Original Post
Transhumanism and similar beliefs
Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the ethics of developing and using such technologies. They speculate that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".
I support this greatly, shall we discuss the positive and negative results if this eventually became a reality?
I support this greatly, shall we discuss the positive and negative results if this eventually became a reality?
Some believe we aren't our bodies and what makes us human is our soul. Based on that I see nothing wrong It would be like changing an outfit. Aren't people already getting bionic arms etc already?.
The only negative parts about it I would guess is looking like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, but then again some people might like it.
As for positives, well, being able to surpass human limitations seems great. Also for people regaining some senses like a blind person regaining their sight.
The only negative parts about it I would guess is looking like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, but then again some people might like it.
As for positives, well, being able to surpass human limitations seems great. Also for people regaining some senses like a blind person regaining their sight.
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Originally Posted by king4life
Some believe we aren't our bodies and what makes us human is our soul. Based on that I see nothing wrong It would be like changing an outfit. Aren't people already getting bionic arms etc already?.
The only negative parts about it I would guess is looking like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, but then again some people might like it.
As for positives, well, being able to surpass human limitations seems great. Also for people regaining some senses like a blind person regaining their sight.
Some believe that everything we experience is mental. Meaning that nothing is real, yet everything is real at once; would be a better way of putting it.
Amputees, some veterans and others have been getting bionic limbs to work with vary degrees of success. Some work great, others have major issues.
This bring up ideas of morality and equality. Eventually, the idea of surpassing human limitations will simply become creating the perfect human being without flaws and imperfections. If we alter ourselves to the state where we no longer get sick, have perfect health, have eradicated disease and have extremely high intelligences, then are we still human? If we surpass what we call human limitation then we are technically no longer human. If going beyond a certain point makes you inhuman from that point onwards, we would be willingly giving up everything that makes us what we are.
Not to mention, creating a perfect person without flaws could create more problems then solutions. If everyone is perfect, there is no way to distinguish levels of society, which disgusting as they are, are necessary to our styles of living. Chances are no one who's perfect would want to do a menial dirty job like collecting trash day-by-day, leaving everyone to major problems everyone would feel they didn't have to do. Obviously teaching would probably change this but it's still a possibility.
As for doing things that are beneficial to the people at the moment, like increasing muscle mass for people that come out of comas, or restoring senses, those are great. Things like muscles and sight are essential to basic human survival. But genetically modifying us to be completely different is crossing a line; since you can't possibly know what they altered in you. For all you know they could've made a mistake, implanted a jellyfish gene in you by accident and now your nipples glow green.
It has it's merits, but undoubtedly one day, government will take it too far in attempting to create a perfect world, which could probably never exist.
Originally Posted by king4life
Some believe we aren't our bodies and what makes us human is our soul.
It's similar for science too, continuity is what is important, so replacing parts of your brain with electronics can enable you to move into a cyberbrain.
Originally Posted by king4life
As for positives, well, being able to surpass human limitations seems great. Also for people regaining some senses like a blind person regaining their sight.
Currently we are in an "anti-augmentation" world. Kids in school aren't allowed to use calculators on tests, tests are done on pen and paper without access to the internet, drugs and genedoping are disallowed in sports, there's limits on what kind of prosthesis are allowed in the paralympics, most countries do not allow bionic augmentation without disability, etc.
In today's culture it's not possible, there's too much technophobia and resistance, attitude towards augmentation and acceptance of technology needs to change.
Originally Posted by Trollzor99
then are we still human? If we surpass what we call human limitation then we are technically no longer human. If going beyond a certain point makes you inhuman from that point onwards, we would be willingly giving up everything that makes us what we are.
No, at that point you are posthuman, the goal of transhumanism is to transition out of being a human and into a posthuman. A point where "perfection" is achieved would essentially be a technological singularity.
Originally Posted by Trollzor99
Not to mention, creating a perfect person without flaws could create more problems then solutions. If everyone is perfect, there is no way to distinguish levels of society, which disgusting as they are, are necessary to our styles of living. Chances are no one who's perfect would want to do a menial dirty job like collecting trash day-by-day, leaving everyone to major problems everyone would feel they didn't have to do. Obviously teaching would probably change this but it's still a possibility.
I think at this point work will be obsolete. Even now more and more menial jobs are being taken over by automation. At the point where a singularity can be achieved, I would think we would be in a post-capitalism world.
Originally Posted by Trollzor99
As for doing things that are beneficial to the people at the moment, like increasing muscle mass for people that come out of comas, or restoring senses, those are great. Things like muscles and sight are essential to basic human survival. But genetically modifying us to be completely different is crossing a line; since you can't possibly know what they altered in you. For all you know they could've made a mistake, implanted a jellyfish gene in you by accident and now your nipples glow green.
That seems like an illogical fear, how do you know that when you go to the pharmacy and pick up some medicine that they gave you the right one? That the factory didn't make a mistake? You can't possibly know.
Fearing genetic modification is illogical. Gene therapy is already in use, for example in the last olympic games there were cases of gene doping to increase red blood cell count.
Not to mention there is still cybernetic augmentation that can be used instead of genetic.
<Faint> the rules have been stated quite clearly 3 times now from high staff
I don't agree with this at all, not only is it unethical to make robots out of men, but we're on the brink of WW3 and bionic would make it so much more catastrophic.
Imagine giving enhanced capability to psychopath, killing would be so much easier, getting away would be so much easier and whats more little to no trace would be left with the were transformed enough
What if a close relative who lived overseas died and you couldn't fly over because you were half made of metal and circuits, and i'm almost certain this would apply.
I could go on all day about how this would be all kinds of bad but i'll leave it there for now
Imagine giving enhanced capability to psychopath, killing would be so much easier, getting away would be so much easier and whats more little to no trace would be left with the were transformed enough
What if a close relative who lived overseas died and you couldn't fly over because you were half made of metal and circuits, and i'm almost certain this would apply.
I could go on all day about how this would be all kinds of bad but i'll leave it there for now
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