TRANSHUMANISM

ANALYSIS OF TRANSHUMANISM

Sara Zenaj

December 19, 2022

Instructor Prof. Asoc. Dr. Edlira Martiri

Abstract

Transhumanism claims that adding technological implants and inserting DNA will
improve humanity. Transhumanists, however, obscure two subjects: the use of
technological implants as a weapon against citizens, and the secret method they use to
develop their dangerous projects, which is suspected of being illegal human
experiments. According to transhumanists people will live longer and be immortal.
On the other hand, religious people believe that every soul will face death. These two
points of view are in contrast with each other. As we ponder the differences we cannot
help but be reminded of our human limitations. We respond to mortality with
acceptance, despair, or defiance. Perhaps, what first caught my attention about
transhumanism, was its pure expression of defiance. Transhumanity is about
emancipation and transcendence through science, engineering, and technology. It is a
bold plan to alter the human condition. It is a possible future that we should take
seriously. This paper is an analytic security research on
transhumanism. There are reviewed facts and information already available to make a
critical evaluation of the material. Deductive reasoning and other sources of
information were studied in order to find the origin and development of the
phenomenon. In addition, trends have been discovered in the past, in order to
understand the present and to anticipate the future of transhumanism.

Introduction
Through the accelerating pace of technological development and scientific understanding, we are
entering a whole new stage in the history of the human species. In the relatively near future, we may
face the prospect of real artificial intelligence. New kinds of cognitive tools will be built that combine
artificial intelligence with interface technology. Molecular nanotechnology has the potential to
manufacture abundant resources for everybody and to give us control over the biochemical processes
in our bodies, enabling us to eliminate disease and unwanted aging. Technologies such as brain-
computer interfaces and neuropharmacology could amplify human intelligence, increase emotional
well-being, improve our capacity for steady commitment to life projects or a loved one, and even
multiply the range and richness of possible emotions. On the dark side of the spectrum,
transhumanists recognize that some of these coming technologies could potentially cause great harm
to human life; even the survival of our species could be at risk.

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1 A BIT OF TRANSHUMANIST HISTORY

Transhumanism first began to develop as a school of thought in the early 20th century, when the
British geneticist, J. B. S. Haldane, wrote his famous essay, Daedalus: Science and the
Future. Published in 1923, this essay argued for the benefits that would come from applying science
and technology to human biology. Though Haldane’s work was and continues to be controversial, his
writings were the first to spur the transhumanist movement. Later influenced by science fiction in the
latter half of the 20th century, the transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity has attracted
many supporters (and opponents) from a wide range of fields both within and outside of the world of
academia.

Transhumanism is a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human
species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively
early phase.
Transhumanism is an intellectual and cultural movement that aims to improve the human condition
through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to
eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.
Humanists believe that humans matter, that individuals matter. We might not be perfect, but we can
make things better by promoting rational thinking, freedom, tolerance, democracy, and concern for
our fellow human beings. To a transhumanist, progress occurs when more people become more able
to shape themselves, their lives, and the ways they relate to others, in accordance with their own
deepest values. Transhumanists place a high value on autonomy: the ability and right of individuals to
plan and choose their own lives.

2 WHY DO TRANSHUMANISTS WANT TO LIVE LONGER?

When transhumanists seek to extend human life, they are not trying to add a couple of extra years at a
care home spent drooling at one’s shoes. The goal is for healthy, happy, productive years. Ideally,
everybody should have the right to choose when and how to die – or not to die. Transhumanists want
to live longer because they want to do, learn, and experience more; have more fun and spend more
time with loved ones; continue to grow and mature beyond the paltry eight decades allotted to us by
our evolutionary past; and in order to get to see for themselves what wonders the future might hold.
As the sales pitch for one cryonics organization goes:

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TRANSHUMANIST TECHNOLOGIES

Cryonics
Cryonauts are people who allow themselves to freeze (the entire head or just the body). If the technology
has developed to the point that their disease can be cured, they want to be thawed. James Bedford, a
psychology professor who died of cancer in 1967, was the first person who, at his own request, was frozen
in liquid nitrogen in the hope of being brought back to life later.

How does the process work after your body has arrived at a clinic? With a full body treatment, your body
is placed on an oblique operating table, which is surrounded on four sides by perspex plates. Holes are then
drilled into the skull so that the specialists can assess the condition of the brain. They then open your chest
to reach the heart and connect the main arteries to infusions. The goal is to drain the blood and other body
fluids as quickly as possible and replace them with a protective cryogenic fluid. International celebrities
that are known to be on the list are Ray Kurzweil, Peter Thiel and music stars such as Paris Hilton, Britney
Spears and Simon Cowell.

