Transhumanism

Transhumanism (sometimes abbreviated >H or H+) is an emergent philosophy analysing or favouring morohological freedom and the use of emerging technologies, especially neurotechnology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, to overcome human limitations and improve the human condition.

Overview

Biologist Julian Huxley coined the term transhumanism in 1957 and defined it as "man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature". Huxley's definition differs substantially from the one commonly in use since the 1980s.

In 1966, FM-2030 (formerly F.M. Esfandiary), an Iranian-American futurist who was teaching new concepts of the Human at New School University, began to identify as "transhuman" (a short hand for "transitory human") people who were adopting technologies, lifestyles and world views that were transitional to "posthumanity."

However, Dr. Max More gave transhumanism its modern definition: "Transhumanism is a class of philosophies that seek to guide us towards a posthuman condition. Transhumanism shares many elements of humanism, including a respect for reason and science, a commitment to progress, and a valuing of human (or transhuman) existence in this life. […] Transhumanism differs from humanism in recognizing and anticipating the radical alterations in the nature and possibilities of our lives resulting from various sciences and technologies […]." ^[1]

Dr. Anders Sandberg describes modern transhumanism as "the philosophy that we can and should develop to higher levels, physically, mentally and socially using rational methods." Dr. Robin Hanson describes it as "the idea that new technologies are likely to change the world so much in the next century or two that our descendants will in many ways no longer be 'human'."

Transhumanism includes:

Advocacy of improvement to the human condition through enhancement technologies, such as eliminating aging and expanding intellectual, physical or physiological capacities.
The study of benefits, dangers and ethics of implementation of these technologies.

Transhumanists generally support emerging technologies, including many that are controversial, such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, cognitive science, and hypothetical future technologies such as artificial intelligence and mind uploading.

Since some observers believe the pace of technological development is increasing, many transhumanist thinkers speculate that the next fifty years will yield radical technological advances. Transhumanism maintains that this is desirable and that humans can and should become more than human through the application of technological innovations such as human genetic engineering, molecular nanotechnology, nootropics, prosthetic enhancements, and mind-machine interfaces.

Enlightenment and humanistic roots

Following in the tradition of Enlightenment-influenced 19th century political, moral and philosophical thought, transhumanism seeks to build upon the global knowledge base for the betterment of all humankind.

Derived in part from the philosophical traditions of secular humanism, transhumanism asserts that there are no 'supernatural' forces that guide humanity. While largely a grassroots and broadly based movement, transhumanism does tend toward rational arguments and empirical observations of natural phenomena; in many respects, transhumanists partake in a culture of science and reason, and are guided by life-promoting principles and values.

Specifically, transhumanism seeks to apply reason, science and technology for the purposes of reducing poverty, disease, disability, malnutrition and oppressive governments around the globe. Many transhumanists actively assess the potential for future technologies and innovative social systems to improve quality of all life, while seeking to make the material reality of the human condition fulfill the promise of legal and political equality by eliminating congenital mental and physical barriers.

Transhumanism argues there exists an ethical imperative for humans to strive for progress and improvement of the human condition. If humanity enters into a post-Darwinian phase of existence in which humans are in control of evolution, transhumanists argue that random mutations will possibly be replaced with rational, moral, and ethical, but most specifically, guided change.

To this end, transhumanists engage in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and evaluating possibilities for overcoming biological limitations. This includes the use of the various fields and subfields of science, philosophy, economics and natural and sociological history (see Future Studies).

History of transhumanism

Early transhumanists met formally in the early 1980s at the University of California, Los Angeles, which became the central transhumanist watering hole. Here, FM-2030 lectured on the "Upwinger" futurist ideology. John Spencer at the Space Tourism Society organized many transhumanist space-related events. Natasha Vita-More (formerly Nancie Clark) exhibited "Breaking Away" at EZTV Media, a venue for transhumanists and other futurists to meet. FM, John, and Natasha met and soon they began holding gatherings for transhumanists in Los Angeles, which included students from FM-2030's transhumanist courses and audiences from Natasha's artistic transhumanist productions, as well as some from the space and astrophysics community.

In 1982, Vita-More authored the Transhumanist Arts Manifesto, and later produced the cable TV show "TransCentury UPdate" on transhumanity. This talk show reached over 100,000 viewers.

In 1986, Anchor Books published Dr. Eric Drexler's famed book on nanotechnology, Engines of Creation, in hardcover.^[2] Alcor Foundation's Southern California location became a nexus for futurist thinkers, and a number of Northern California's technologists were carrying copies of Engines of Creation. Yet not all activists who were interested in improving the human condition were involved in "transhumanism". Most did not know of the word, although some were certainly pioneering in what is now transhumanism.

