Transhumanism and the New Humanity

Sparks and Ashes is pleased to welcome guest contributor David French in this post. Today, David examines the intersection between transhumanism and theology.

As technology shapes our world, culture, and bodies more than ever, David reminds us that transhumanism isn’t as new as we might think… and begins to ask important questions about what it—and we—really mean in the context of  Christ’s redemption.

David is a visual artist and a thoughtful guy. You can find him online via his portfolio and Tumblr. 

“Everything is different from now on. Something, something very
fundamental has changed, here.” –William Gibson, No Maps for These
Territories

“Transhumanism” was first defined by Aldous Huxley as “man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.” It’s a techno-philosophical movement, a train of thoughts and questions that has spread in our society and grown exponentially as the Internet has connected more and more of the world together. You may know it as sci-fi, cyberpunk novels, and the types of movies that feature replicants on the run, but it may very soon be more than fiction.

Roughly, the theory is that technology is not a one way street. We don’t merely affect technology, it affects us. Having better technology makes it easier to make even better technology faster, creating an exponential boom. Technology that affects intelligence is even more pronounced.

Or as one rapper said:

“I’m intelligence in the age of the internet/where you’re as smart as
how quickly you can use your smart phone”.

Not Just the Jetsons

Technology is progressively changing the human experience, not just in nuclear power plants and jet planes that take us all around the world. It’s changing the way our minds work. We’re not just getting better tools, we’re beginning to modify ourselves too.
In theological circles, we tend to stay out of these arguments and discussions. It’s “speculative futurist” stuff. It’s George Jetson sky homes, and most of us are much more concerned with the here and now. “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Stuffing your head full of jetpacks won’t feed the guy sitting outside on the street.”

That’s true, but we also need to discuss these issues,because the questions being asked are important and we shouldn’t be found wanting.
Important questions are beginning to be asked like:

o Can AI be considered “persons”?

o Is our mind just a collection of data, on an organic hard drive?

o How far can we modify our brains and bodies and still be human?

o What does it even mean to be human?
These are old questions, asked with new technology. In Christianity, they share some overlap with theosis.

Partakers of the Divine Online?

Even if you don’t happen to be Eastern Orthodox, and aren’t familiar with the idea of theosis, you’ll probably be pretty familiar with the general idea here. Christ, God become man, came down and works to bring humanity back into communion with God. This idea isn’t limited to just a salvation experience, a “get out of hell free” card. It’s also a process by which man is redeemed and made whole again. We become “partakers of the Divine nature”. Theosis is when we transcend our fallen state and become a “new creation,” what we were always meant to be.

This, too, is what transhumanism proposes to do… in its own way. Tranhumanism envisions a future where people are not weighed down by their bodies, their genetics, their nature, a future where people transcend human potential.

Tranhumanists have big dreams. They want to expand human consciousness, wipe out disease, halt aging and perhaps even eliminate death and create everlasting life here on earth. At first, it seems that this train of thought is in direct opposition to theosis. Transhumanism seems like an alternative theory, a counter argument, a sort of techno-atheist mythology. Heaven on earth, for those who toil in science.

Making the Most of Us…

However, in its actuality, tranhumanism is not a new secular salvation. It isn’t really a new predicament. Expansions in human intelligence have been going on for centuries. From the first cuneiform, to the invention of the printing press, to the creation of the Internet, this human technological evolution has been going on for some time. Our ability to modify our experience and intelligence does not create a more moral world inherently.

Stone-age tech can only produce so much bad or good. Bash your brother’s head with a large rock, or protect your sheep from the wolf.

Atomic age tech can do a lot more. Heal the sick with penicillin or set the sky on fire with nuclear fallout. Technology is a gun, it won’t make a man more noble or more savage. It’s a tool, whether it’s crafting spearheads or plowshares.

Advances in technology will change the experience of being human, but the moral issues of being human are still here. We need to be prepared to serve people in the future changing world.

… For The Least of These?

We have bits of these future technologies already in our homes. From the concentration enhancing effect of drugs like Adderall, to internet access, better computers, online education, and early learning tools. However these technologies are not evenly available. ADHD is underreported and treated in poorer communities. Computer literacy is the next big skill that children need, but gadgets cost money and in some poor rural areas, the internet isn’t even available. These advantages translate into better grades, better SAT scores, better colleges, better jobs, yet they are not readily available to all at this time.

People can improve themselves with technology, and those who are most advantaged have the most access to it. This creates an exponential widening of the haves and have-nots. The gap between the poor and rich can and will grow wider, if we do not pay attention. As Christians, we must be aware of the impact technology is having on the here and now and the people around us.

Machines will continue to automate our industrial society, and more and more factory jobs will disappear. A century ago 95% of the population worked on farms. Now less than 1% of our population grows more than enough food for everyone. We live in a society where people are judged and valued by their jobs. People may be left out in the dust. No longer needed anymore.

Christ’s message speaks to the disenfranchised. It talks to the lepers and the outsiders. These are not just futuristic fantasies piled up in the sky. They’re low hanging orbital missiles and they’re more than ripe to fall. We’ve got to wrestle with these issues because how we act in this world, in the here and now, is just as important as what we proclaim about future spiritual progress.

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