultron, and in recent years we have watched films about mutants and superheroes become some of Hollywoods biggest moneymakers. But transhumanists believe that we will soon be able to literally turn ourselves into such superheroes as technology continues to increase at an exponential rate. And once we have superhuman powers and superhuman intelligence, they are convinced that we will eradicate all sickness, disease, poverty and war. Many of them actually believe that we will be able to achieve immortality and establish a utopia on Earth just a few decades from now. In other words, we wont need a God because we will have become our own gods.

At the core of the transhumanist movement is an unshakable faith in the inevitable technological progress of humanity. Yes, there are some transhumanists that have doubts, but for most transhumanists the solution to all of our problems is more technology. If you are not familiar with transhumanism, the following is a really good definitionthat I recently came across

Transhumanism is a cultural and intellectual movement promoting the aim of transforming the human condition fundamentally by developing and making available technologies to enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capabilities. Transhumanist thinking studies the potential benefits and hazards of emerging technologies that could overcome basic human limitations. It also addresses ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies. Some transhumanists predict that human beings may eventually transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities that they justify a state of being known as posthuman.

Transhumanists want to help humans live much longer, and they also want to dramatically increase the quality of those lives. Ultimately, most transhumanists are fully convinced that they will be able to defeat death altogether. The following is a short excerptfrom an ExtremeTech article

One of the core concepts in transhumanist thinking is life extension: Through genetic engineering, nanotech, cloning, and other emerging technologies, eternal life may soon be possible. Likewise, transhumanists are interested in the ever-increasing number of technologies that can boost our physical, intellectual, and psychological capabilities beyond what humans are naturally capable of (thus the termtranshuman). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), for example, which speeds up reaction times and learning speed byrunning a very weak electric current through your brain, has already been used by the US military to train snipers. On the more extreme side, transhumanism deals with the concepts of mind uploading (to a computer), and what happens when we finally craft a computer with greater-than-human intelligence (the technological singularity).

So would you like to live forever armed with superhuman powers?

The most famous transhumanist in the world, Ray Kurzweil, actually believes that he is going to be able to do that. But first he has to stay alive long enough for the technologies that he believes are coming to be developed. So Kurzweiltakes 150 supplements a day in an attempt to keep his body in peak condition

The youthful 65-year-old currently takes 150 supplements a day, which he argues is the first bridge.

The idea is to build enough bridges to ensure the body holds out long enough for life-lengthening technology to come into its own.

He has likened the biology of the body to computer software and believes we are all out of date.

Kurzweil is absolutely convinced that if he can just stretch his life out long enough that technologies that will enable him to achieve immortality are right around the corner. In fact,in a piece that he wrote for CNN he expressed his belief that our medical technologies will be a million times more powerful than they are today just two decades from now

Health and medicine is now an information technology and is therefore subject to what I call the law of accelerating returns, which is a doubling of capability (for the same cost) about each year that applies to any information technology.

As a result, technologies to reprogram the software that underlie human biology are already a thousand times more powerful than they were when the genome project was completed in 2003, and will again be a thousand times more powerful than they are today in a decade, and a million times more powerful in two decades.

So will he be right?

We will just have to wait and see.

For a long time, many in the transhumanist movement (including Kurzweil) have been pointing to a time period between 2030 and 2050 during which they believe something remarkable will happen. They believe that during that time period something known as the singularity will occur. As technology increases at an exponential rate, they believe that artificial intelligence will begin to greatly surpass human intelligence at some point, and that humanity will merge with this new super intelligence. Once that happens, they believe that the world will change in ways that we cannot even comprehend today

Kurzweil and his followers believe that a crucial turning point will be reached around the year 2030, when information technology achieves genuine intelligence, at the same time as biotechnology enables a seamless union between us and this super-smart new technological environment. Ultimately the human-machine mind will become free to roam a universe of its own creation, uploading itself at will on to a suitably powerful computational substrate. We will become essentially god-like in our powers.

Does that sound good to you, or does it sound frightening?