Today, the Extropy Institute, founded by Max More in 1988, and the World Transhumanist Association, founded by David Pearce and Nick Bostrom in 1998, are among the largest transhumanist organizations.

For a list of prominent transhumanists, see list of transhumanists.

Currents within transhumanism

Anarcho-transhumanism, a political philosophy synthesizing anarchism and transhumanism.
Christian transhumanism, a religious philosophy synthesizing liberal Christianity and transhumanism.
Democratic transhumanism, a political philosophy synthesizing liberal democracy, social democracy, radical democracy and transhumanism.
Extropianism. An early strand of transhumanism characterized by a set of principles regarding extropy.
Hedonistic Imperative, a moral philosophy based upon the belief in the necessity of using technology to eliminate suffering in all sentient life.
Posthumanism, a philosophy that seeks to transcend the principles of Renaissance humanism to correspond more closely to the 21st century's ideas of scientific knowledge.
Prometheism, a religious philosophy synthesizing cosmotheism and transhumanism.
Singularitarianism, a moral philosophy based upon the belief that a technological singularity is possible, advocating deliberate action to effect and ensure its safety.
Transhumanist socialism, a political philosophy synthesizing socialism and transhumanism.
Transtopianism, a political philosophy synthesizing libertarian techno-utopianism and transhumanism.

Practical transhumanism

As proponents of personal evolution and self-creation, transhumanists tend to use technologies and techniques that improve cognitive and physical performance, while engaging in routines and lifestyles designed to improve health and longevity.

Many transhumanists seek to become cyborg, transhuman or posthuman, which they see as the next significant evolutionary step for the human species. They believe biotechnological and nanotechnological innovations will facilitate such a leap by the midpoint of the 21st century. Depending on their age, some transhumanists worry that they will not live to reap the benefits of these future technologies. However with this knowledge, many have a great interest in life-extension practices and funding research in cryonics in order to make it viable option of last resort rather than remaining an unproven method.

Regional and global transhumanist networks and communities exist to provide support and forums for discussion and working on collaborative projects.

A thorough reference for the implementation of transhumanism called The Catalog of Correctable Omnipresent Human Flaws^[3] describes in detail a large number of the specific alterations that some transhumanists desire to make, and provides guidelines for species names, preemptive control of abuse of genetic modification, and methods of active research and implementation of transhumanist genetic modification of human zygotes.

Criticisms

Criticisms of transhumanism can be divided into two main categories: those objecting to likelihood of transhumanist goals being achieved, and those objecting to the ethical and moral principles of transhumanism.

Practical criticisms

Geneticist and science writer Steve Jones argues that humanity does not, and will never have the technology that proponents of transhumanism seek. He once joked that the letters of the genetic code, A, C, G and T should be replaced with the letters H, Y, P and E. Jones claims that technologies like human genetic engineering will never be as powerful as is popularly believed.

In his book Futurehype: The Tyranny of Prophecy, University of Toronto sociologist Max Dublin points out many failed predictions of the past technological progress and argues that modern futurist predictions will prove similarly inaccurate. He also objects to what he sees as fanaticism and nihilism in advancing transhumanist causes, and writes that historical parallels exist to religious and Marxist ideologies. Many transhumanists, however, disagree strongly with the very concept of fanaticism and nihilism, seeing it as inconsistent with the core rationalism of the movement. They also point out that almost every technological advancement of the last century was predicted by science fiction or non-fiction futurists.

Moral criticisms

Critics or opponents of transhumanist views often favour improvement of ethical behaviour, rather than technology, as the most effective way to improve society. Technological solutions may be compatible with other improvements, but some worry that strong advocacy of the former might divert attention and resources from the latter. As most transhumanists support non-technological changes to society, such as the spread of political liberty, and most critics of transhumanism support technological advances in areas such as communications and healthcare, the difference is often a matter of emphasis. Sometimes, however, there are strong disagreements about the very principles involved, with divergent views on humanity, human nature, and the morality of transhumanist aspirations.

A notable critic of transhumanism is Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, who argued in his essay Why the future doesn't need us^[4] that human beings would likely guarantee their own extinction by transhumanist means. This alarmist conclusion was seized upon by neo-luddite and bio-luddite critics who claim that humanity has an inherent lack of competence to direct its own evolution and should therefore completely relinquish technological research and development.

