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Making Humanity New with Technology Stephen Goundrey Making Humanity New with Technology Stephen Goundrey-Smith Pre-Reading Transhumanism is a philosophical movement concerned with developing human life beyond its current form and limitations using biomedical technologies. Some Definitions What is Transhumanism? Max More – transhumanism consists of “Philosophies of life…that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its current human form and human limitations by means of science, technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values”.1 The World Transhumanist Association – transhumanism is “the intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate ageing and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical and psychological capacities.” 2 What is an Enhancement? Chan and Harris - “a procedure that improves our functioning; any intervention that increases our general capabilities for human flourishing.” 3 Some “Transhumanist” Biomedical Enhancements 1) Nanotechnology – the use of microscopic particles, tools and robots to interact with the body for medical purposes.4 2) Genetic enhancements – modification of parts of the human genome in order to correct “natural” defects and to improve human function.5 1 Max More, “The Philosophy of Transhumanism”, in The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology and Philosophy of the Post-Human Future, edited by Max More and Natasha Vita-More (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2013) pp. 1-17. 2 World Transhumanism Association, “The Transhumanist FAQ, v2.1”, 2003, http://www.transhumanism.org/index.php/wta/faq21/81/ Accessed August 2016. 3 See Ronald Bailey, “For Enhancing People”, in The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology and Philosophy of the Post-Human Future, edited by Max More and Natasha Vita-More (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) pp. 327-344. 4 Freitas, “Future of Medicine”, pp. 67-72. 5 Bailey, “For Enhancing People”, pp. 327-344. 3) Cybernetics – the use of prosthetic limbs and robotics to develop and enhance bodily function. A cyborg is a robot/human hybrid and challenge standard ideas about human nature.6 4) Cryonics – placing the human body in suspended animation by freezing it carefully so that a person can be revived in the distant future when radical new medical technologies are available. A great way of cheating death. 5) Mind Uploading – the ultimate in human enhancement. All the information in the human brain is uploaded onto a computer, so that the person can “live” as a computer.7 What they say about Transhumanism Nicolas Bostrom on transhumanism and human nature: “Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remould in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, technology, and other rational means we shall eventually manage to become posthuman, beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have.” Nicholas Bostrom, “Transhumanist Values”, Journal of Philosophical Research, 30 (Supplement) (2005), pp. 3-14. Hans Moravec on the disembodied mind: [By replacement of] “…some innermost mental processes with cyberspace-appropriate programs…our thinking procedures might be totally liberated from any traces of our original body. But the bodiless mind that results, wonderful though it may be in its clarity of thought and breadth of understanding, would be hardly human: it will have become an artificial intelligence” Hans Moravec – Bodies, Robots & Minds - 1995 N. Katherine Hayles on the problem of being disembodied: “How, I asked myself, was it possible for someone of Moravec’s obvious intelligence to believe that mind could be separated from body? Even assuming that such a separation was possible, how could anyone think that consciousness in an entirely different medium would remain unchanged, as if it had no connection with embodiment?” N. Katherine Hayles, How we became Post-Human? Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1999), p. 1. 6 Hayles, Virtual Bodies, pp. 2-5; Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women, pp. 149-152. 7 Ralph Merkle, “Uploading”, in The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology and Philosophy of the Post-Human Future, edited by Max More and Natasha Vita-More (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 157-164. Francis Fukuyama on the social implications of transhumanism: “The world’s most dangerous idea.” Francis Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2002), p149. Daniel Callaghan on the folly of immortality: “No social good will come from the conquest of death - and the worst possible way to resolve the question of life extension is to leave it to individual choice”. Daniel Callaghan – Hastings Centre for Bioethics. Brent Waters on the importance of a religious critique of transhumanism: “Fukuyama admits that his account of [human] dignity could be argued on theological grounds but rejects this option as an unnecessary strategy. This casual dismissal, however, renders their… argument ineffectual. They cannot offer a normative account of human dignity that is sufficient to expose the prospect of a posthuman future as an immoral endeavour in its own right, and not solely in terms of its outcomes. A theological argument would be much more effective, because those advocating and pursuing a posthuman future are drawing heavily on implicit religious convictions that need to be exposed and dealt with as such.” Brent Waters, From Human to Posthuman: Christian Theology & Technology in a Postmodern World. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), p. 67. Questions to Consider: 1) What do you value about life as a human being? (choose anything!) 2) What things are good and virtuous about how we live life as a human? 3) If you were to use a new medical technology – for example, a nanoparticle injection that would guarantee a life expectancy of 200 years – how would it change your life? 4) …and what if you had to pay £5000 for this “long life” injection? Would that be okay? 5) How would our world change if everyone had the “long life” injection? S.J Goundrey-Smith – June 2020 .
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