Other transhumanists are not quite as optimistic as Kurzweil and his followers. Just consider what Max Tegmark, the author of Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, had to say about what life will be like after the singularity

After this, life on Earth would never be the same. Whoever or whatever controls this technology would rapidly become the worlds wealthiest and most powerful, outsmarting allfinancial markets, out-inventing and out-patenting all human researchers, and out-manipulating all human leaders. Even if we humansnominally merge with such machines, we might have no guarantees whatsoever about the ultimate outcome, making it feel less like a mergerand more like a hostile corporate takeover.

Even some of the most prominent scientists in the world are skeptical of what an ultra-powerful artificial intelligence would mean for the future of humanity. The following is an excerpt from an article co-authored by Stephen Hawking

Looking further ahead, there are no fundamental limits to what can be achieved: there is no physical law precluding particles from being organized in ways that perform even more advanced computations than the arrangements of particles in human brains. An explosive transition is possible, although it may play out differently than in the movie: as Irving Good realized in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a singularity and Johnny Depps movie character calls transcendence. One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.

But despite these reservations from many in the scientific community, many transhumanists are pushing ahead as hard as they can. Many of them are absolutely convinced that what they are doing will bring a new golden age to this planet. Just consider the words oftranshumanist Zoltan Istvan

Despite this, people continue to worry that technology and science that make our species more transhuman will be used to create a deeper divide in society for the haves and have-nots. Those worries are unfounded. A close examination of the issues show that transhumanist technology and science liberates us, brings us better health, and has improved the living standards of all people around the world. If you value liberty, equality and progress, it makes sense to embrace the coming age of transhumanism.

Doesnt that sound wonderful?

And there are even some transhumanists that couch their hopes and dreams for the future in religious terminology. For example, transhumanist Mark Pesce is fully convinced that transhumanism will allow ordinary humans to become as gods

Men die, planets die, even stars die. We know all this. Because we know it, we seek something morea transcendence of transience, translation to incorruptible form. An escape if you will, a stop to the wheel. We seek, therefore, to bless ourselves with perfect knowledge and perfect will; To become as gods, take the universe in hand, and transform it in our imagefor our own delight. As it is on Earth, so it shall be in the heavens. The inevitable result of incredible improbability, the arrow of evolution is lipping us into the transhuman an apotheosis to reason, salvation attained by good works.

That is some pretty strong stuff.

So what do you think about all of this? Please feel free to join the discussion by leaving a comment below

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Transhumanism: An Attempt To Use Technology To Turn Men Into ...

Todays guest post is brought to you by Chris Van Allsburg (no, not the childrens book author).Chris teaches apologetics and ethics, holds an Mdiv, and is an MA in philosophy student. He teaches his children at home in the classical tradition, imbibing in Latin, Greek, Logic, and the good of C.S. Lewis. He loves Tolkien, sitting by the fire, and dreaming about being a master guitarist some day.

In Sundays The Guardian, Yuval Noah Harari answers peoples probing questions concerning the end of mankind. Harari grew up as a secular Jew, lives with his husband in Israel outside of Jerusalem, and holds a doctorate from Oxford. He has become a public intellectual with his popular book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. As he probes the future, he sees the end of humanity as we know it, due to globalization and technological advances. Now, this end is not the death of mankind, but his transformation. Man will be changed and upgraded with biotechnology and artificial intelligence into something else, into something different.

In other words, transhumanism is the end of mankind. In this sense, end turns out to be teleological. There are a number of flaws in his argumentation, however.

First, Harari says that homo sapiens has advanced over and against the other animals on the planet due to shared fictions. This prognostication echoes Ludwig Feuerbach, whose projection theory influenced Sigmund Freud, who in turn influenced Richard Dawkins, atheist author of The God Delusion. Hence, a Sky Daddy is required for humans to live meaningful, fearless lives.

However, this is a genetic fallacy, which says a belief is false (or, fictitious) due to its origins. Granted, even if belief in the existence of God is due to fear of the unknown in this sometimes scary world, that doesnt mean that such belief is a fiction as Harari says. Albeit, belief in God can be demonstrated as rational, as shown in Aquinas Five Ways (arguments from motion, efficient causality, contingency of being, degrees of perfection, and final causality).

