transhumanism and the posthuman future: will technological progress get us there? ted peters

Transhumanism andthe Posthuman Future:

Will TechnologicalProgress Get Us There?

Ted Peters

Center for Theologyand the

Natural Sciencesat the

GTU

Transhumanism“Humanity will be radically changed bytechnology in the future. We foreseethe feasibility of redesigning thehuman condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosenpsychology, suffering, and ourconfinement to the planet earth.”

- Transhumanist DeclarationWorld Transhumanist Association

NanotechnologyNanobiotechnology

Nanotechnology Nano Tech + Genetic Engineering = Nanobiotechnology

Nano = Dwarf1 Nanometer = One billionth of a meter10 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 cholesterolBio 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, UCBElectron Microscope for biological imaging

Electrons travel at 99.9% speed of lightBrighter than the sunImaging whole cells at 35 nanometersImaging structures at 25 nanometersFuture: resolution at 10 nanometersMerging of the fields of physics and biologySynthetic 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?

Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (New York: Penguin, 2005)

Singularity: 2045 !Cybernetic Immortality:

“Uploading a human brain means scanning all of its salient details andthen reinstantiating those details into a suitably powerfulcomputational substrate. This process would capture a person’sentire personality, memory, skills, and history.” pp. 198-199

Technological progress extends biological evolution.

“The purpose of the universe reflects the same purpose as our lives:to move toward greater intelligence and knowledge…we will withinthis century be ready to infuse our solar system with our intelligencethrough self-replicating non-biological intelligence. It will thenspread out to the rest of the universe.” p.372.

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 well-being.

• 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…”

- Simon Young, Designer Evolution, pp. 87, 19, 202.

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?

NONOStephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould

Francisco AyalaFrancisco Ayala

How do we get there from here?

The Eschatological ProblemThe Eschatological Problem

Two Views of the Two Views of the FutureFuture

Futurum & Progress

Adventus & Apocalypse

Progress is cumulative advance

The backbone of the doctrine of progress is that “something isbetter than it had been and promisesto 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 “DarwinianEvolution with Designer Evolution—from slaveryto the selfish genes to conscious self-rule bythe human mind.”

–Simon Young, Designer Evolution, p. 207.

Transhumanists want to replace “DarwinianEvolution with Designer Evolution—from slaveryto the selfish genes to conscious self-rule bythe human mind.”

–Simon Young, Designer Evolution, p. 207.

The Eschatological Problem

How do we get therefrom here?

Can a leopard changeits spots?

“I am aboutto do a

new thing.”

Isaiah 43:19

Is Religion Luddite?

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

SinPoor JudgmentGraffitiComputer VirusTotalitarianismGenocide

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

“The idea of progress is…highly dubious….It is false in sofar as all historical processes are ambiguous.” The doctrineof progress fails to recognize that “history is filled withendless possibilities of good and evil…every new humanpotency 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.

Christian Realism:No advance in technology will overcome history’s ambiguity.

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 harmonyand social justice…instead of ‘saving’ mankind, can threatento become the demonic instrument of mankind’s destruction.This permanent ambiguity of historical process, this continuation of sin even in an advancing culture, [means] thatif there be a kingdom, it could not be realized through asociohistorical development leading to a perfect society inhistory.”

- Langdon Gilkey, Reaping the Whirlwind, 233.

M. Grunwald, Eisenheim Altar Piece

History Eschatology

Gustav Dore, 19th CenturyAlbrecht Dürer, 16th Century

The New JerusalemAdventus

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 increasedtechnology or intelligencewill liberate us from sin.

The Bible promisestransformation: thisfosters an ethic thatpromotes change in lightof future well-being.

Bye, Bye