Transhumanism: into the future by the razor's edge. Idea and prospects.
On the eve of the new film "Blade Runner" I want to ponder a little about the idea of transhumanism, how good it is or how dangerous it is. I have not watched the film yet, I want to see it today, but I'm sure that I'm a fan - I'll be very pleased.
From ancient times a person dreams of overcoming the limits of his abilities: to fly like a bird, to swim like a fish, to live without disease, or to become immortal. The reality is cruel, and often people just have to fight for their lives under the pressure of circumstances - but this fact time after time leads to the fact that our dreams become reality. With the help of scientific and technological progress and social organization, modern man could take a place at the top of the food chain and make his daily life as safe as possible. Be that as it may, there is still no direct way to qualitatively overcome the limitations of its biological nature. But will it always be so?
Transhumanism and posthumanism are related concepts of worldviews, based on the prospects for the further evolution of man. According to them, in the future the Homo sapiens era will be replaced by a more perfect humanity, which, with the help of science and advanced technologies, will get rid of most of the limitations and problems, its own body. Wherever natural evolution has reached its limit, artificial evolution will start, controlled by the people themselves.
The posthuman will no longer be a "man" in the sense we are familiar with today, but people from the point of view of biology will lose their common species identity. At the heart of this, of course, is the idea that in human beings of our time evolution has not ended, but only began its new turn.
The tools used by transhumanists to achieve their goals include genetic manipulation, nanotechnology, cybernetics, pharmacological improvement and computer modeling. The most ambitious and controversial transhuman vision implies even the concept of loading the mind into a virtual network so that the carrier can continue to exist in the form of information flow even after biological death. According to the supporters of this concept, advances in computing and neurotechnology over the next few decades will partially and even fully simulate a complete copy of the individual brain that will function within the computer. In his book The Enchanted Loom (1981), Richard Jastrow reflects on such a future: "Finally, the human brain, encased in a computer, was freed from the weakness of fatal flesh ... It controls its own destiny ... Put in an indestructible lattice of silicon and no longer restrained by anything ... Such a life can last forever. "
Singularity is the concept proposed by Vernon Wing. In 1993, he predicted that an exponential increase in scientific and technical knowledge coupled with sustained feedback from artificial intelligence systems would soon lead to mass destabilization and transformation of all social structures, technical devices and people that would be transformed into "higher beings." Although the singularity is the most extreme of transhumanist concepts, the idea that humanity must design the next stage of its own evolution and expand its capabilities to the loss of the biological nature habitual to us has captured the minds of many specialists and scientists in a wide range of fields, from biology to engineering and astronomy.
Conclusion
Nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and cognitive technologies - the synthesis of many different scientific directions and is, by and large, the embodiment of transhumanism. Fiction and cinema draw pictures of the future with a fair amount of imagination, but the concept of directed evolution has long ceased to be a fantasy and gradually turns into reality around us. Of course, and this man will not stop: immortality is only a convenient tool that allows a truly inquisitive mind, free from the limitations of perishable flesh, to continue to explore the universe and improve oneself on a qualitatively new level.
sorry, there is no fairy tales in transhumanism. I have several blogs about it. Immortality? what for? to live under cyber threats 24/7? There will also be a subrace as not everybody will be upgraded, I have too blogged about it. Only those at the top, 1% as usual, will get away with it and have a nice cozy life. For the rest it will be a mix of "hunger games and minority report" , with total surveillance.
But get ready for the first AI driven world war... many will die as they have been misled about the true aims about transhumanism and that the powers that be will not be able to "manage" the millions losing their jobs to technology... AI will cause a mass die off first and therefore we should not support it. The current powers that be are pouring billions of dollars into AI weaponry and robot killers... so why should we rejoice? Immortality?
I'm not sure what to expect from an AI-driven world war. My first instinct would be that once the weaponry reaches critical mass the outcome depends on which entity has developed it first. The country that develops it first has all the power. A parralel discovery of AI-weaponry seems unlikely to me.
I don't think that we can speak in term of "countries" anymore, but blocks... like the EU and anglo-saxon blocks. Its about power as you put it... at whose expenses?
Nice post, so gave you a follow. I was listening to a podcast with Sam Harris and he mentioned that this whole notion of human integration with technology (i.e. cyborg) won't be able to stand up against pure technology (general artificial intelligence). The inherent biological constraints of the carrier, the human body, gives rise to limitations compared to a situation where an ideal body can be made for an AI.
Very good article but respectfully singularity concept is a little off the mark .. nonetheless good ... upvoted !!!
Thank you!
Like any other tech, the prospect of these advances lies first at the human endeavor to weaponize them. After that, recreation, and finally, general utility. Also, these advances, arguably in the realm of humanity's last invention, people generally will not reep the rewards as the rewards will first be costly, as they are scarce, and those whom are empowered financially and politically will be the early adopters, perhaps by fiat.
Like all other models, classes will be created, augmented people, if indeed this tech does sufficiently enhance biology, intellectual horsepower, emotional horsepower, and all other chemical receptors/synaptic activity, then will that simply enhance the chasm between them and the non-augmented peoples? Who will say no to these advances, for political, religious, or reasons of whatever - and will that movement be as shunned socially as the anti-vaccine group? When augmentation becomes normalized, will we deny people with crimanal records the procedure, similar to the arguments made that removing guns from a society eliminates evil? Will it become an arms race, stating the need for augmentation is the only solution humans will have to keep up with AI? Just as the LBGQ community is foisting their community path now, will it all become obsolete as it will not be able to keep up with the social entanglements transhumanism will bring to the table? Is interplanetary exploration coming at the right time - is this how powers will determine candadites for travel, whether their augmented or not? If that's the case, the next class friction model will be partitioned by planets/space stations, i.e. earth and non-earth environments. What will gentrification in space look like?
transhumanism is the end of humanity... I have several blogs talking of it as an alien ideology, secret space programs costing trillions of dollars are the taxpayers expenses to ... get destroyed?
watch the bockbuster documentary Sirius, by Dr Greer. Not too fond of Greer but that is the most mainstream doc available for free on YT
img credz: pixabay.com
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There could be no fairer destiny for any physical theory than that it should point the way to a more comprehensive theory in which it lives on as a limiting case.
- Albert Einstein
Thanks for this interesting read.
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It's very interesting to read, and it makes me think.