Transhumanism (blog post #9)

Transhumanism is a philosophical and scientific movement that wants to use technology to improve the human condition and increase human capabilities. Transhumanists want a future where humans use technology to reverse or even eliminate the aging process. Transhumanism proposes the concept of the “post human” when humans evolve past humanity via technology and augmentation. It would blur the line between humans and machines. Some Transhumanists advocate for space colonization due to climate change. Another interesting concept is “mind uploading”. Transhumanists argue that this could be used to eliminate neurological diseases and possibly achieve immortality.

If Transhumanist augmentation were to take effect I think it would create a new class of people, people who have been augmented and those who haven’t. I also think it create a further divide between the rich and the poor due to the rich being able to afford all the augmentations while the poor could not. It could also give the people who augmentations a feeling of superiority over people who don’t have them. Even if augmentation would become available to everyone regardless of economic status the. Overpopulation would become a problem due to people becoming immune to the effects of aging and disease. There also may be compatibility issues between humans and post humans meaning they might not be able to reproduce with one another. Sports would be complicated due to post humans. A separate bracket would have to be created for post humans to only play against other post humans as a post human would have way too big of a advantage against a human. 

A positive of Transhumanism is increasing the quality of life via providing resistance to disease or prolonging your life span. Another positive would be to eliminate the visual effects of aging. Being able to plan the process of human evolution and eliminating the randomness of mutations Transhumanists could streamline the evolution process. Improving human capabilities by increasing intelligence and strength via augmentation. 

The downside to all of this is that the technology required to do this is very far away. Some people such as  inventor and entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil have supported the idea of being cryogenically frozen and thawed out in the future where the technology exists. 

Overall Transhumanists see a day where humans overcome the limitations of their own bodies and become something greater but the technology is so far off from being realized we will probably never see it become a reality. 

https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/06/no-death-and-an-enhanced-life-is-the-future-transhuman

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2563415/#:~:text=One%20possible%20consequence%20feared%20by,a%20much%20lower%20moral%20standing.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/transhumanism