Nanotechnology

Molecular nanotechnology is an anticipated manufacturing technology that will make it possible to

build complex three-dimensional structures to atomic specifications using chemical reactions directed
by nonbiological machinery. In molecular manufacturing, each atom would go to a selected place,
bonding with other atoms in a precisely designated manner. Nanotechnology promises to give us
thorough control of the structure of matter.
Nanotechnology, by making it possible to rearrange atoms effectively, will enable us to transform
coal into diamonds, sand into supercomputers, and to remove pollution from the air and tumors from
healthy tissue.

Cybernetics
Cyborgs already walk among us, and they look just like anyone else. One famous example of a real-
life cyborg is Michael Chorost, who was born almost deaf but now can hear thanks to a cochlear
implant. The use of implants to help those with physical disabilities or injuries is already becoming a
popular and available practice. This trend will no doubt continue to expand and develop in the future.
Cyborg upgrades which many believe will become available in the 2020’s and 2030’s include hearing
and vision enhancement, metabolic enhancement, artificial bones, muscles, and organs, and even
brain-computer interfaces. Many of these technologies will be implanted beneath the skin. For
transhumanists, such technologies are not only opportunities for enhancing physical and
psychological capabilities, but also for fighting illness and extending life.

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3 Won’t things like cryonics, nanotechnology or AI fail because they can’t

preserve or create soul?

If we answer this question from a religious standpoint, there is no clear ground for ruling out these
technologies as incompatible with teachings about the soul. There is no scriptural basis in the Bible
for assuming that God can’t get to our soul if we freeze our physical body, nor is there a single word
in the Christian or Jewish scriptures, or the Quran, the Dhammapada, or the Tao Teh Ching, that
prohibits cryonics. Or, for someone who believes in reincarnation, there are no traditional beliefs that
say reincarnation is prevented when someone freezes to death or whose body is frozen after clinical
death. If there is a soul and it enters the body at conception, then cryonics may well work – after all,
human embryos have been frozen, stored for extended periods, and then implanted in 47 their
mothers, resulting in healthy children (who presumably have souls). Uploading and machine
intelligence may reveal new things to us about the soul works. It is interesting to note that the Dalai
Lama, when asked, did not rule out the possibility of reincarnating into computers (Hayward et al.
1992), pp. 152f. While the concept of a soul is not used much in a naturalistic philosophy such as
transhumanism, many transhumanists do take an interest in the related problems concerning personal
identity (Parfit 1984) and consciousness (Churchland 1988). These problems are being intensely
studied by contemporary analytic philosophers, and although some progress has been made, e.g. in
Derek Parfit’s work on personal identity, they have still not been resolved to general satisfaction.

5 AREN’T THESE FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES VERY RISKY?

Yes, and this implies an urgent need to analyze the risks before they materialize and to take steps to
reduce them. Biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence pose 23 especially serious
risks of accidents and abuse. One can distinguish between, on the one hand, endurable or limited
hazards, such as car crashes, nuclear reactor meltdowns, carcinogenic pollutants in the atmosphere,
floods, volcano eruptions, and so forth, and, on the other hand, existential risks – events that would
cause the extinction of intelligent life or permanently and drastically cripple its potential
No threat to human existence is posed by today’s AI systems or their near-term successors. Even
Musk has said he fears artificial intelligence could one day outsmart humans and endanger us,
citing AI as the biggest threat to civilization.
Critics point to the consequences of transhumanism, which they find unpalatable. One possible
consequence feared by some commentators is that, in effect, transhumanism will lead to the existence
of two distinct types of being, the human and the posthuman. The human may be incapable of
breeding with the posthuman and will be seen as having a much lower moral standing.

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References:
FM-2030. Are You a Transhuman? (New York: Warner Books, 1989).

World Transhumanist Association. (http://www.transhumanism.org)

Merkle, R. “The Molecular Repair of the Brain.” Cryonics magazine, Vol. 15, No’s 1 & 2. (1994).
http://www.merkle.com/cryo/techFeas.html

Churchland, P. Matter and Consciousness. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988).

Hayward, J. et at. Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of the Mind.
(Shambala Publications, 1992).
Parfit, D. Reasons and Persons. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984).
https://nickbostrom.com/views/transhumanist.pdf
https://www.talkdeath.com/transhumanism-can-technology-defeat-death/
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1505282/m2/1/high_res_d/ROSS-DISSERTATION-
2019.pdf
https://www.talkdeath.com/transhumanism-can-technology-defeat-death/

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