Transhumanism, Immortality, Life, Death, and Fear
Transhumanism and immortality appeals to many. It's being portrayed as some wonderful thing by many. They desire incorporating technological augmentation into the human body to make it "better". This is "justified" by a desire, want, wish and predilection to "improve" and "overcome" certain aspects of being human they view as "limitations". The end goal is to extend life forever, and "cure" the "disease" of death.
What is really going on with this mindset at a deeper level?
Life, Death and Immortality
The universe has biological life within it (at least here on our planet). Biological life has death has a counterpart. Death is part of life. This is a necessity, a "law" for biological existence. Without death, it wouldn't be life.
That's how life functions. Life emerges into existence, and then eventually dies out of existence. A life is not a timeless existence. Each life exists for finite periods of time. That is life.
Yes, the symbols life and death can also be used for non-biological existence. The "life" of a rock that slowly erodes and eventually "dies", the "life" of a sun that "dies" out. But I am talking about biological life, related to transhumanism and immortality.
Life having an end provides meaning and purpose. Meaning and purpose is found in a goal, a purpose, a destination, an end. The means to an end. A purpose driven model.
When you live a life without possible end, the pursuit of qualitative substantive meaning tends to get lost. This is demonstrated in many science fiction allegories where immortality or largely extended lifespans results in a decay of moral concern for others.
Immortality is not a good thing for consciousness beings. We lose our respect for life and lose ourselves in the process. We wander lost without substantial meaning and purpose of foundational principles in life, such as truth, and specifically moral truth which requires contemplation, reflection and consideration of life.
You have a limited time to live, learn and make use of what you learn. That is a powerful drive and motivator to maximize your efforts and potential. The hour glass runs out. The candle burns out. Death comes to all.
Life, Meaning and Purpose
If there is no death, there is no end to life, there is no real life anymore, and it's not life, it is an eventual static, stagnant end of history with little change. There is little real meaning to life. The life of others lose value. Deeper meaning becomes lost.
Life is wondrous, amazing, and also short-lived in time, which provides motive for deriving meaning and purpose while you are still here, to do something with what you have because eventually it will be gone.
Reflection and contemplation on life and of the limited time we have means the eventual cessation of life, which is known as death. It can be scary and wrought with fear to think about, when you are so attached to what you currently have that you can't bear losing it. Attachment is often the root of suffering (not always). We must learn to let go of some things that provide an escape from reality or keep us conditioned into falsity. Death is a reality. Escaping death is problematic for keeping us grounded, psychologically healthy and moral being.
Those who desire immortality have a deep fear death whether they realize it or not. They are attached to life yet reject death as part of it. They fear the necessity of death because they will lose what they have; they will lose their life, the ultimate thing to lose. They want things to be different and dream of making it so, so as to avoid the death they fear. Self-preservation has taken over.
Transhumanism
Those who desire trans-humanism, dislike being human in the end. They perceive limitations of being human. They want to be something else, to go beyond being human. Being human isn't enough for them.
Transhumanism can also be regarded as the transition to being "posthuman" compared to the current human being. Trans means "beyond", to "cross-over", to go beyond being human and cross-over to being something else, to be "more than human".
They are not content with what they currently are or biologically have. Just as it is with a human having a life and death that they are not content with and are seeking immortality to change that reality of life and death, they are also not content with other aspects of themselves as a human being and seek to change that reality.
They don't have a real problem with their body from an accident that imposed an limitation, like missing a leg, arm, eye, etc. that can benefit from technological supplementation. "Lose your ability to walk? Ok. Let's help you walk again with technology for a new leg!"
No, instead they want augmentation because being human isn't enough, it's "limited". Having a lifespan isn't enough, it's "limited".
*"I can't run as fast as someone else. I'm not as strong as someone else. I'm not as smart as someone else. It's not fair!!!"
"Well then, get a technological leg, arm and brain enhancement to make you 'better'! It's the "self-directed" "evolutionary" "improvement" of the human condition!"
No loss was incurred. They are just not happy, content or satisfied with their current human functionality, and seek to "enhance" certain aspects of themselves through technology that they view as insufficient, limiting, etc. They want more "powers and abilities beyond those of standard humans". They have a deep sense of lack, loss, at a psychological level, despite not having lost anything. But going this route results in the loss of what it means to be human.
Escapism Through Augmentation
Society is more and more desiring an escape from the reality we live in, obsessing over alleged virtual reality "augmentation" of reality, when it's actually an unreality mask that is imposed over the reality they seek to escape, such as Pokemon-Go and other VR devices.
Games are used as an escape from reality, as people prefer the stimulation of a virtual world to that of their boring lives, or the stresses within it. They don't like or want to deal with the life they have, nor improving the condition and quality of their lives. It's easier to simply escape. I know it, I've done it.
