Transhumanism and the Posthuman Future Will Technological Progress

Transhumanism and the Posthuman Future: Will Technological Progress Get Us There? Ted Peters

Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the GTU

Transhumanism “Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future. We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth. ” - Transhumanist Declaration World Transhumanist Association

Nanotechnology Nanobiotechnology

Nanotechnology Nano Tech + Genetic Engineering = Nanobiotechnology Nano = Dwarf 1 Nanometer = One billionth of a meter 10 hydrogen atoms side by side “Size Matters” STMX = Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscope [UCB/LBL] See 25 to 35 Nanometers – physics prior to emergent life Nanobots = nano sized robots to move oxygen or clean out cholesterol Bio Fab = application of nano-engineering to living systems IA = Intelligence Amplification (or cognitive augmentation) Cybernetic Immortality? Post-Humanism?

STXM = Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy Rollie Otto

STXM = Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy National Center for X-Ray Tomography, UCB Electron Microscope for biological imaging Electrons travel at 99. 9% speed of light Brighter than the sun Imaging whole cells at 35 nanometers Imaging structures at 25 nanometers Future: resolution at 10 nanometers Merging of the fields of physics and bio Synthetic Life

In Transhumanism we witness a NBIC Convergence - Jean-Pierre Dupuy • • Nanotechnology Biotechnology Information Technology Cognitive Science AI (Artificial Intelligence) IA (Intelligence Amplification) Capitalism: laissez faire NBICAIC?

Singularity: 2045 ! Cybernetic Immortality: “Uploading a human brain means scanning all of its s then reinstantiating those details into a suitably powe computational substrate. This process would capture entire personality, memory, skills, and history. ” pp. 19 Technological progress extends biological evolution. “The purpose of the universe reflects the same purpo to move toward greater intelligence and knowledge… this century be ready to infuse our solar system with through self-replicating non-biological intelligence. It spread out to the rest of the universe. ” p. 372. Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (New York: Penguin, 2005)

H+ Transhumanism = a “totalized philosophical system” • Metaphysical or Cosmological Level: the world is a “process of evolutionary complexification toward evermore complex structures, forms, and operations. ” • Psychological Level: we human beings are “imbued with the innate Will to Evolve…” to expand survivability and wellbeing. • Ethical Level: “we should seek to foster our innate Will to Evolve by continually striving to expand our abilities throughout life…by acting in harmony with the essential nature of the evolutionary process…”

Progress within Evolution? “…man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is. ” – Charles Darwin, Autobiography, p. 77

Progress within Evolution? NO Stephen Jay Gould Francisco Ayala

The Eschatological Problem How do we get there from

Two Views of the Futurum & Progress Adventus & Apocalypse

Progress is cumulative advance The backbone of the doctrine of progress is that “something is better than it had been and promises to get better still in the future. ” - Steven Goldman, “Progress, ” Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, 3: 1519.

Futurum (Futurology, Futurism) • Understanding • Decision • Control Transhumanists want to replace “Darwinian Evolution with Designer Evolution—from slavery to the selfish genes to conscious self-rule by the human mind. ” –Simon Young, Designer Evolution, p. 207.

The Eschatological Problem How do we get there from here? Can a leopard change its spots? Transhumanists want to replace “Darwinian Evolution with Designer Evolution—from slavery to the selfish genes to conscious self-rule by the human mind. ” –Simon Young, Designer Evolution, p. 207.

Is Religion Luddite? “I am about to do a new thing. ” Isaiah 43: 19

Adventus (Eschatology) Human progress is subject to divine judgment.

Sin Poor Judgment Graffiti Computer Virus Totalitarianis m

Is original sin back again?

Can we overcome sin through science and technology?

Martin Luther “Original sin really means that human nature has completely fallen…the intellect has become darkened…sins have taken such deep root in our being that in this life they cannot be entirely eradicated. ” Luther’s Works, American Edition, 1: 114.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Christian Realism: No advance in technology will overcome history’s ambiguity. “The idea of progress is…highly dubious…. It is false in so far as all historical processes are ambiguous. ” The doctrine of progress fails to recognize that “history is filled with endless possibilities of good and evil…every new human potency may be an instrument of chaos as well as of order; and history, therefore, has no solution of its own problem. ” - Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2: 240, 154 -155.

Langdon Gilkey

Christian Realism: No advance in technology will overcome history’s ambiguity. “Morals do not advance in history. Hence, a progress of technology may in fact augur a regress in social harmony and social justice…instead of ‘saving’ mankind, can threaten to become the demonic instrument of mankind’s destruction. This permanent ambiguity of historical process, this continuation of sin even in an advancing culture, [means] that if there be a kingdom, it could not be realized through a sociohistorical development leading to a perfect society in history. ” - Langdon Gilkey, Reaping the Whirlwind, 233.

History Eschatology M. Grunwald, Eisenheim Altar Piece

The New Jerusalem Adventus Albrecht Dürer, 16 th Century Gustav Dore, 19 th Century

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away. - Revelation 21: 4

Conclusions H+ needs more realism: No amount of increased technology or intelligence will liberate us from sin. The Bible promises transformation: this fosters an ethic that promotes change in light of future well-being.

Bye, Bye