Transhumanism

[belladonic-haze]

Hmm, does a pacemaker fall in this category? If so, I am already transhuman and ..... oops, it saved my life and still does.....

 

[Steezie]

Hmm, does a pacemaker fall in this category? If so, I am already transhuman and ..... oops, it saved my life and still does.....

A pacemaker is one small step towards posthumanism.

 

[Caylin]

When it becomes widely available I will be first in line.

 

[psychedelicist]

this is the one topic i could rant for hours going down every possible useless tangent that i could go on.

Of course machines like this are more dangerous since we would depend on them so heavily. Th more complex, the harder it is to make/keep it working properly. there should be very strict and high standards of how a certain machine should be made, for the people producing them. surely if these become more commonplace the administration should be done by a equally qualified team.

think of it like the prosthetics we currently have. They are made as well as they can and of as good of quality as possible, then attached by highly overqualified surgeons to make sure that there are as little complications. you wouldnt get a mechanic to weld a homemade prosthetic arm and have a med student do the surgery, of course. these new inventions are going o have to take these standards to an even higher level

As for the impact on society itself, ghost in the shell does a wonderful job going into detail on the sociopolitical and economic impacts it would have and constantly seems to weigh that downsie versus the upside of having much better technology.

 

[.Sabre.]

But...but...I don't wanna be robotisized!

I don't wanna be a Cyberman.

Given that people are starting to LOOK like them with the Bluetooth devices in their ears...

 

[LilRomanianChristFollower]

I just couldn't resist opening up this thread when I saw the title. I never heard of that word before. One thing that failed to be mentioned (of course, i didnt get through all the posts yet) is that this new mixing technology into the human body is like playing God. "Who can but add a day to his life or make a single hair white or black?" -Jesus. In another verse, He warns against trying to plan out a longer life on our own stregnth. "Fool, do you not know that tonight your very life will be taken from you?" -also Jesus. Basically, He was saying that God has pretermined how long we will live. This idea of transhuman seems to fight against God and take our lives into our own hands.

 

[Caylin]

I just couldn't resist opening up this thread when I saw the title. I never heard of that word before. One thing that failed to be mentioned (of course, i didnt get through all the posts yet) is that this new mixing technology into the human body is like playing God. "Who can but add a day to his life or make a single hair white or black?" -Jesus. In another verse, He warns against trying to plan out a longer life on our own stregnth. "Fool, do you not know that tonight your very life will be taken from you?" -also Jesus. Basically, He was saying that God has pretermined how long we will live. This idea of transhuman seems to fight against God and take our lives into our own hands.

By that argument we should all stop seeing doctors. After all, trying to live longer by curing illnesses takes our lives into our own hands.

 

[LilRomanianChristFollower]

Yes, Dracon, God created Doctors for the purpose of healing. Sometimes God chooses the medical field, sometimes the supernatural. However, transhumanism is something different because it is trying to make a superhuman. Doctors try to heal the sick best they can with the knowledge they have. Transhumanism is saying that we wouldnt even need the doctors help or God's for that matter when it comes to health. Also another thing, we are meant to be humans, not machines.

 

[Caylin]

Yes, Dracon, God created Doctors for the purpose of healing. Sometimes God chooses the medical field, sometimes the supernatural. However, transhumanism is something different because it is trying to make a superhuman. Doctors try to heal the sick best they can with the knowledge they have. Transhumanism is saying that we wouldnt even need the doctors help or God's for that matter when it comes to health. Also another thing, we are meant to be humans, not machines.

So there is no way god could have factored transhumanism into his plans?

 

[shye]

oooooo I have mix feelings about this. It kind of reminds me of human clones... its not natural and I really don't trust machines all that much.

 

[Shemjaza]

Well what I was wondering is, why should we consider this a necessarily bad thing, from a transhumanist perspective? The artificial intelligence would be human created and have a certain human flavor to some extent at least, so it is in some ways a continuation of humanity. Sure there is no direct generational connection between us and them, but it strikes me that transhumanism would discard the current model of human reproduction if it hindered humanity anyway. What I mean is that a transhumanist might want to bring human form to something very like these highly intelligent machines, or at least some of them would. Why is the transition so necessary?

There is a lot of debate amongst transhumanists (Steezie and I have been disagreeing in this very thread) about where AI fits into the whole posthuman thing. Some people would see AI as a new form of human and so they would be our children. Others would see AI as non-human fit only to be slaves or components of "true" humans.

Is it just a loyalty to what can technically be called human, while at the same time striving to break that very definition? And if so I have to wonder what would happen if we encountered alien species, especially if they were "superior" (however that is determined) to our own. If they in some way hinder the progress of humanity, can they be eliminated?

We are Humanity. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.

Just because transhumans or posthumans see modification and adaptation of our species as an ideal doesn't mean they think we should have some kind some bizarre species wide Nietzscheien obsession with self improvement and control.

And as for our wishes being flaunted, it is ridiculous to imagine that oru transhuman descendents would have motives even remotely resembling our own far enough down the line (except for perhaps a few key tenants), but transhumanism would have a loyalty towards them.

I'd like to think that no matter how much we change we would still be human in the important ways: curious, thoughtful and moral.

Yes, Dracon, God created Doctors for the purpose of healing. Sometimes God chooses the medical field, sometimes the supernatural. However, transhumanism is something different because it is trying to make a superhuman. Doctors try to heal the sick best they can with the knowledge they have. Transhumanism is saying that we wouldnt even need the doctors help or God's for that matter when it comes to health. Also another thing, we are meant to be humans, not machines.

Who's to say that God didn't also give humanity the cyberneticists?

And it was shown thus that the LORD had given the earth to man that he might subdue it. In the land the LORD placed silicate so that man might fashion computers to aid him. And the LORD give man a mind that he might learn the ways of the electron and use of the metals the LORD had placed in the earth. And finally the LORD saw that man had begun to understand his own form and how to use it with his other gifts.

But I'm an atheist, so what do I know?