This strange thing is called ‘transhumanism’, which is the use of technology and science to become an immortal being, whether that’s in the flesh or bionics. By essentially creating a virtual copy of yourself, it’ll be kept safe on a computer for so much longer than our bodies can survive.

What is the concept of transhumanism?

Transhumanism is a recent set of common ideals, or ideology, with the stated aim of transcending the current physical and mental limitations of the human by technological means. It has primarily taken shape as an American secular scientific project, albeit with growing international reach.

What is known as transhuman?

Transhuman, or trans-human, is the concept of an intermediary form between human and posthuman. In other words, a transhuman is a being that resembles a human in most respects but who has powers and abilities beyond those of standard humans

What is an example of transhumanism?

Some examples of transhumanism include anti-ageing and artificial intelligence. Transhumanism often represented in films as a negative aspect of humanity – shown as “mad scientists” where there is a negative plot twist causing damage e.g. Incredible Hulk.

Who is behind transhumanism?

The biologist Julian Huxley is generally regarded as the founder of transhumanism after using the term for the title of an influential 1957 article

Is transhumanism a theory?

In accordance with the above ideas, a philosophical-scientific theory, currently known as Transhumanism, proposes to use technological advances to improve cognitive, psychological, moral, and bodily conditions

What are the three pillars of transhumanism?

This distinction between a therapeutic and a non-therapeutic use of these technologies is relevant and has significant ethical implications. HE embraces the so-called three pillars of transhumanism: super-intelligence, super-longevity, and super-wellbeing.

How is transhumanism possible?

Cyborgs, cryonics, cloning, gene therapy, space colonization, artificial intelligence, virtual reality … all of this and more can contribute to turning the human race into the transhuman race.

Is transhumanism a science?

Abstract: Transhumanism looks to utilise science and technology to move humans beyond the limitations of their natural form. Recent scientific advances have, for the first time, presented plausible genetic interventions for the directed evolution of humans.

Biological routes to human enhancement

Genetics plays a pivotal role in our lives. We will not review the history of attempts to purposefully steer the genetic make-up of individuals but it is necessary to mention two approaches, if only to highlight their limitations. Firstly, it is more than 30 years since the pioneering use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select for embryos shown to be free from a known heritable mutation, potentially in combination with additional characteristic that would make them suitable future donors of stem cells for the treatment of a sick sibling. Although the term designer baby has been widely used for children born via PGD, it was never an especially accurate description, since the process was merely choosing combination of genes that were brought together naturally; it was never capable of the intentional introduction of novel genes.

A further step towards deliberate alteration of an individual’s DNA came in the form of a second technology, gene therapy. The aim of this strategy was to overcome diseases arising from possession of two faulty copies of a gene by addition of a further, functional copy. Although this sounds relatively straightforward, the reality proved more complex to control than had been hoped. For example, the very process of integrating the new DNA into an existing chromosome (in order to facilitate stable inheritance of the extra gene) could cause additional damage and lead to further problems. Given such limitations, the scope of this approach was always likely to be restricted to therapy rather than human enhancement.

Electromechanical routes to human enhancement

Turning to the second dimension of development, let us consider the state of play regarding electromechanical interventions. Here we can draw a distinction between non-invasive approaches, that is to say those that remain external to the body, and those than involve literally getting under the skin (invasive). As should be self-evident, non-invasive approaches represent the «shallow end» of the human-machine spectrum. Many would not consider these to be truly transhumanist, but they serve at minimum to alert us regarding the extent to which technology already play a part in our biological lives. Examples would include the use of wearable devices such as Fitbits to record biometric data that influence our subsequent lifestyle choices. A step on from this would be the elective use of electrical brain stimulation methods such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to improve mood, memory or language acquisition (Yazdi, 2020).

Switching focus to invasive alterations inevitably represents the crossing of a significant ideological, as well as physical, threshold. On one level, placing technology within the body runs the potential risk of infection, but this also represents a deeper commitment to change. Insertion of radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips that can communicate with external gadgets, store PIN numbers and other electronic information, or trigger the opening of doors have tangible benefits, e.g., for the physically disabled. However, there is also a community of body modification enthusiasts (grinder biohackers) who simply want to push the boundaries of human experience. For example, magnets are most likely to be incorporated to allow the wearer to have heightened experience of magnetic fields for sensual rather than medical reasons.

What are the disadvantages of transhumanism?

Some critics of transhumanism assert that more powerful technology is likely to cause:

• Damage to the world (for example, via environmental stress)
• Damage to social well-being (for example, via technological unemployment, or increased financial inequality)

What are the main ideas of transhumanism?

Transhumanists envision a future in which the responsible application of such technologies enables humans to slow, reverse, or eliminate the aging process, to achieve corresponding increases in human life spans, and to enhance human cognitive and sensory capacities.

What are the ethics of transhumanism?

Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, technology and other rational means we shall eventually manage to become posthumans, beings with vastly greater capacities than present humans.

Transhumanism is a philosophical and scientific movement that supports the use of technology to improve the human condition. The idea is to use technology to enhance human capabilities, such as cognition and longevity, and to develop beyond biological limitations

Transhumanists believe that humans should be able to use technology to modify and enhance their bodily functions and cognition. They reject traditional human limitations, such as death, disease, and other biological frailties. 

Some technologies that transhumanists support include: Genetic engineering, Cryonics, Artificial intelligence (AI, Nanotechnology, Wearables. 

Transhumanists are also interested in futurist topics, such as: Space migration, Mind uploading, Cryonic suspension

Our brains are the most complex structures in the known universe. They house around 86 billion neurons and 85 billion non-neuronal cells, with an estimated one million billion neural connections.

“For comparison, the Milky Way galaxy is home to about 200 billion stars.”

There is also the issue of whether a simulated brain could ‘give rise to a real mind’.

Imagine brain scanning technology improves greatly in the coming decades, to the point that we can observe how each individual neuron talks to other neurons. Then, imagine we can record all this information to create a simulation of someone’s brain on a computer. 

This is the concept behind mind uploading – the idea that we may one day be able to transition a person from their biological body to a synthetic hardware. The idea originated in an intellectual movement called transhumanism and has several key advocates including computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, philosopher Nick Bostrom and neuroscientist Randal Koene.(full article source google)