The Canadian (conservative) bioethicist Margaret Summervile has a good piece on the problems with transhumanism, the futurist movement that presumes to “seize control” of human evolution to create a “post human species.” She hits some points I have repeatedly made — e.g., transhumanism is actually a materialist religion in that it seeks transcendence and embraces an eschatological belief in immortality. But she also included in her critique some concerns I haven’t considered. From “Transhumanism: The Danger of Creating Humanity 2.0:”
Because we all have a natural fear of death and annihilation, immortality is a very attractive concept. But would the new immortal “techno me” or “techno you” — our brain contents downloaded onto a computer or robot — truly be us, or just a machine? I believe we would be the latter. And that brings to mind the concept of “genetic reductionism” — the belief that we are nothing more than gene machines or “genes-R-us” — which I also reject.
Read More: http://thehumanfuture.cbc-network.org/2011/07/transhumanisms-reductionism-of-human-life/
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