June 15, 2015

The New Bioethics (vol. 21, no. 1, 2015) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: The subject of enhancement: Augmented capacities, extended cognition, and delicate ecologies of the mind by Darian Meacham Just a bit of fun': How Read More

May 26, 2015

(The Telegraph) Wealthy humans are likely become cyborgs within 200 years as they gradually merge with technology like computers and smart phones, a historian has claimed. Yuval Noah Harari, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the Read More

May 15, 2015

Dialog(vol. 54, no. 1, 2015) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: The boundaries of human nature by Ted Peters Beyond the boundaries of current human nature: Some theological and ethical reflections on transhumanism by James M. Childs Jr. Read More

May 8, 2015

Theology Today (Vol. 72, no. 1, 2015) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: Bodies, selves, and human identity: A conversation between Transhumanism and the Apostle Paul by Steven John Kraftchick

March 10, 2015

(ABC.net) Our knowledge of human biology in particular of genetics and neurobiology is beginning to enable us to directly affect the biological or physiological bases of human motivation, either through drugs, or through genetic selection or engineering, Read More

February 6, 2015

World Future Review (Vol. 6, No. 3, September2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: The Boundaries of the Human: From Humanism to Transhumanism byJos Cordeiro What is Future Human Evolution About? byTed Chu Human and Robots Interaction: Read More

January 12, 2015

NanoEthics (Volume 8, Issue 3, December2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: Ethical issues in cyborg technology: diversity and inclusion by Enno Park Human Enhancement? Its all about body modification! Why we should replace the term human Read More

December 25, 2014

Neuroethics(Volume 7, No. 3, December2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: What to Enhance: Behaviour, Emotion or Disposition? by Karim Jebari Defining Moral Enhancement: A Clarificatory Taxonomy by Kasper Raus, et al Moral Enhancement and Self Subversion Read More

November 26, 2014

(Phys.org) What do pacemakers, prosthetic limbs, Iron Man and flu vaccines all have in common? They are examples of an old idea thats been gaining in significance in the last several decades: transhumanism. The word denotes a set of Read More

November 12, 2014

(Vox) Scientists have been making amazing advances inbionic technology in recent years: robotic exoskeletons that help people walk, artificial eyes that help blind people see. Some of these technologies are meant as medical aids to help people regain function. Read More

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Transhumanism | Bioethics.com

Transhumanism is a recent movement that extols mans right to shape his own evolution, by maximizing the use of scientific technologies, to enhance human physical and intellectual potential. While the name is new, the idea has long been a popular theme of science fiction, featured in such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bade Runner, the Terminator series, and more recently, The Matrix, Limitless, Her and Transcendence.

However, as its adherents hint at in their own publications, transhumanism is an occult project, rooted in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, and derived from the Kabbalah, which asserts that humanity is evolving intellectually, towards a point in time when man will become God. Modeled on the medieval legend of the Golem and Frankenstein, they believe man will be able to create life itself, in the form of living machines, or artificial intelligence.

Spearheaded by the Cybernetics Group, the project resulted in both the development of the modern computer and MK-Ultra, the CIAs mind-control program. MK-Ultra promoted the mind-expanding potential of psychedelic drugs, to shape the counterculture of the 1960s, based on the notion that the shamans of ancient times used psychoactive substances, equated with the apple of the Tree of Knowledge.

And, as revealed in the movie Lucy, through the use of smart drugs, and what transhumanists call mind uploading, man will be able to merge with the Internet, which is envisioned as the end-point of Kabbalistic evolution, the formation of a collective consciousness, or Global Brain. That awaited moment is what Ray Kurzweil, a director of engineering at Google, refers to as The Singularly. By accumulating the total of human knowledge, and providing access to every aspect of human activity, the Internet will supposedly achieve omniscience, becoming the God of occultism, or the Masonic All-Seeing Eye of the reverse side of the American dollar bill.

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Transhumanism: The History of a Dangerous Idea: David ...

