As I began my search for possible blog post topics, I typed “bioethics” into the Google search bar. The first few sites that came up were ones that I had already visited for my last blog post or Wikipedia sites. I was about to type in a new search when something caught my eye in the corner of the screen. “Transhumanism,” it said, “the ethical use of technology to transcend limits of the human body.” Thinking it looked interesting, although not quite sure what I was going to find, I decided to see what humanityplus.org had to say.
When the page finally loaded, I was somewhat shocked by what I found. Besides the quote about using innovation to “radically benefit the human condition,” I found blogs on artificial intelligence and virtual realities, links to their projects on life extension and preparation for the future, and an advertisement for H+ Magazine with a caption that read “YOU are the doll—tweaking your neurons” next to a picture of a woman and some mannequins. After poking around a little more and finding phrases like “send us your thoughts, we aren’t getting any younger… yet”, I stumbled across the Transhumanist Declaration. The first line of it read “We envision the possibility of broadening human potential by overcoming aging, cognitive shortcomings, involuntary suffering, and our confinement to planet Earth.” This was shortly followed by their belief that our potential is still mostly undiscovered. But I began to wonder, once technology enters, is it really our potential that we are uncovering? When we are full of artificial enhancers, can we really say that it is the fulfillment of human potential that is making us live longer? As soon as we try to artificially and technologically enhance our natural state of being, we become something that is not quite human. Transhuman, I guess.
The website contains a diagram of the capabilities the “modes of being” accessible to first animals, then humans, then transhumanists, and finally the entire square, which is accessible to post-humans. These post humans are no longer constrained by death or the physical or mental limitations that we face today; transhumanists argue that if we could live for centuries, we could continue to mature and reach unheard of intelligence.
While this idea seems pretty amazing in theory, it feels like walking into a sci-fi movie—fun to watch, but I am definitely glad it isn’t real. In transhumanism, the Benjamin Buttons actually exist, humans live forever, and we are more like machines than animals. We do not need to live for centuries or have brains like computers. Although we are now more advanced than we once were, we still have physical and cognitive limitations that are only natural. Humans should remain humans, not evolve from transhumans to immortal, superhuman beings.
Website Relevant to my Post:
http://humanityplus.org/
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