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Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Trouble with Transhumanism

Sometimes an article cuts through the fog of public debate and discourse to capture the true essence of a movement or belief system. Recently, a transhumanist named Kyle Munkittrick posted just such an article at the Discover magazine website, encapsulating in a nutshell everything that is wrong with transhumanism (about which nearly everything is wrong).

For those who may not know, transhumanism is a Utopian social movement and philosophy that looks toward a massive breakthrough in technological prowess, known as “the singularity,” that will open the door for transhumanists to “seize control of human evolution” and create a “post human species” of near immortals. Don’t roll your eyes. Transhumanists believe in their ageless post human future with a desperate passion that borders on—and often serves as a substitute for—religious faith.

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Not only that, but the movement is getting good press. For example, Time recently published a laudatory profile of transhumanist author and futurist Raymond Kurzweil’s quest to live forever, under the serious title “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal.” Similarly, Aubrey de Gray, who seeks to defeat human aging, receives much respectful media attention—even though I heard him give a speech in which he claimed his research should take precedence over funding health care aid to Africa, and indeed, that failing to fund the human immortality project is akin to terrorism.

Read More: http://www.cbc-network.org/2011/08/the-trouble-with-transhumanism-2/

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