"Augmented reality" doesn't augment, increase, enhance, enrich or "grow" reality. It covers it up, masks it to add something that is not there: a virtual unreality to supplant the normal reality that is too stressful or too boring for them to find a solution to. Virtual reality isn't a bad thing in itself: computers are a virtual reality environment that allows us to do things more effectively. This technology, however, is external, and we make use of this technology to supplement our existing biological living conditions, not replace it by injecting it into us.
Transhumanism wants to replace the human being. People want to inject technology into their body to enhance the condition in reality because they are not satisfied with their biological abilities, or how they were born, or condition in life as a human being. It's not the same technological methodology being employed as helping someone overcome a loss of their leg, arm, etc. There was no loss in reality, only a lack create in psychology.
The whole transhumanist psychological mindset is rooted in fear and insecurities about how they view themselves individually, humanity as a whole, and life and death itself, as undesirable. They dream of making themselves "more", "better", "improved". They dream of the unreality of immortality to escape from this reality of life and death that they view as a limitation. They desire more power and abilities beyond what they are born with as a natural human being. Eventually, there will be more robotics and technology, than there won't be anything "human" left to call human really. It's the death of humanity, death of the human being.
Religious ideology also has issues with fear of death, which is why they invented imaginary scenarios, from the phantasmal light-projector within consciousness, of beliefs in immortality, such as "heaven everlasting", an "eternal life" somewhere else, and living in "paradise", which are only symbolic metaphors about creating a better, improved, corrected, moral way and path of living in the time that you live here, now and into the future of your existence. These imagined beliefs help to overcome the fear of death, since you believe you're not going to die, but "live on" in some imaginary other place/world/dimension/etc.
If you want an interesting view of how we are socially and psychologically devolving (not evolving) into a "posthuman" lower form of being human, please see this video for interesting topics being discussed. I don't agree with a lot of it, but it has much of interest to share, and valid knowledge to be gained about our current condition and where we are headed as lost individuals roaming a world that is becoming a mere banner of substantial meaning and purpose in life: Michael Tsarion - The Posthuman World.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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Personally, I believe that at the level of the whole of humanity, this issue can wait until we solve our most deadly problems, which are many, too many. And all this bypassing that what we most desire is to achieve an immortality of our own and exclusive individuality. If you talk to a person about a collective immortality, about a kind of global mind, most of them go back to capsizing, because if they can no longer recognize themselves, if they are no longer "he": What difference would there be with death ... .. if I am not me anymore.
For this techno-optimistic current, we have before us the responsibility to lead the evolutionary process of humanity and radically transform ("improve") the human being through the interaction and implementation in our body and mind of emerging technologies beyond the conditioning and limits imposed by nature, of which we are an inseparable part.
Yeah, no more identity, no more you, no more life, you are dead lol. I'm glad you pointed that out. We need to keep technology as a function to supplement our lives, not integrated into our bodies where it replaces what i means to be a human life.. :/
"transhumanism" It may have our memory, but we will not be ourselves. This topic is very good. That's why you analyze it very well.
Obviously this was a steemit post, not a treatise (steemit post = long articles do not get read).
It would be interesting to do a study of how believing in life after death affects us and could society survive the restrictions placed on us if most parts of that society did not believe they have something better waiting for them.
Even those religions that believe we return to live again and again, they qualify it by expressing the belief that our souls evolve, until we have achieved the ultimate purity and no longer need to return to live another tortured existence.
In my book Little Cherine, I, as their author, has assumed they will have eternal life (achieved by enhancing their healing powers which also rejuvenate them, keeping them at whichever age they prefer to be). In book 13, I suggested I may have made a mistake....so now they are arguing the matter, trying to decide whether they should choose to have a set life span, or maybe, an end to their life once life has no meaning - but there are other solutions which could rekindle their interest in life, without them taking the ultimate decision to stop existing.
I am bookmarking your article, as I just might decided to pass on the relevant part of it for them to add to their debates (Okay?)
As always, thanks for making me think of new ways (to me) of looking at life and fuelling my mental schizophrenia.
I think it would be beneficial. many would stop hoping for something better, and work to create it here instead :)
All of that is an attempt to make sense of why bad things happen in an assumption of an "ordered" and "good" universe, and possibly run by some "ordered" and "good" "God", etc. To justify the bad, it's part of "lessons" we need to "learn" in order to "Evolve" and return to "source". I've been through all the bs a while ago. The wonder and feeling "special" is enticing.
Life has meaning. We don't need invented imaginary beliefs to give it meaning. Nihilism is a dark place :/
Sure thing, pass it along as you please ;)
Thanks - I hope you did understand I meant I will quote your article in the book, offering them your ideas for them to add to all they must consider.
I must admit, now that I remember to say it, it is not so much my own death that frightens me - or feels such a waste; it is the idea of anyone I love dying. That is what I cannot bear
Wow! Awesome info! Learned some cool stuff, keep it up!
The war is literally humanity and spirituality versus AI and technology. Back to Nature or towards an artificial reality where technologically speaking we are more connected than ever but real human connection has left the building. I feel we are very much at a crossroads and your writings encapsulate this very well.
