What Is Transhumanism - Essay Example

Counterpoint/Augmentation of Transhumanism Transhumanism is currently a hot debate, probably a contention of whether science has gone overboard or has maintained it basis for noble establishment. While going through various literatures on the same, I have come across criticism, support and doubt over this controversial subject. I join the criticism for reasons I will append against the proposals on the subject. To achieve this, I have cited directly the information that I will put question marks on by way of critique. My major sources of the information are the article; “What is Transhumanis?” by Nixon Bostrom and The Transhumanism FAQs: A General Introduction, by Nixon Bostrom. According to Bostrom (2011), the formal definition of transhumanism cited directly from the source; “…is a way of thinking about the future based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but a rather comparatively early phase. We formally define it as follows: 1) The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of improving fundamentally the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capabilities. 2) The study of ramifications, promises, and potential dangers of technologies that will enable us to become fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in the developing and using such technologies.” The point being expressed by this definition is that this intended undertaking will solve the human limitations. More specifically, the limitations targeted here are human death, limited human memory span, IQ and minor limitations like stress, depression, fatigue, among others. From these propositions there are a few reservations to point out. First, the limited human intelligent which it intends to engage to create the supernatural, raises a concern as to how well he will achieve the task of creating this superhuman that surpasses him (Rees 2011). Even if it were possible already to create these superhumans, according to scientific policies of which it is required that a new technology has to undergo a given period of rigorous test to be adopted; how long would it take before we first see the prototype and exhaustively explore it before we can confirm it to be less hostile to the rest of the population? What about if the superhuman being rejects the creator who is the ordinary being with limitations that cannot subdue the successor? Since it is the same the experts behind the concept who have vehemently admitted that current human is far too limited. Joy (2011) raises similar concern in his work, Why the future doesn’t need us”. In this source he meticulously states that human being would likely guarantee their own extinction by developing the technologies favored by transhumanists. He gives an example of the grey goo case where stubborn self-replicating nanorobots could consume the entire ecosystems, resulting into global ecophagy (the literal consuming of an ecosystem). As if that is not enough outcries over the transhumanism, Rees (2011) decries this path adopted by science. He states advanced science and technology could bring as much of disaster as opportunity for progress. He clarifies himself that science is better ventured into with a lot of caution. Rees (2011) contributed to the criticism in her work Cybog Manifesto. Cybog is an illustration of the transhuman that is intended to be created by science. It is a hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body. From the definition of the cybog, it is realized that the intended superhuman will poses greater mechanical fitness or strength. Can this, mechanical fitness and higher brain power guarantee superhumans will be perfect? No, it does not absolutely imply any of that. The reason being that even the most powerful products of technology has not stood up to the test of perfection. Taking for example what the whole world has integrated so much that they almost replace humans – the computer. Most powerful computers still faces one fault or the other and they need the creator’s input of intelligence to fix them. What is being implied here is that the supposed transhumans may need intervention of those ordinary human beings who created them when the preprogrammed evolutionary path of these “things” deviates from the expectation (Huxley 2011). Notice the paradoxin this situation where a lesser human being creates a more powerful human being. Furthermore, the most intelligent human being seeking the intervention of ordinary human to mitigate the superior’s limitations or malfunctions. This is anticipation but it is already happening when the humans have thought of creating something superior than him. Let us examine the prospects of transhumanism as enumerated in the source. The following are discussed as the prospects of this research. First is the proposal of superintelligent machines. “Superintelligence means any form of artificial intelligence, maybe based on "self-taught" neural networks, that is capable of outclassing the best human brains in practically every discipline, including scientific creativity, practical wisdom, and social skills.”The concern here is that after the existing humans have been outclassed what should happen next, we extinct and leave the world or the universe for these new beings to live or to eke life? Like nature takes care of it natural organisms and other natural objects and therefore the life is perfectly balance given the type of living and non-living things occupying it, or as religion puts is, (at least if religion is anything to go by), God takes care of His creation and the world is one balanced place with all events having a meaning, who will take care of these transhumans? They cannot survive in the same environment where ordinary human beings live (Huxley 2011). They will not be best fitted to life same life. They need a “superenvironment” to live in. this is just like human beings cannot live in mars unless they make the Martian environment favorable. On this note, I propose that any prototyping of the superhuman in the ordinary environment will be detrimental to either ordinary man or to the new human. As we dream of introducing the superhumans there is also the issue of transition. In the Darwin’s theory of evolution, the transitions that hitherto took place were incremental and took so many years. New organisms did not just pope out and the indigenous population suddenly disappeared. In this case there seems to be the burning rush to bring these new organisms to life when the fate of us, the currently indigenous population, is not defined in the event of the emergence of this new population. There is a prospect of lifelong emotional well-being through re-calibration of the pleasure-centers using clinical mood-brighteners ("antidepressants"). Pharmaceuticals currently under development promise to give an increasing number of "normal" people the choice of drastically reducing the incidence of negative emotions in their lives. In some