Second, it is interesting how Harari singles out Christianity as the chief fiction in the world. He says Christianity derives its meaning from the concept of death. At the close of the interview, Harari says:

Previous cultures, especially traditional religions, usually needed death in order to explain the meaning of life. Like in Christianity without death, life has no meaning. The whole meaning of life comes from what happens to you after you die. There is no death, no heaven, no hell there is no meaning to Christianity. But over the past three centuries we have seen the emergence of a lot of modern ideologies such as socialism, liberalism, feminism, communism that dont need death at all in order to provide life with meaning.

This is a straw man fallacy. In Christianity, death is an enemy; it does not serve as the sine qua non for human meaning. Rather, as the Apostle Paul says, Death, where is your victory? Death where is your sting? And, Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! If anything, Christianity most certainly has a theology of death, and a meaning deriving from its notion: it is an enemy which will eventually be defeated by God through Christ.

Third, Harari is mistaken when he says, The best test to know whether an entity is real or fictional is the test of suffering. A nation cannot suffer, it cannot feel pain, it cannot feel fear, it has no consciousness. He is making an indirect, anthropological statement here:

P1: Knowing reality requires suffering

P2: Suffering requires consciousness

Therefore, consciousness is required for knowing reality.

But consciousness is presupposed for knowledge in the first place. This has the veneer of intellectual remarkability, but its nothing but circular reasoning and question-begging. Perhaps the best way to test what is real is the route Aristotle suggested: the external world as evident, known by the reliability of sense perception. Alas, since Descartes, Hume, and Kant, we live in a postmodern world of suspicion: everything is suspect, except for the notion of progress.

Finally, Harari believes that religion, law, nations, etc. are mere fictions, developed by the subjectivity of the human mind (hints of Descartes theory of knowledge here) with the purpose of promoting progress. Knowing this, he believes, will enable mankind to progress by discarding old systems of religious thought and believe in the reality of humans to evolve into a better, technological, transhuman thing. To the contrary, his fundamental beliefs driving his argument come from his flawed concept of the origin of religionand humanssubjectivist, Cartesian epistemology, and 19th century pragmatism, which results in relativism.

In Episode IV, Darth Vader warns Grand Moff Tarkin not to put too much faith in the Death Star, this technological terror youve constructed. For, You do not know the power of the Force. In the same way, Hararis prognostications about the future of mankind with its hope based in evolution and technology, should be recapitulated in a system of thought which comports with what is truly real: God.

Read more from the original source:

Brave New Transhumanism World - Patheos (blog)

n the 1st of May, the essay collection Nietzsche and Transhumanism: Precursor or Enemy?, edited by Yunus Tuncel, will be published. It deals with the question of whether Nietzsche can be seen as a precursor of transhumanism or not. Debates on the topic have existed for some years, particularly in the Journal of Evolution and Technology and The Agonist.

This book combines existing papers, from these journals, with new material, to highlight some of the important issues surrounding this argument. The collection addresses a variety of issues to show whether or not there is a close connection between transhumanist concerns for progress and technology and Nietzsches ideas. The debate circles around reflections of IEET Fellow Prof. Dr. Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, who has written four articles for this collection which also contain a basic outline of his Nietzschean transhumanism. IEET Fellow Russell Blackford has also contributed his specific take on this topic. Here is a complete list of the contributors to this collection. All of them are world-leading transhumanists, Nietzsche scholars, philosophers or ethicists.

Keith Ansell-Pearson, University of Warwick Babette Babich, Fordham University Rebecca Bamford, Quinnipiac University Russell Blackford, University of Newcastle, NSW Michael Hauskeller, University of Exeter Bill Hibbard, University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center Paul S. Loeb, University of Puget Sound. Max More, Alcor Foundation Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, John Cabot University, Rome Michael Steinmann, Stevens Institute of Technology Yunus Tuncel, New School for Social Research Ashley Woodward, University of Dundee

Here is the link to the announcement of this collection by the publishing house: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/nietzsche-and-transhumanism

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Essay collection Nietzsche and Transhumanism: Precursor or Enemy? To be Released - Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies