Transhumanism
#HyperbolicHuman #BuildingDigitalHumans #HumanEnhancement #HumanAlteration #TechnologyPoweredSuperIntelligence #TranshumanismBoonOrBane #PostmodernAge #
What is Transhumanism?.. Transhumanism is a very strong trend among the western elites. It seeks to merge human beings with machines in order to overcome the natural limitations of human biology using technology. In other words, it is anti aging life extension technology, which will be inseparable from humans.
Imagine this: There’s a machine that can download your brain onto a computer and save it as a file. All of your hopes, dreams, aspirations, memories, dirty secrets, and kinky fantasies are right there in that file and can be loaded up into a program that would turn the computer into a perfect, if temporary, synthetic replication of “you.” The computer could then do basic tasks that you find boring with the exact same tastes and preferences as yourself. It could find and order a new rug for the living room, do research for a project at work, do your taxes, calculate savings for your kids’ college fund, all while you sleep or sit on the couch and get fat. In a sense, it would be “you,” yet it would reside completely outside of your body and conscious awareness. Now imagine that this same program allows you to alter “you.” You can delete some traumatic memories, tweak your self-esteem a bit, remove a bad habit and install a couple new good ones. Then you can plug the computer back into your head and download the new “you” in a matter of seconds. Our final best state lies beyond our physical, biological selves in a truly science-fiction future, if possible. When we look at how we can solve the human condition and ultimately suffering and death, the answer lies in removing biology from the equation. Yes.
If we take a close look at the current world around us, we can see a rise in media involvement. Social media and entertainment news did not become prominent in our society until the last 35 years. Now more than ever we start to witness a direct insight into the world of others– specifically the rich and famous. Over time we began to compare our daily lives, appearances, and material items to those we marvel about on our TVs. Celebrities who are 60 years old with no wrinkles, Elon Musk nonchalantly discussing brain chip implants, and 20-year-olds suddenly popping up with brand new body shapes. It is literally as if we are subconsciously digesting this information to subtly push us toward the world of Transhumanism. In the technological means, is a boon and in the cultural means is definitely bane.
A brief history: The term “transhumanism” appeared for the first time in 1927 in Religion without Revelation by Julian Huxley, brother of the writer Aldous Huxley, to refer to the idea that humanity can transcend itself. The first text to use scientific transhumanism as understood today dates back to 1983, when Natasha Vita-More published the “Transhuman Manifesto”, which formed the basis for the “Transhumanist Declaration”. Huxley wrote an essay explaining how changes in the way we view social and cultural issues could help improve the human experience. Huxley did not once state that technological intervention was necessary – but he believed that humans were granted the role of cosmic evolution, and that it is our responsibility to figure out how to achieve the “impossible”. “Impossible” is in quotations because what humans considered outrageously out of reach hundreds of years ago is a part of our daily lives today. The invention of airplanes, the internet, and smartphones are just a few examples of what we considered science fiction just 100 years ago. Here we are in 2022 – while some may believe that humans have reached their peak evolution stage, others will argue that we still have so much further to go. And we owe it all to technological intervention. Transhumanist ideas have been steadily gaining ground since and have made their way into both academia and business world. The most important international transhumanist organisation today is Humanity+, a think tank of educators, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want “people to be better than well.”
Human 1.0 to 2.0: Elon Musk (Tesla) and Ray Kurzweil (Google) are big proponents of going from human 1.0 to 2.0. Kurzweil is renowned for promoting the paradigm of singularity, which he defines as “a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.” For Kurzweil, the best way to prevent the extinction of the human species confronted with the arrival of artificial superintelligence is integration with machines. In his own words, “future machines will be human, even if they are not biological.” As the years go by, our society is continuously introduced to new technology that helps make our lives a lot easier. Thanks for simple inventions such as the GPS, most of us have never known the struggle of traveling using only a paper map. From pacemakers supporting our vital functions to smartphones taking on jobs once done by our ears, eyes, and minds, humanity is increasingly dependent on technology. But, now we are faced with something that we believed we would only see in a movie – man and technology merging together to become one. A world where we accept digital identities (under the guise of vaccine passports), is a world where our human minds are commoditized.
Virtual identity on social media is conditioning us to be physically confined in a small space and do work from there in a global worldwide society. Digital identities will automatically limit individual freedoms, personal incentive, a family’s educational choices and more, going far beyond medical decisions. The coming control of digital identities would end homeschooling, gathering for temple, church masque, and other values we hold dear.
The World Economic Forum’s declared “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, exposes the global takeover of industries and public policies by the central banks, centralized education, multinational corporations, big tech technocrats and billionaire-funded foundations. It’s been right under our noses all along. This WILL affect each and every one of us but especially our children! Globalists’ goal is our children embracing transhumanism for their gain.
Digital Twinning. Teens already being ‘prepared’ by playing online games (Ready Player Me) and reading YA literature like ‘Ready Player 1‘ to live in the virtual world. Gamification and avatars is no longer consigned to just the realm of gaming anymore, but rather expands across every digital platform that we choose to inhabit. From gaming communities to social media networks, to gamified environments (such as the basic loyalty programs, or your LinkedIn profile, or Amazon profile). It is highly concerning. This is now right at our door!
Blockchain implications for our children and grandchildren. Blockchain is a shared datad and a technology that enables the secure sharing of information. Data, obviously, is stored in a database. Google Classroom interfaces during covid have already captured tremendous amounts of data on our kids. Already tracking prenatal care for blockchain application. Crypto figures into this already. How do we know if we are participating in blockchain? The passport system will be an entry point. This dystopian scenario is no longer the stuff of science fiction, but an integral part of the proposed post-pandemic “Great Reset,”
Transhumanism makes a series of promises: All human enhancement technologies, start from the premise that we can overcome present limitations by enhancing the increase of physical and intellectual capacities, life extension, the elimination of genetic diseases and so many things. But In modern society, We are disposable except for the elites who are controlling this. Who are the “they”? The 1% of elite population of millionaires, billionaires, entrepreneurs, industrialists, and all riches who have handle on the entire world and also the other planets too. The need for social currency and proof of privileges to participate in society is the very antithesis of freedom and interconnectedness. We must take a stand to protect our children and future generations. Let’s not wait and see if those pushing this agenda have the capacity to carry out their plan to make our world one big computer. Every one should take a stand today for freedom and bodily autonomy for our children, communities, and future generations to come. So our voice matters. We have to stand against vaccine passports. Stand for health and freedom. Stand for the nature given relationship between parent and child, person and nature and person and every other living thing. Complying with programs such as vaccine passports that require a digital identity opens the doors to a level of domination that will also reach into the realm of homeschooled and unschooled children as well. No child will be able to be exempt from digital vouchers required to have verifiable skillsets to participate in the global economy, regardless of physical location.
Cybernetic transhumanism: Machines are at the centre of many transhumanist visions of the future. In 1980, the philosopher John Searle introduced the distinction between strong and weak artificial intelligence (AI). For Searle, strong AI means that a programmed computer does not imitate the mind, but is itself a mind, whereas weak AI involves programming computers to perform specialised tasks. Searle aimed to show that strong AI is essentially impossible. A useful distinction in this respect is the one made between general intelligence, which applies across different cognitive tasks and is associated with human intelligence, and specialised intelligence, which applies to one task. While computers can be programmed with specific intelligence, whether they can make use of general intelligence is yet to be confirmed. A discipline that has run parallel to the development of AI is robotics. Questions on AI and robotics are often closely related, as with autonomous robots. Two of the most important authors on robotics, Marvin Minsky and Hans Moravec, put forward the idea that humans could substitute their brains for machines, becoming machine and breaking free from the uncomfortable limitations of humanity. Some claim that, in a world full of prosthetics, human and machine are already composite.
Biomedical transhumanism : Genetic engineering and synthetic biology are at the heart of biomedical transhumanism. Despite differences in aims and methods, they share an overall objective: to improve the human species by modifying nature through the use of science and technology. Their common point of departure is a claim to have mastery over life and the potential to redesign and recreate it based on human needs and wishes. In the future human beings would be able to alter their bodies, even eliminating death and diseases. This may sound like science fiction, but recent advances in genetic engineering have been spectacular.
Enhancement: preparing to escape humanity – Albert Camus never thought that his description of man as “the only creature who refuses to be what he is” was true in the most literal sense. The proposition of transhumanism is to use the totality of techniques available today, looking beyond education or law, to seek out possibilities offered by biomedicine and cybernetics. One question that demands a wider social debate is what is meant by enhancement. But what are the limits of these changes? One of the more controversial answers would propound that the limitations of human alteration vary from case to case, depending on the individual in question. Another option would be to attempt to draw a dividing line between improvements that are therapeutic and all the rest. In any case, it is clear that the question of enhancement opens up a crucial discussion concerning freedom, autonomy, and inequality. Last but not least, another area in which human limitations must be overcome according to transhumanists is the moral sphere. The urgency to resolve the problems endangering the human species – such as the environmental crisis – are offered as reasons not to be sparing with our efforts, resources, and research. But the goal is to achieve a hyperbolic human; in short, the search for superhumans. This search has been characterised by the philosopher Jorge Riechmann as the “antropofuga”, which can be broken down into different types of escapism: the attempt to escape human nature; the attempt to escape the biophysical limits of the planet; and plans to escape Planet Earth itself.