cases, the adverse side-effects of the new agents are negligible (Bostrom 2011). Whereas street drugs typically wreak havoc on the brain's neurochemistry, producing a brief emotional "high" followed by a crash, modern clinical drugs may target with high specificity a given neurotransmitter or receptor subtype, thereby avoiding any negative effect on the subject's cognitive faculties - (s)he won't feel "drugged" - and enables a constant, indefinitely sustainable mood-elevation without being addictive. Much as this may sound lucrative, in it there are obvious elements of uncertainty. In matters to do with chemicals and the biology of a living being, the effect cannot be termed as “adverse side-effects” which are negligible. The antithesis in this statement expresses inadequacy in assessment of the impact of these chemicals. It is apparent by the same science that is used to premise such argument that accumulation of certain chemicals in the bodies of living organisms brings with it transformations that, so far, can be lethal. According to Rees (2011), Personality pills because drugs and gene therapy will yield far more than shallow one-dimensional pleasure. They can also modify personality. They can help overcome shyness, eliminate jealousy, increase creativity and enhance the capacity for empathy and emotional depth. Think of all the preaching, fasting and self-discipline that people have subjected themselves to throughout the ages in attempts to ennoble their character. Shortly it may become possible to achieve the same goals much more thoroughly by swallowing a daily cocktail pill. Simply put, other than food, no human being can go about swallowing the daily pill it does not matter whether it is a cocktail pill or not. The subtly expressed point here is that to lead this kind of life, one will have to make an effort to acquire and swallow the pill. Resources and energy will be needed in creation and purchase of the pills (Rees 2011). From the perspective of the world that is known to us, nowhere in the world has science tried to create resources and energy. The most appreciable thing that has been a noble achievement of science has been the improvement of the resource extraction and application. The meaning is that the transhumanists must be inclined to create an evolutionary path that tries to achieve the creation of resources and energy. Otherwise the proposed transhumans will have to contend with the same life an ordinary human lives; that is the life of scarcity and choice. In effect there will be no major step in transforming human beings as it is thought. The next prospect is that of Molecular nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the hypothetical design and manufacture of machines to atomic-scale precision, including general-purpose "assemblers", devices that can position atoms individually in order to build almost any chemically permitted matter-configuration for which we can give a detailed specification - including their exact copies (Bostrom 2011). An existence-proof of a limited form of nanotechnology is given by biology: the cell is a molecular self-replicator that can produce a broad range of proteins. The product of nanotechnology is illustrated by the cybog fiction mentioned in paragraph one above it will not be repeated here. Also there is the vastly extended life span. It may prove feasible to use radical gene-therapy and other biological methods to block normal aging processes, and to stimulate rejuvenation and repair mechanisms indefinitely. It is also possible that nothing short of nanotechnology will do the trick. Meanwhile there are unproven and in some cases expensive hormone treatments that seem to have some effect on general vitality in elderly people, although as yet nothing has been shown to be more effective at life-extension than controlled caloric restriction. The basic principles of chemistry explain this better (Bostrom 2011). There is a state when a given chemical substance cannot continue to perform same reaction no matter how it is regenerated. The chemical becomes exhausted. The behavior of atoms of substances is such that they cannot keep their active state (regenerated) infinitely. There is a point when this activity is lost. This should explain why we cannot keep regenerating forever. Lastly there is the prospect of being able to Upload our consciousness into a virtual reality. If we could scan the synaptic matrix of a human brain and simulate it on a computer then it would be possible for us to migrate from our biological embodiments to a purely digital substrate (given certain philosophical assumptions about the nature of consciousness and personal identity). By making sure we always had back-up copies, we might then enjoy effectively unlimited life-spans. By directing the activation flow in the simulated neural networks, we could engineer totally new types of experience. Uploading, in this sense, would probably require mature nanotechnology. But there are less extreme ways of fusing the human mind with computers. Work is being done today on developing neuro/chip interfaces. The technology is still in its early stages; but it might one day enable us to build neuroprostheses whereby we could "plug in" to cyberspace. Even less speculative are various schemes for immersive virtual reality - for instance using head-mounted displays - that communicate with the brain via our natural sense organs. If there is any benefit of lack of ability to decipher what transpires in the other person’s mind, then we have lost it here (Rees 2011). Life is naturally complex. Most of the prospects forwarded by the transhumanists are biased towards violating these indispensable complexities. Why would I keep my mind and soul in a digital platform where the whole world may have access to them? There is much significance as to why whatever I feel about any person should be kept under covers. Any mistake of making this public will certainly yield turbulence because somebody knows I hate them that given chance I might kill them or that I may betray them etc. some of these feelings are only temporary but getting access to such temporary attitudes can lead to turmoil. Therefore this too is never a good idea. As much as superhuman will be super, the basics principles of human nature must prevail in order that whatever the transhumanists intend to unleash be superhumans not a whole world where everybody is the same since they will all be, as the primary intention is, perfect – one kind of a person. Works Cited Bostrom, Nick. The Transhumanism FAQ: A General Introduction. Web. November 22, 2011. Bostrom, Nick. What is Transhumanism? Web. November 22, 2011. Huxley, J. Transhumanism: In New Bottles for New Wine. Web. November 18, 2011. Joy, B. Wdonna Haraway’s 1985 Cyborg Manifestohy: The future doesn’t need us? November 18, 2011. Rees, Martin. Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In This Century—On Earth and Beyond. November 18, 2011. Read More