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layout, title, date
| layout | title | date |
|---|---|---|
| post | The Transhumanist Movement | 2016-10-08 |
Transhumanism, in short, is the belief and movement that we can and should use all means available, especially science and technology, to their fullest extent to extend and evolve human capability, with the stated goal of becoming ‘post-human’.
It includes the use of somewhat taboo technologies such as cybernetics and genetic engineering, making it currently something of an extremist field. That said there are certainly more extreme variants — such as anarcho-transhumanism, which suggests we must tear down governments and societies to achieve our goals. (And I don’t think they’re entirely wrong…)
The transhumanist movement rests on the belief that what is human is not defined by what we are, but rather by who we are. Thus that, for example, a consciousness uploaded into a computer would still be considered a human being.
One of my favourite parts of transhumanism is the concept of removing barriers — be that nation, religion or race — and working together as a species for the good of the species. It’s a pretty idealistic goal, but one that I genuinely believe to be achievable — and I’m normally pretty damn cynical.
Personally, I view the use of science and technology to enhance ourselves as just another step in human evolution. And I know I’m not alone.
“If fighting is your thing, we can still fight trillion-dollar wars, but let’s fight them against cancer, diabetes, heart disease, aging, and even death.” — Zoltan Istvan, US Presidential Candidate, eminent transhumanist
Originally published at blog.aronajones.com on October 8, 2016.