Life Extension: Is Transhumanism A Dangerous Idea?

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Human Potential

SMILE - Dr. Carol Rosin, president of ICIS, the Institute for Cooperation in Space and a major proponent of peaceful space exploration, said in her tribute to Timothy Leary:

"Years ago, Timothy had listed me in the Genetic Hall of Fame in his book, the Intelligence Agents, with people he called "evolutionary agents" who were working for human evolution into space. I'll never forget his Leary SMILE, which he said stands for SM, Space Migration, the I is squared and stands for Intelligence Increase, and the LE stands for Life Exstension."

Life Extension is at the point of origin of what is known today as Transhumanism, an idea "closely tied to an enthusiasm for ethical, responsible technological progress. This progress brings greater choice and options for improving the human condition."

Image credit: campaignearrings.com

In an early article on this site, titled Human Genetic Engineering, I implied that to allow the human genome to be changed might be a dangerous undertaking, just as would be modifying the plants we eat. Today I came across a recent piece, forwarded by Paul, a friend of mine in the UK, which seems to echo that sentiment, but provides a much more balanced discussion of the transhumanist ideas and their detractors. Transhumanists believe that by technical advances we may eventually be able not only to extend our life span but also to become superhuman. The idea is that improving upon nature, we might become not only more healthy and strong, but also more smart.

After reading the article, here is what I responded to Paul:

"The whole idea of transhumanism is stimulating and nurturing developments that may very well turn out to be positive for keeping in good health longer, although I doubt that most of these thinkers have a grasp of how wonderfully complicated and vastly superior even the most simple of human functions are to current and possibly future technologies.

The solutions advocated seem to be based on a belief that the human essence is merely an outgrowth of the physical body. This belief is - and here I agree with Fukuyama - dangerous. It completely overlooks that it's not by freezing a body and then tinkering with it that we can extend our life.

Transhumanism has really been going on for eons, man has evolved, and we will continue to evolve, albeit at a faster pace, if we accept some of the ideas that are being mulled. What is perhaps missing from the current transhuman view is the spiritual dimension - the knowledge that humans are born again and again, and that there is no necessity to hang on to one body with all your might.

Supernatural abilities are within our grasp - just by discovering what we already knew and lost, rather than by technological fixes. These technical helpers like chips to permit us to directly access electronics are at best "bridge technologies", which eventually won't be necessary any more because we have within ourselves all the abilities those guys imagine to have to achieve technologically.

So while I would agree with most of the transhuman ideas for achieving better body function and less illness, I think that freezing bodies just shows a lack of awareness of our real human capabilities and our spiritual abilities. I see humanity transforming, and the new technologies for life extension will help, but the real surprise will come from the discovery of our innate abilities and our spiritual nature."

In summary, I believe it won't be medicine that eventually makes for better human lives, at least not the current mechanical pharma-based brand. We will get more healthy and smarter if we foster our own spiritual development, perhaps assisted by the necessary knowledge of how exactly the human body and mind function.

Cellular medicine goes a long way in understanding the real pathways of biochemistry in human bodies, but we can't make the mistake of confusing the mind and our mental abilities with the brain's chemical functions. I have a feeling there may yet be many surprises in store for all of us. Things like x-ray vision, instant calculation and collective intelligence may already be with us. At least some of us are already practising.

Anyway, if I managed to catch your interest ... here's a copy of that article sent by Paul.

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The most dangerous idea on earth?

By Stephen Cave and Friederike von Tiesenhausen Cave
Published: May 27 2005

(original here)

It is easy to see how you could be tempted. It might start with genetically screening your children for a lower risk of a hereditary cancer. Or perhaps with a pill that promised to keep your memory fresh and clear into old age.

But what if, while you were having your future children engineered to be cancer-free, you were offered the chance to make them musically gifted? Or, if instead of taking a memory-enhancing pill, you were offered a neural implant that would instantly make you fluent in all the world’s languages? Or cleverer by half? Wouldn’t it be difficult to say no? And what if you were offered a whole new body - one that would never decay or grow old?

A growing number of people believe these will be the fruits of the revolutions in biotechnology expected this century. And they consider it every individual’s right to take advantage of these changes. They think it will soon be within our reach to become something more than human - healthier, stronger, cleverer. All we have to do is live long enough to be around when science makes these advances. If we are, then we may just live forever.

This idea, known as transhumanism, is steadily spreading from a handful of cranks and Star Trek fans into the mainstream and across the Atlantic. But it is an idea that Francis Fukuyama, famed for proclaiming the end of history when US-style liberal democracy triumphed in the cold war, has described as the most dangerous in the world.

In a world at war with terrorism, divided by religious fundamentalism and haunted by racism, sexism and countless other prejudices, how is it that transhumanism has earned the hotly contested title of the most dangerous idea on earth?

According to Nick Bostrom’s “The Transhumanist FAQ”, transhumanists believe “that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase”. With the help of technology, we will be able to enhance our capacities far beyond their present state. It will be within our reach not only to live longer, but to live better.

Bostrom, a lecturer at the University of Oxford and the intellectual spearhead of the transhumanist movement in the UK, sees it as the natural extension of humanism - the belief that we can improve our lot through the application of reason. In the past, humanism has relied on education and democratic institutions to improve the human condition. But in the future, Bostrom claims, “we can also use technological means that will eventually enable us to move beyond what some would think of as ‘human’”.

Transhumanists are utopians. They foresee a world in which our intellects will be as far above those of our current selves as we are now above chimpanzees. They dream of being impervious to disease and eternally youthful, of controlling their moods, never feeling tired or irritated, and of being able to experience pleasure, love and serenity beyond anything the human mind can currently imagine.

But dreams of eternal youth are as old as mankind and no dreamer has yet escaped the grave. Why transhumanists believe they are different - and why Fukuyama considers them so dangerous - is because their hopes are based on technologies that are already being developed.

Around the world, there is a growing number of patients who are being helped through the insertion of electrodes and microchips into their brains. These “brain-computer interfaces” are returning sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. They are even enabling the completely paralysed to control computers using only their thoughts.

According to computer scientist and writer Ramez Naam, it is only a matter of time before we can plug these interfaces into the higher brain functions. We will then be able to use them not only to heal but to enhance our mental abilities. Naam foresees a world in which we can do away with paraphernalia such as keyboards, accessing the enormous power of computers using our thoughts alone. It is the stuff of comic books: he predicts super-normal senses, X-ray vision, and sending e-mails just by thinking about it. We could lie in bed surfing the internet in our heads.

In his new book, More Than Human, Naam pins down the defining belief of transhumanism: that there is no distinction between treatment and enhancement. Practically and morally, they are a continuum. In a breathless account, he details the astonishing advances in medicine over the past 20 years. And he shows how the same technologies that could cure Parkinson’s or give sight to the blind could also transform th