Democrat, republican, libertarian -- it's
easy to focus on the larger political movements
out there, but what about the Transhumanist
Party? Last I checked, Zoltan Istvan is still
running in hopes of becoming your first transhumanist
U.S. President. It raises the question: Just
what IS transhumanism after all?
Transhumanists just held their Augmented World
Expo in San Jose. In the broadest possible
terms, transhumanism is all about the improvement
of the human condition through science and
technology. We're talking homo sapiens 2.0
here, upgraded via technology to be smarter
and stronger. Yet the particulars of the vision
run the gamut of existing human politics,
and encompass everything from mere science-driven
culture to the outright evolution of the human
species. For starters, just consider some
of the various schools of transhumanism to
emerge since the 1980s: You've got democratic
transhumanists who want advancements for every
socioeconomic level, libertarian transhumanists
and Anarcho-Transhumanists who think advancements
will elevate us all just fine if the government
stays out of it, and survivalist transhumanists
who just want to defeat death. You've got
Singulatarians who see transhumanism as
an inevitable outcome of the technological
singularity. We can't avoid it, so all we
can do is prepare for it and manage the outcome.
Meanwhile, Transhuman Hedonists just want
to feel good and religious transhumanists
who weave it into their faiths. Those are
just a few of the approaches. In any case,
the next big question is "How will we know
we've become transhuman?" In 2011, Bioethicist
Kyle Munkittrick presented seven potential
indicators. First, we'd need to reach the
point where prosthetic limbs and implanted
organs are actually improvements over the
original. Not there yet. Second, we'll need
to have better brains by virtue of neruo-implants
and cybernetics. We're talking a step beyond
pharmaceutical power-ups here, and we'd have
to be clear that it's not cheating -- not
"brain doping," but a desired upgrade in human
cognition. Not quite there yet either. Third,
artificial intelligence and augmented reality
would need to be a part of everyday life.
Based on the phone app that basically drove
me to work this morning, I think we're getting
there. Fourth, we'll want an average human
lifespan of roughly 120 years. Fifth, according
to Munkittrick, we'll want human reproduction
to transcend into more of a responsible planning
choice. Some work to be done on both of those.
Sixth, we'll each need total, legal bodily
freedom to engage in the sort of cybernetic
upgrades necessary to achieve a higher human
forms. Right now, that's tied up in a lot
of governmental red tape. And seventh, Munkittrick
argues we need a strong value of personhood
for qualifying nonhuman entities, such as
artificial intelligences and dolphins. After
all, no one wants to upgrade themselves out
of their basic "human" rights -- right?
These are just a few, overarching ideas about
transhumanist identity -- but where do you
stand? What does it mean to be transhuman
and how will we know when we get there? Let
us know, and if you want more futurist visions,
be sure to check out now.howstuffworks.com.