Transhumanism is a utopia : There are numerous problems that arise when considering transhumanism in the context of a global ecological and social crisis such as the one experienced today. First, the problem of accessibility and supremacy is one of the most common counterarguments, as it is reasonable to think that the kinds of enhancements transhumanism proposes would further separate the rich from the poor. It is not a stretch to imagine a future in which enhanced individuals are the ones in positions of power. Meanwhile, both the irreversibility of changes and the unpredictability of consequences should encourage the exercise of caution. Living in a world in which humanity’s actions have far greater impact and reach than ever before in history should raise our sense of responsibility here. Transhumanism is a utopia that can only ever materialise as a dystopia.
We will have no sense of values. The brain chip comes into play here because it could help our human brain work in ways we are not used to. It would drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to gather and process information – thus, making us smarter. This would eliminate the need for studying and reading or anything that we currently rely on to gain knowledge. The Neuralink chip would ultimately narrow the intelligence gap between humans and AI, putting us on the same level as each other. If we are already faced with the impending doom of AI eventually outsmarting us, do we have no choice but to get the chip?.. eventually humans will have no sense of values.
Loss of human job: An increase in the usage of AI could lead to a loss of human jobs as well. In the last 10 years, we have already watched jobs that were once led by humans, be given to a robot of some kind. We have seen this in factories, grocery stores, computer programming, and delivery services – to just name a few. The frightening thing is that these AI machines actually save the company money, as they do not have to pay them an hourly wage. In the eyes of a money-hungry CEO, why not save money by firing an entire staff of humans and replacing them with AI-powered robots? Not to mention, AI works faster and more efficiently than your average human. As unsettling as this sounds, it is our unfortunate reality.
Eco-social perspective : From an eco-social perspective, the challenge posed by the century of the Great Reset is none other than positioning our social and ecological systems within the limits of the planet. In order to do so, reducing the burden these systems have on the biosphere is vital. At this crucial juncture, two paths stretch ahead of us, representing two irreconcilable options. On the one hand, the proposal to escape from human limitations and, on the other hand, the acceptance of those limitations and the modifications that they entail. Transhumanism is a utopia that can only ever materialise as a dystopia. First, because in the present situation of environmental overreach, the pursuit of a high-tech industrial society will end up finishing off the Earth; and second, because the breakdown of the biological unity of the human species will lead to a world of inequalities and biologically determined domination. In this way, the idea of transhumanism as an attempt to go beyond the human can be countered with “humanism of the defective human being”.
Neuralink is definitely a disaster: Elon Musk’s neural interface technology company Neuralink plays major role in interfacing humans with machine. Musk has assisted in creating a computer-like chip that would be inserted into your brain. Right off the bat, I know how this sounds: who in the world would want a chip in their brain? Is this the “mark of the beast”? The start of a sci-fi horror movie? We can only hope that it’s none of those things, so let’s break down what we know before we let fear outweigh scientific discovery. In the midst of this discovery, Musk has noted that nobody will be forced to get the chip. Forced, no– but perhaps slowly coerced. We already bear witness to the tragic divide in our society as the gap between the working class and the 1% grows larger every single day. Imagine the divide in our society once half of us decide to become “the ones with AI” and get the brain chip, all while the other half decides they would like to remain a normal human being. From a sociological perspective, this is almost guaranteed to create trouble. Unless, of course, the brain chip is made to be inexpensive and available for everyone. Although that may not be enough to convince people to get the chip installed, as the prospect of getting such a thing done has been described as “the mark of the beast” in conservative circles.
Conclusion : Transhumanism is no longer a theoretical subject. Soon we will live in a society where brain chips, AI workers, and anti-aging technology are all considered normal. Now with brain chips on the rise, the theories and debates behind the true purpose of Transhumanism will soon skyrocket. In the midst of all the potential misinformation and fear-fueled propaganda, it is important to keep an open mind. We fear the things that we do not understand, so it is best to do research using credible sources and keep yourself informed as much as possible. Although the rapid advances in biotechnology often leave us vaguely uncomfortable, the intellectual or moral threat they represent is not always easy to identify. We should have fine balance between modern and conventional patterns and may allow technology to serve humanity and to be implemented into society and, at the same time, make sure that it is not misused for wrong or manipulative purposes and should have very strong rules to prevent the technology from being used in the wrong way. We are coming up against questions of civil liberties. How far do we allow technology into our lives without conflicting with our individual freedom? The seeming reasonableness of the project, particularly when considered in small increments, is part of its danger. Society is unlikely to fall suddenly under the spell of the transhumanist worldview. But it is very possible that we will nibble at biotechnology’s tempting offerings without realizing that they come at a frightful moral cost. Was it us, the everyday citizens of this world who wanted a Transhumanist society, or is it the people on our smartphones and social media who have convinced us that is the key to a long, happy life? This is something society has to take careful consideration about.
Disclaimer : This is completely my view points based on my reading from several websites and the contents are collected from many other sources. Credits to all the sources.
– Manimozhi Ilango
My Fatty Brain Cell 