The Promise of Transhumanism

Transhumanism is the improving of the human species via any and all methods. A transhuanist would use any thing from cybernetics to genetic engineering. The intensity ranges from the Borg of Star Trek fame to the self-centered, cheating athlete that dopes them self with steroids and hormones. Transhumanism is evolution accelerated by the human brain. You could look at it in terms of evolution accelerating it's self. Picture a rock rolling down a slope. Suddenly the slope drops off and becomes a cliff. The rock tumbles over the cliff and falls out into open space. The cliff is the evolution of the human brain. Once it evolved, the world changed forever. Evolution now, not only works within its former context of natural selection but within the new context of the human imagination Robert Koffler Jarvik's artificial heart is a good example of the cybernetic aspect of transhumanism as is the cochlear implant used to restore hearing. But, in a truer sense, a cybernetic device that could allow a person to hear like a dog would be a transhumanist concept since you have now transcended what is humanly possible. This is the lure of transhumanism.

If we are able to than transcend our current capabilities, we can easily alleviate our faults. Imagine a world with no more disease (remember that means mental disease to). We could eliminate a huge chunk of human suffering. No more cancer, no more arthritis or birth defects. Now imagine a world with out human faults such as short temper , laziness, or dishonesty. The prison system could be made into a museum there would be no more criminals. Even politicians would be honest. Imagine we eliminate stupidity and below average intelligence along with laziness. Every one would graduate from high school. There wouldn't need to be a no child left behind program. There would be no dropouts A brain trust would no longer be a problem with the average lay person packing a 180 IQ And why not? Human beings deserve the best.

But we can also transcend out limitations. Imagine a world where not only do we not get sick, we don't get old either. And why stop with a 180 IQ, when we can have 300 or better? And suppose some one looses an arm or leg in a car accident. That limb would just grow back like a crayfish no more need for ADA compliance since no one would be disabled. No more blindness, no more hearing loss, no more loss of mobility. Out of curiosity if a person was cut into say 4 pieces in some bad accident, I wonder if the pieces could each grow a copy of that person like a star fish? It would be a fascinating world but with philosophical puzzles that would make it no place for the simple minded. Of course no one would be simple minded.

Of course such ideas have their detractors. The most common argument you see against transhumanism is the old familiar argument against eugenics. That it's some how wrong to touch the natural progression of human development. The fact is that if human development can be improved and causes untold suffering, it's wrong not to. Similarly you have the idea that it would some how stifle or amputate the human spirit to engineer a human or re-engineer one. Some how to manipulate human nature by eliminating something like a bad temper is to take what was wild and free chop it up and package it in neat limited selection in a box. Thus we have created a limited, synthetic and claustrophobic, existential state for humanity. True enough, this would be a living death, but you must consider the fact that nature doesn't just kill out or conform that easily. If you eliminate laziness, you have limited laziness, not creativity or imagination only what held it back. True some misguided person could look up the gene that caused people to question authority or ideology and try to eliminate it, but keep in mind the kind of sweeping authority some one like that would need to have to do real damage. Even a despot like Hitler couldn't wipe it from the whole human race. Plus the smarter and deeper you make people the harder it is to fool them. Than there is that group which I like to call the death mongers. These are the people that think there is somehow something inherently wrong with the quest for immortality. They think that we are "meant" to die. Of course, they can't say why or exactly who meant us to die, but some how death is a good thing and to be with out it would some how be unthinkable. The natural state of aging and death found in mammalian species has some how (like other aspects of nature) come to be worshiped by these people. What they don't realize, is that nature merely exists, it has not propose or intent. The problem is that they are so awed by the natural world that they become mesmerized by it and loose their ability to think. If your too in awe of the scope and power of nature to manipulate it, don't forget, you and your mind are one of natures wonders. Compared to the wonder of your mind a mountain range or ocean is a mere speck. If you stifle your intellectual, and creative urges, it's like flushing whole swirling galaxies down the toilet, an unthinkable waste.