From transhuman, to transhumanism: What is the definition, and what is the movement that it inspires? This page will serve as an overview. We are talking about the next stage of human evolution; the immortalization of humanity; a future where human and machine is one in the same.

[social_share/] The popularity of transhumanism as an ideology has arguably been on an exponentialrise since the 1990s, as is most notable in the graph below. The graph displays the frequency of which the word transhumanism has featured in published books. We have displayed this graph to compare it to the use of the simple, more ideologically free word transhuman.

By simple definition, transhuman is defined onWikipedia as an intermediary form between the human and the hypothetical posthuman. We add complexity with the simple Oxford definition of transhuman/transhumanist The belief or theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology. I argue that this is as far as the definition of a transhumanist should go. It is merely a person who agrees humanity should have the freedom to enhance itself through its merger with technology.

Political scientist, Francis Fukuyama,describes transhumanismas the worlds most dangerous idea. Countering this, science writerRonald Bailey asserts that it is amovement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations of humanity.

What the above commenters fail to understand itthat both arguments stand true. In humanities aspiration for transhuman evolution, we will face huge dangers. Failing to understand those dangers because of over optimism is just as dangerous as ignorantly fighting against innovation though pessimistic fear/paranoia.

I argue that the optimistic/pessimistic contrast has a charging effect for the calls for transhumanist defence/attack. This in effect encourages people to define transhumanism beyond its pure definition.

In explaining this, its advocates sometimes say that we are all transhumanists, said Cook. We use glasses; we wear dentures; we take caffeine; we have pacemakers. This is true, but the nub of transhumanism is extending human capacities, not just repairing defects in the way we are now.http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2616/the_surprising_spread_and_cultural_impact_of_transhumanism.aspx

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Transhumanism News - That's Really Possible

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Transhumanism calendar of events, Transhumanist Groups and Contacts in Your Area, Transhumanism and disability, Transhumanism and Feminism, Transhumanism related papers, Transhumanism links, Extension of Life/Aging, Bionics (Eyes, Cochlear Implants, Tracking devices, Cognitive Sciences/AI)

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Transhumanism, Ethics, and the Internet: A Dispatch from the "Transhuman Visions" conference

By Brian Green

Transhumanism is a contemporary worldview whose proponents seek to radically extend human life and grant humans enhancements in an effort to render them as powerful as possible. The first-ever Transhuman Visions conference, organized by Hank Pellissier of the Brighter Brains Institute, met on February 1, 2014, in San Francisco, California. I attended because I have longstanding academic interests in the technological, religious, sociological, psychological, and ethical aspects of transhumanism.

The very first speaker at the conference, Roen Horn, reflected some of the complex religious aspects of transhumanism; he used a lot of Christian imagery, while at the same time denying that we can appeal to a (possibly imaginary) God for our immortality. In his view, if we want to be immortal, we have to do it on our own. Atheism, anti-theism, agnosticism, and new age spirituality were subtexts in many of the presentations. Horn's use of the catch phrase "eternal life pirates never surrender" also presented something of both the whimsy and the seriousness of the movement.

Another speaker, Rich Lee, was a "grinder" a devotee of do-it-yourself technological body modification. He had inserted magnetic implants in his own body in order to augment his own sensory perception, and electronic RFID chips into his hands so as to wirelessly control locks and other items that require identification to operate. Transhumanism and extreme body modification share the idea of the manipulability of the human body in accord with the human will. This is a movement that might grow in popularity yet remain somewhat limited in its appeal, at least for the near-termas tattoos and body modification currently remain.

Several speakers discussed ways to increase health and longevity. Caloric restriction is the only well-proven way to extend life, but very few people actually follow it, since it is rather unpleasant. These speakers discussed a few ways, such as periodic fasting, to get some of the perceived benefits of caloric restriction without having to actually starve oneself. Among other things, the speakers also recommended wearing orange glasses in the evenings in order to prevent artificial lights from interfering with natural bodily rhythms that promote a good night's sleep.