British Astronomer Royal Martin Rees claims in his book Our Final Hour that advanced science and technology brings as much risk of disaster as opportunity for progress. Rees does not advocate a halt to scientific progress, but tighter security and perhaps an end to traditional scientific openness.

Advocates of the primacy of the precautionary principle, such as the Green movement, also favor slow, careful progress or a halt in potentially dangerous areas. Some precautionists believe humanity's collective intelligence should organize first and thus be ready to overcome any dangers from artificial intelligences that do not share human morality, thus avoiding any risk of bodily harm.

Transhumanists counter-argue that, since the proposals of Joy, luddites, Rees, and Green precautionists are not realistic and sometimes are even counter-productive, society should take deliberate action to effect and ensure the early yet safe arrival of the benefits of emerging technologies.

In his book Our Posthuman Future, conservative political economist Francis Fukuyama asserts that transhumanism may actually critically undermine the progressive ideals of liberal democracy it favours, through a fundamental alteration of human nature and human equality. "Bioconservatives", like Fukuyama, hold that any attempt to alter the natural state of man (such as cloning, genetic modification) is inherently immoral. Ronald Bailey have refuted these claims by arguing that political equality has never rested on the facts of human biology. In fact, political liberalism is already the solution to the issue of human and posthuman rights since, in liberal societies ,the law is meant to apply equally to all, no matter how rich or poor, powerful or powerless, educated or ignorant, enhanced or unenhanced.

Bill McKibben has argued at length against many of the technologies that are postulated or supported by transhumanists, including germline gene therapy and radical extension of human longevity. He claims that it is wrong to tamper with fundamental aspects of ourselves (or our children), such as our vulnerability to aging and death and our genetic potentials for certain limited levels of physical and cognitive ability. Attempts to "improve" ourselves through such tampering would remove limitations that provide a necessary context for the experience of meaningful human choice. McKibben claims that it human lives would no longer seem meaningful in a world where such limitations can be overcome technologically. Furthermore, even the goal of using germline genetic modification for clearly therapeutic purposes should be relinquished, since it would inevitably tempt us to tamper with such things as cognitive capacities (this argument relies on slippery slope reasoning). Transhumanists and other supporters of emerging technologies, such as Bailey, deny the claim that life would be experienced as meaningless in a world with such technologies. They suggest, for example, that a person with greater abilities would tackle more advanced and difficult projects and continue to find meaning in the struggle to achieve excellence.

McKibben also advances one of the most widespread criticisms of (libertarian or apolitical) transhumanism: that emerging technologies which increased human abilities would be disproportionately available to those of greater financial resources, thereby exacerbating gaps between wealthy and poor. Ironically, this is a criticism also voiced by democratic transhumanists who prefer to propose a political framework to attenuate this problem rather than ban these potentially beneficial technologies.

Further opposition to transhumanism comes from critics who point to subjectivity in the use of concepts such as "enhance" and "limitations", seeing eugenicist or master race ideologies of the past as warnings of what transhumanism might unintentionally encourage, as evidenced by the emergence of fringe offshoots such as "prometheism" and "transtopianism". Some transhumanists do advocate forms of liberal eugenics but many others distance themselves from this term (preferring reprogenetics instead) to avoid being mistakenly associated with the pseudoscientific and dehumanizing views and practices of early-20th-century eugenics movements. However, given that transhumanism essentially developed out of the California self-improvement culture, the idea of equating that culture with Nazi eugenics is seen as laughable if not libellous by transhumanists.

Transhumanist spirituality

Although some transhumanists report a strong sense of spirituality, they are for the most part secular. In fact, many transhumanists are either agnostics or atheists. There are, however, a number of transhumanists that follow liberal forms of Eastern philosophical traditions, and a minority of transhumanists that have merged their beliefs with established religions (see Christian transhumanism). Some transhumanists also look to the Simulation Argument as a basis for a modern form of deism (see digitalism).

Despite the prevailing secular attitude, transhumanism seeks to actualize the goals and hopes traditionally espoused by religions, such as immortality. Some transhumanists hope that future understanding of neurotheology will enable humans to achieve control of altered states of consciousness and thus 'spiritual' experiences.

Materialist transhumanists do not believe in a transcendent human soul. They often believe in the compatibility of the human minds with computer hardware, with the theoretical implication that human consciousness may someday be uploaded to alternative media. Consequently, most material transhumanists subscribe to the ethics of personhood theory.

References

James Hughes (2004). Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. Westview Press. ISBN 0813341981
Ramez Naam (2005). More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement. Broadway Press. ISBN 0767918436
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^ "Transhuman Space". November 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)

External links

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Organizations

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