Transhumanism My God, its full of stars. -2001 a Space Odyssey - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transhumanism “My God, it’s full of stars.” -2001 a Space Odyssey Spencer Barck

What is Transhumanism “Man is something that shall be overcome” -Friedrich Nietzche

Act 1 The next stage Past Act 2 Present Future Act 3 3

Transhumanist ideas ▰ Humans will continue to evolve. ▰ Technology can be used to improve humans. ▰ Not simply external devices. ▰ Biological, cultural, psychological, sociological. ▰ h+/posthuman beings 4

Transhumanist vs transhuman vs posthuman 5

What can be improved? Humans are imperfect 6

Biology Prosthetics Biohacking Cyborgs Drugs 7

Sickness Resistance Immunity Immortality 8

Genetics Human genetic engineering Designer babies 9

Death The transhumanist final boss 10

Psychology Engineered happiness 11

Intelligence Smarter humans Smarter humans lead to better technology 12

The Singularity Technology advances exponentially Man and machine become one Digital immortality 13

Society Conflict War Famine Weapons of mass destruction 14

What could a posthuman look like? Indestructible Incorruptible Immortal Indistinguishable from a machine Unrecognizable 15

Dangers Pandora’s box Runaway technologies Species war Forced evolution and adaptation 16

The ghost of humanity “With Artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon” -Elon Musk Ghost vs demon 17

Fear Uncertainty leads to conspiracy theory 18

Religious/nature objections Don’t play god Humans are fine just the way they are Not human nature Death is part of life 19

The cult of transhumanism ▰ Promises of great wealth. ▰ Belief in technology rather than god. ▰ Immortality rather than an afterlife. ▰ “Transcend” the human body. 20

What does it mean to be human? When do we stop being human? 21

Kantian Transhumanist beliefs are universal Transhumanist ideals would be considered good Transhumanists desires should be to help others 22

Act utilitarian We should be posthumans: We should be posthumans: We get to stay human 0 Stopping unhappiness 1 (unknown) + Becoming smarter 0.5 - People will continue to die 2 + Stopping death 2 - Possible disaster 1 = -2 - Possible loss of humanity 0 (unknown) = 2.5 23

Transhumanist ideals ▰ Embrace change and the future ▰ Improve the human race but don’t get too attached to being human ▰ Be careful with technology ▰ Put aside childish things (hate, fear, weapons) ▰ Think as a species ▰ Conquer death 24

Questions? 25

References Presentation template by SlidesCarnival 26