Transhumanism: what does this intellectual movement consist of?

A summary of the current of thought known as transhumanism and its proposals.

What is the next step in human evolution? There is a group of people who are very clear about it, and they defend a current known as transhumanism.

In this article we will discover what are the foundations of this movement, what are the goals of its advocates and what are the possible paths they can take to achieve their goals and take the next step as a species.

What is transhumanism and what beliefs is it based on?

Transhumanism is a current of thought based on the belief and desire that the human species must evolveThe objective would be to enhance and improve all the capabilities of a human being, both in terms of intelligence and other cognitive abilities, as well as in terms of power and physical endurance, prolonging life indefinitely, even circumventing the possibility of death.

The objective would be to enhance and improve all the capabilities of a human being, whether in terms of intelligence and other cognitive abilities or in terms of power and physical endurance, extending life indefinitely, even outwitting death.

The concept of transhumanism is not something new, since the search for eternal life is something almost inherent to human beings, and this is evident in countless literary works, some as old as the Poem of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian writing dating from about 2500 BC. From then until today there have been countless works that speak of immortality and ways to find eternal youth.

But in the 20th century when this whole trend took on a more defined form. and transhumanism emerges as a shared movement. John B.S. Haldane could be considered the father of these ideas, thanks to an essay called Daedalus and Icarus: Science and the Future. In this avant-garde writing, geneticist Haldane puts forward key concepts for the development of transhumanism, such as eugenics, ectogenesis, and the use of technology as a means to enhance human capabilities.

History of transhumanism

Credit for coining the term transhumanism goes to Julian Huxley, a biologist and strong advocate of transhumanism.Huxley, a biologist and staunch advocate of eugenics. In 1957 he published an article in which he explains the proposed paradigm shift between a miserable, painful and short life, as he says man has experienced so far, and a means for humanity to transcend as a species, which is what Huxley proposes, moving to a new evolutionary stage of the human being.

Since the 80s of the 20th century, the first meetings between transhumanist intellectuals were established, with the aim of sharing their ideas and seeking ways to achieve their goals in the future. In 1998 the World Transhumanist Association was founded, or Humanity Plus (since it is common to use the formula H+ or h+ to refer to transhumanism in an abbreviated form). David Pearce and Nick Bostrom, two European philosophers, were responsible for setting up this foundation.

Only one year later the Transhumanist Declaration was launched, the manifesto that compiles the ideals of transhumanism, establishes the definition of the concept and lays the foundations for the attitude we should take towards new technologies to achieve the human improvement sought by this movement while avoiding all the possible risks associated with this methodology. In this sense, they argue that technology should improve the lives of all people in society, not just a few.

Technology

Transhumanism seeks to achieve its ends through technical advances in different areas.. Among all the technologies under development today, transhumanists pay special attention to the following.

1. Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is one of the technical developments in which most effort is being put in the last decades. Its foundation is the manipulation of matter at microscopic scales, on the order of nanometers.

Focused on transhumanism, it would be a means to achieve medical improvements thanks to the invention of molecular machines or nanomachines, which would move around the human body at microscopic scales, in the order of nanometers.which would move through the body to repair tissues, attack certain pathogens, destroy tumor cells, etc.

Although the technique is in its earliest stages, researchers are very ambitious about the future possibilities of nanotechnology, so it is advisable to keep an eye on the next advances, as they may mark a before and after in fields such as medicine.

Genetic engineering

Another of the most attractive techniques for transhumanism is genetic engineering. It is based on the manipulation of the DNA of the zygote, in such a way as to modify the DNA of the human embryo.It is based on the manipulation of the DNA of the zygote, so as to modify certain genes that imply, for example, some risk of congenital disease, changing them for others that increase the probabilities of enjoying good health.

This is a very controversial science, as it has very important ethical implications. Where is the limit of what can be modified? Is it right that some people have access to these improvements and others do not, depending on their economic capacity? Would this be favoring a new social stratification, creating new lower and upper classes, depending on whether you were born free of "defective" genes or whether you have a genetic code free of defects?

We have already seen above that transhumanism advocates the application of improvements through technology for the entire population, not only for those individuals who can afford it economically, so the question of the useThe question of the use of genetic engineering therefore generates much debate. This whole issue is explored in the film Gattaca (1997).

3. Cybernetics

Although the pure concept of cybernetics refers to a branch of mathematical studies, another definition has been popularized thanks to different works of science fiction in which cybernetics is referred to as the fusion of the organic and the synthetic, the human and the machineThe first steps are already being taken in this discipline.

It may seem a very futuristic concept, but in reality the first steps are already being taken in this discipline. There are, for example, artificial limbs for amputees that allow some mobility through electrodes connected to the brain, and even exoskeletons thanks to which individuals suffering from paraplegia can stand up.

The hypothetical future of cybernetics involves the creation of cyborgs, human beings with implants connected to the brain.The hypothetical future of cybernetics involves the creation of cyborgs, human beings with technological implants in their bodies, such as synthetic organs or computers that interact with their own brains. Obviously, these advances are fiction, but it is also true that today we live surrounded by technology that would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago, so we never know where we will end up in the near future.

4. Artificial Intelligence

The crown jewel of technological advances is artificial intelligence, a machine with such advanced capabilities that it would be self-aware. There is a heated debate about it and it is not even known if it is possible to create such a device, but what is certain is that the implications it would have would be tremendously important.But what is certain is that the implications it would have would be tremendously important on many levels.

Creating an artificial intelligence that would surpass the capabilities of human beings in many aspects would be another way to help us make an evolutionary leap and achieve many of the objectives proposed by transhumanism, so this is another of the techniques on which they place many of their hopes for the future.

5. Mind and machine fusion

Combining part of the artificial intelligence and part of the cybernetics we saw earlier, one avenue that has been explored in many works of fiction as a means to transcend humanity itself would be to achieve a total fusion between mind and machine, abandoning the organic support of our body to use a mechanical and digital one, such as that of a computer..

Both the film Transcendence (2014) and the video game Soma (2015) delve into the implications of this concept and are very interesting for all the philosophical approaches it raises. If we copy a person's mind into a computer, is it still that person? Would both versions of the mind be? If we disconnect the computer, would it be dying? If we make two copies, would they be separate persons?

This is the most futuristic technology of all and, for the moment, the furthest from reality, as there is nothing to make us think that it would be possible to carry it out in the future. Moreover, we must not forget that we, each individual, are a human being by our own organism. That is to say: body and mind cannot be separated. Therefore, the idea of transferring our consciousness to a machine, separated from all the organic components of our body is, to say the least, improbable, and certainly impossible.and surely impossible.

In summary, we must take all these future technological advances with caution, knowing that many of them are mere fiction, but that others, for sure, will come, and will change our lives, maybe even fulfilling some of the goals of transhumanism.

Bibliographical references:

• Bostrom, N. (2011). A history of transhumanist thought. Arguments from technical reason.
• Diéguez, A. (2017). Transhumanism: The technological quest for human enhancement. Barcelona. Herder.
• Fernández, H.V. (2009). Transhumanism, freedom and human identity. Thémata. Journal of Philosophy.
• Hottois, G. (2013). Humanism; Transhumanism; Posthumanism. Colombian Journal of Bioethics.