Yeah, a more realistic "balance" of including nature and the natural world vs. immersion in technology and the many distraction to escape from the world we have created that doesn't suffice... :/
This is where my head has been more and more these days. Wrestling with these things. Really interested in your assertion that if life here were endless, meaning and morality would decay. My knee-jerk reaction was one of disagreement, but the more I considered it, the more I realized it makes sense.
Thanks for what is a very timely and thought provoking post for me.
You're welcome. Part of that conclusion is the premise of reality that has the counterpart of death. Therefore, if there is no death then there is no life really. Life requires death. If it was otherwise, it wouldn't be called life. Biological things have life because there is death. Removing the finality of death would mean it would be called not life, but something else.
Endless living means you lose sight of the finality of life, and the need to do something meaningful with the short time you have. You can just push it of, and wait until you feel like it. You care less about doing this. Higher meaning and purpose get devalued. Ease, comfort and sensory gratification become the norm for quelling the long repetition of days going by on and one. Pleasure for self takes over moral concern that includes others.
Talking to my wife about these things last night it struck me that it is an economic concept as well. The same way that scarcity/rarity translates roughly into value for gold.
Some look to transhumanism as a means to live longer... but at what level quality of life. So many things will change from our pleasures derived through senses alone. But as written above when humans have no goals (due to no time constraint), we just wander in the wilderness. That is why we have so many zombies today, modern innovation yields too much time and no set goals. If we think how many now are just waiting to die, what happens if they don’t and continue on. Transhumance is just a tech word for Zombification.
LOL, yeah it can be a path to that destination :/ Immortality with morality is a recipe for disaster as I see it.
This is a good area to think upon. And yes, it appears so.
However, if you took this argument to a Tibettan monk, he would not get / understand any part of it.
Here in the west, christianity wrote reincarnation out of the Bible and then did everything to wash it out of people. The whole, suffer this life to get an eternal life of happiness is a great way of motivating sheep.
So, back to the monk. The monk knows reincarnation. As part of the training is getting in touch with your other selves.
The monk also knows that he isn't just his body, as he has gotten in touch with the other parts of himself.
And the monk has been practising ridding himself of attachments. Thus the idea of "making yourself better" by getting computer augmentations doesn't make any sense.
Fortunately for us in the west, there has been a lot written about near death experiences, and they tell us that there is something after death.
I feel it is just that christianity, especially catholisism is a death cult. And its no wonder people are trying to escape.
Yup, a good way to get them to do what you want them to do too ;)
I think you neglect to consider that we have long been transhuman, as long as there has been any technology at all. Fire made us more than we were before, in ways that may be difficult to even imagine, until you've spent some time in forest full of maneating predators at night.
Watches, phones, cars... try to imagine what being human means without even the augmentation of fire to improve your lot.
It is almost uniquely human to augment ourselves with technology, and has been for millions of years. There may be a point at which technology deprives us of our humanity, but I don't know what it is, and couldn't do anything to prevent it from being passed if I did.
I reckon this is something missing all too often from the discussion of how technology impacts us, and will impact us in days to come. The essence of humanity is to surpass our biological nature, and always has been. As long as we are human, it will continue to be.
Thanks!
I recognize technological supplementation. Computers, cars, phones etc. They provide more functionality to do certain things of benefit to progressing in meaningful ways. But integrated technology into the body to (transhumanism), or to be used as an escape (augmented reality games), is more what I'm talking about. Supplementing our lives with technology to help us, vs. augmenting the body with technology and changing what it is to BE human.
Why? We are biological. There is no essence of needing to surpass the biological reality of who and what we are.
Controlling fire surpasses our biology. Spend the night in the wild without it, or clothes, or a blanky. All these things augment our abilities to surpass our biology.
I don't disagree that there is danger in too augmenting people, such that they aren't people anymore.
I just reckon I can't spot the dividing line between what is good and wholesome, and what has become bad and noxious. Not sure where it is. Clearly having access to more information more quickly isn't that line. Having a chip in my head that makes it so I don't have to type to communicate with you won't make me inhuman.
There are chips that could be put in my head that would make me inhuman, however.
There is a line we need to not cross and we need to know where it is, and we don't. The possession of better abilities isn't that line.
What is?
Then the days darted fast. The day is up and we grow up, big. Start to meet bitter life. So, on one of those days, we suddenly get saddened by failure or loss. On one of the following days, we were pierced, buried, wounded, hoping for the day to pass. The bad days start coming. And we never know when he will come knocking on the door. Yesterday we were still laughing, for tomorrow the day tumbled crying. Yesterday we are still happy with many things, for tomorrow the day after tomorrow, hit hard by life. The days are painful. @krnel
Great post, Michel Houellebecq has a great book called "The Elementary Particles" that has an ending section dealing with things along these lines from a perspective I'd never heard before, definitely worth checking out.
Thanks, I'm not much for fiction these days, but thanks for the suggestion ;)