On Being Transhuman

If technology has been used to enhance life, why shouldn’t it make us immortal?

Look up "transhumanism" at Wikipedia and you will find an extensive entry, with enough hyperlinks to keep you occupied for a very long time.

Wikipedia tells us that "the contemporary meaning of the term 'transhumanism' – which is now symbolized by H+ (human plus) ... (is) an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities."

The transhumanists believe that we should use the convergence of new technologies – such as nano-, info-, bio-, neuro- and robo-technologies, which are unprecedented in human history – to evolve beyond being human. They advocate changing ourselves from Homo sapiens to Techno sapiens. Transhumanists see us as presently in the transhuman stage on our way to becoming post-human – that is, not human at all. They describe natural humans – whom they refer to as "unmodified humans" – as "becoming an obsolete model."

Transhumanists know that many of their ideas frighten people and have taken steps to reduce this fear. For example, as Wikipedia also tells us, "in 2008, as part of a rebranding effort, the World Transhumanist Association changed its name to 'Humanity+' in order to project a more humane image."

Another fear-reducing strategy they've employed is to argue they're not proposing anything radically new or different, because we have already set out on the path to a post-human future, in that we are using technology to enhance and extend our human capacities. Examples include cellphones, the internet, medical prostheses, and so on. They also point out that we have always done so – for instance, with reading glasses or dentures.

They propose that the latest possibilities are just more advanced examples of the same phenomenon made possible by remarkable advances in science. In short, they argue that what they are advocating is not different in kind from what we've already accepted as ethical and desirable and, therefore, any fear is mistaken.

As well, the transhumanists rightly believed that the one idea everyone would buy into was life extension, or even immortality, and they intentionally put this front and centre on their agenda. They propose two approaches to achieve this.

"Life prolongation" repairs nature as it fails with regenerative medicine, including organ transplants, stem-cell therapies, and so on. "Age retardation" envisions a future in which the genes that control aging are reprogrammed so we would reach puberty at, say, 40 years of age or later, middle age around 150 years, and old age well into our hundreds and perhaps, eventually, not at all.

The transhumanists' ultimate dream is of eternal life – either here on Earth or, possibly, on another planet – through the use of technology. Consequently, transhumanism could be viewed as a techno-utopian, secular religion: Like many religions, it seeks and promises immortality through transcendence and transformation, but realized through science, not traditional religion.