What does it mean to be human? The answer you will see in every biology book would be if your DNA matches with that of a Homo Sapien, you are human. I was just talking with a friend the other day about transhumanism and the affects it may bring to our society. For those of you who many not know what transhumanism is, it is an intellectual and cultural movement which aims to change the human condition by developing and creating widely available technologies to enhance human life. This doesn't stop with just enhancing life, it goes beyond it with human's physical and psychological capacities. With this change coming, eternal life may soon be possible. This may bring about fears and anxieties within some people, including me. Overpopulation is a big one. With these technological and intellectual advances, people will live longer because they could carry no diseases. Socioeconomic disaster in our society would arise if these changes happen soon. If only the rich would be able to get these advances, what would happen to the rest of the population?
On the other end, I see some benefits such as enhancing our memories and altering our emotional experiences. One purpose for robots is to ease the work of a human being. These concepts around transhumanism in a way, do that for us. In today's time, we see technology advancing daily. The new iPhone's always have some new feature that improves our daily lives and new scientific discoveries are being found to cure a disease. Transhumanism is just one big step in the direction of where these scientific advances are taking us. Who know's when this will happen but in today's era, anything is possible. H+ is an organization that want people to be better than well. We also need to take into consideration ethics. Many people may say this would be playing God and change what a human is supposed to be. We could be taking the best genes from certain humans and duplicate them to create "better" ones. We also have to think about what life would be like for these humans in their futures. How could we educate them? Would they be segregated from the "typical" humans?
It does challenge some of the presuppositions we have about what a human is because in a way, we are altering everything to be "perfect" in a human. Again, people may fear this and ask why we are creating people to be smarter than the typical humans. The people behind this movement have no limit as to what they want to accomplish. The enhancement options being talked about will include extending the human health-span, eradication of disease, increasing intellectual capacities, but they won't stop there. There are so many question that can be raised as to how these certain individuals will function. Some transhumanists take active steps to increase the probability that they personally will survive long enough to become post human and overcome human mortality by 2045. If this was the case, robots would be literally taking over the world.
On the other end, I see some benefits such as enhancing our memories and altering our emotional experiences. One purpose for robots is to ease the work of a human being. These concepts around transhumanism in a way, do that for us. In today's time, we see technology advancing daily. The new iPhone's always have some new feature that improves our daily lives and new scientific discoveries are being found to cure a disease. Transhumanism is just one big step in the direction of where these scientific advances are taking us. Who know's when this will happen but in today's era, anything is possible. H+ is an organization that want people to be better than well. We also need to take into consideration ethics. Many people may say this would be playing God and change what a human is supposed to be. We could be taking the best genes from certain humans and duplicate them to create "better" ones. We also have to think about what life would be like for these humans in their futures. How could we educate them? Would they be segregated from the "typical" humans?
It does challenge some of the presuppositions we have about what a human is because in a way, we are altering everything to be "perfect" in a human. Again, people may fear this and ask why we are creating people to be smarter than the typical humans. The people behind this movement have no limit as to what they want to accomplish. The enhancement options being talked about will include extending the human health-span, eradication of disease, increasing intellectual capacities, but they won't stop there. There are so many question that can be raised as to how these certain individuals will function. Some transhumanists take active steps to increase the probability that they personally will survive long enough to become post human and overcome human mortality by 2045. If this was the case, robots would be literally taking over the world.
Ah yes, Transhumanism. In this field, there is an attempt by some to make a distinction between "Posthumanism" and "Transhumanism," the latter being less cognizant of political economic or social concerns regarding technological development. For example, Warwick would be considered a transhumanist, and, if you remember the video I showed in class, he would be happy to leave the rest of humanity behind as he transformed himself into a super-human cyborg. Thanks for briging this up!
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