Aubrey de Grey was the most prominent speaker at the conference. Something of a celebrity in the radical life-extension community, de Grey discussed ways to popularize the life-extension movement so as to gain more funding for its research. He argued that significant gains could be made with just $50 billion invested in anti-aging research. One clever audience member asked if de Grey would shave his long beard for a crowd-funded $5 million donation, to which de Grey replied "yes!" and then even lowered the bar to $1 million; what happens to his beard remains to be seen.

Perhaps the most interesting speaker, and one who gained great applause from the audience, was Randal Koene, who discussed his initiative to get all those working in fields relevant to "whole brain emulation" (WBE) to cooperate in their efforts. Transhumanists see WBE as a kind of Holy Grail of life extension because they believe it will allow them to upload their minds into computers and thus attain complete immortality, with humans living inside a computer network as "substrate independent minds" (SIMs). Personally, I am skeptical of the relevance of this idea to life extension, since WBEs in a computer will not be "alive" in any biological sense (a rather key aspect of "life extension")nor do I think minds can be substrate independent. Of more relevance for life extension is neural prosthetic technology, which allows brain damage to be repaired through brain-computer interfaces. This technology is actually progressing very rapidly, with brain damaged tissue already electronically restored in animals. One might reasonably ask where the dividing line between neuroprosthetics and WBE might be: How much brain has to be replaced before the prosthetic is your brain? Could a brain-dead person be restored to life with a partial or whole-brain prostheses? But these questions will not be resolved by debate but by actual experiments.

Another speaker at the conference, Zoltan Istvan, proposed the idea that those who speak out against transhumanism might be committing a crime because they are advocating a worldview that will lead to many deaths. Perhaps such speech should be banned, he proposed. Needless to say, such a course of action would raise some grave ethical questions. This type of thinking, which could perhaps lead to a type of totalitarian transhumanism, is something that I had not heard much about before.

Utopianism was a definite ethical theme at the conference. For transhumanists, Utopia means humanity without death and with godlike powers. Utopia is a "greatest good," all other goods are subordinate to it, including, as noted above, the pleasure of eating, the absence of pain from body modifications, existence as a body of flesh, and perhaps even freedoms (of speech, etc.). As an infinite good, however, Utopia can be used to morally justify anything (by arguing that in the face of an infinite good any finite evil is negligible). This can be extremely dangerous.

While transhumanism has existed primarily as an Internet-based movement for a couple of decades now, the Transhuman Visions conference was an event intended to build face to face human relationships. As the movement has grown in popularity, especially in the tech-friendly Bay Area, it has finally passed a critical threshold, so that now in-person contact starts to make sense for those interested in it. The conference had approximately 300 attendees.

As for me, I am a transhumanism enthusiast, but also a skeptic. While I see no intrinsic moral problems with extending healthy human life as long as we can (realizing that important related questions of justice, cost, accessibility, side-effects, etc., would also need to be addressed), I do not think material immortality is possible in this world. As material creatures subject to entropy, we must eventually break down and die. The existential denial of our own mortality is an evasion, not a solution. But transhumanism does not stop at evasion; it is a social movement with a lot of highly motivated and intelligent people, and is actively researching solutions of many types. I was very impressed by several of the people I spoke to. Some were there because they were deeply concerned about the health of their loved ones and they saw transhumanism as the chance to save their loved one's lives.

Research into extending healthy life is a worthy task and
not one to be discouraged. While the extreme search for immortality is, I think, futile, and futile acts can be morally problematic, the general effort to extend life is not futile, and is certainly something that would interest many people. Significantly lengthened lifespans will likely not appear quickly, but by a long slow process of medical advance, and those individual medical advances, compounding over time, will be a very good thing.

Brian Green is assistant director of campus ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and an adjunct professor teaching ethics in the SCU Graduate School of Engineering.

February 2014

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Transhumanism, Ethics, and the Internet