Transhumanism

Nick Bostrom and his co-writers ask many interesting questions: "Won´t extended life worsen overpopulation problems? What happens if these new technologies are used in war? Might they cause our extinction? Isn´t transhumanism tampering with nature? Won´t transhuman technologies make us inhuman? Won´t these transhumanist developments take thousands or millions of years? Won´t it be boring to live forever in the perfect world?" The fourth one receives a radical answer: there is no intrinsic value in being human, just as there is no intrinsic value in being a frog, a rock or a posthuman. They remind us that many human attributes are inconvenient or destructive, so transhumanists want to promote the positive sides of humanity and get rid of the bad. This purpose is clearly eugenical and it is not much discussed in the text. The authors state that "posthumans could live as benevolent demigods among humans and help them out when they are in trouble, for example by taking care of the environment or ensuring that every human will have enough to eat".

When posthumans become much more powerful than the humans "it is likely that the relationship changes from one between equals to something ese". They even posit that posthumans could decide that human beings represent hopelessly inefficient ways of using matter and energy that could be put to better uses. This grim perspective is counterbalanced by the authors´ hope that the values of tolerance and respect for human well-being are incorporated as core elements of the programming, making part of an inviolable moral code.

Although not much stressed, the idea of transhumanism points to a unified world in which stable democratic traditions and constitutions would expand the rule of law to the international level as well as the national. The tribal heritage of a great part of the world´s population does not point to this end, so maybe transhumanists are not considering 6+ billion humans, just a chosen few.

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