Transhuman . . . Posthuman . . . Superhuman

Last updated 20-1-98
Transhumanism varies from a simple striving for artificial improvements to wild expectations about the future...

What is transhumanism.

Transhumanism is the attitude to improve oneself, physically and mentally, to not accept the existing biological and social limits, and to overcome these using rational methods like technology and science.

Transhumans do not resign themselves to the existing biological limitations. Just like most people they want to live longer and healthier. However they do not accept the biological limits imposed on them by evolution as a commandment.

According to science they see the human body as a biological machine, and a machine can be repaired. Our present maximum age is not defined by any law of nature, and not at all by any god.

Because the whole body can be seen as a system of microscopic biological machines, also the brain as a part of it can be seen this way, a very complex system, but nevertheless only existing of machines. Scientific insights point into the direction of the brain as a very complex neural network. An enormously intricate network of very simple computing cells. Some day we will understand how this network can create intelligence and consciousness. From then on it will also be possible to artificially manipulate and improve the mind. Wouldn't it be convenient if certain emotions could be switched on and off according to the situation. To learn new things in the wink of an eye, without years of training and studying. Eventually the capacity of the brain and the level of intelligence could be increased, maybe by many orders of magnitude.

In principle it is even possible to transfer the network of computing cells to a more efficient and robust artificial medium (usually referred to as uploading). At this point it should also be feasible to keep safety backups of this network where the mind is stored. The brain is just a system made from a certain limited amount of physical standard elements, therefore in principle it should be sufficient to only keep the information describing its buildup. Using this information a new physical brain could be rebuilt. Actually this reasoning reduces the human mind to an information entity.

Humans will continue to develop themselves during the next millennia, and will use technology to improve upon themselves (physically and mentally). An artificial evolution will transform humans and create a posthuman entity. Tranhumanists are striving to become that posthuman entity.

Some definitions of Transhumanism by others

Transhumanism is the philosophy that we can and should develop to higher levels, both physically, mentally and socially using rational methods.
(Anders Sandberg)

Transhumanism is a commitment to overcoming human limits in all their forms including extending lifespan, augmenting intelligence, perpetually increasing knowledge, achieving complete control over our personalities and identities and gaining the ability to leave the planet. Transhumanists seek to achieve these goals through reason, science and technology.
(Natasha Vita More, formerly known as Nancie Clark)

Extropianism

Extropianism is a transhumanistic movement with a libertarian inclination. At this moment the Extropy Institute is one of the largest organizations of transhumanists.

The name is derived from "entropy". This is a physics term for the measure of disorder (chaos). When the amount of disorder in a system increases, it means the entropy increases. In physics it is a law that in a closed system the entropy can only increase. The complete universe is a closed system, thus the amount of order in the universe will only decrease. However the order in part of a closed system can be increased at the expense of decreasing the order in another part (so the total entropy does not decrease).

Extropy is defined as the reverse of entropy. Increasing extropy means an increase in order, i.e. more structure in a system. For example all the biological systems are continuously increasing the amount of order and structure on our Earth.
An other definition of extropy is : the extent of a system’s intelligence, information, order, vitality, and capacity for improvement.

Extropians are people who strive to increase extropy. Extropians assume that through technology and artificial evolution the rate of extropy increase in our neighborhood will grow considerably in the future. And they consider this a very positive thing. Extropians consider technological development a good thing, and they strive to radically improve their mental and physical capabillities.

Some Extropian questions are : ...then you are an EXTROPIAN too. (by Max More PhD, Extropy Insitute)

If you can recognize yourself in most of the statements given above, then you have a transhumanist attitude too. Don't hesitate and join us!

What do transhumanists think about the future

Transhumanists foresee some future technologies with enormous potential. These seem to arrive within 50 to a 100 years from now and will undoubtedly radically change the human society. How our society will be changed and when exactly, cannot be predicted.

Technological advances will transform the human civilization in some extremely profound ways. Perhaps by creating indefinite lifespans, perhaps by being able to constantly induce positive emotions. All of humanity could be eliminated. Or it could become possible to transfer people to virtual reality by uploading, or perhaps even put humanity on a side-track by the creation of superior machine intelligence's.

Central to transhumanism is a belief in the feasibility of drastic technological change. We can call this the Technology Postulate:

THE TECHNOLOGY POSTULATE :
Provided our present technological civilization continues to exist then some of the following things will become feasible within the next 70 years : (Nick Bostrom, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method London School of Economics )

Some of the things in this list could induce the others. MNT could make colonization of space very feasible through its extremely cheap selfreproducing production methods (not to mention new superstrong materials). MNT will bring the realization of immortality within easy reach because of its operation at the molecular scale. MNT could possibly induce the creation of machine intelligences because of its capability of producing astronomically powerful computing devices. On the other hand, superhuman intelligences could induce the arrival of any other future technology...

Therefore in my opinion the two most radical of these technological possibilities are :

MNT
Molecular Nanotechnology, the production of objects out of separate molecular buildingblocks. Using microscopic selfreproducing machine systems, all kinds of objects can be produced within a short time with atomic precision. Because molecular resources can be easily obtained from the environment and the production process will be fully automatic, the production costs will be extremely small. Comparable to the costs of present agricultural products.

AI
The creation of machine intelligence's (with or without self consciousness) able to improve themselves continuously thereby creating a technological singularity.



Links for more information :

Anders Transhuman Pages extensive site with an enormous amount of links
Mitch Porters Site a personal site with many links and much information concerning transhumanism
Extropy institute a transhumanist organization with strong tendency towards libertarian politics
World Transhumanist Association (WTA)
Transcedo the Dutch Transhumanist Society
Foundations of Transhumanism
Homo Excelsior. a transhuman magazine by Europeans
The Mind Uploading Home Page an introduction to electronic life extension.



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