Year: A Million – Posthumanism

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” says Henry Ford, well-known American industrialist, and the founder of the Ford Motor Company.

We mortals genuinely believe and even endeavour to live a better version of our true selves each day. But how determined are we to follow up on this idea? How far can we go to evolve or change for a so-called better version? 

Most of you are familiar with the term “post-humanism“. It basically offers the idea of enriching human beings with alterations that provide a wide range of possibilities, from higher definition eyeballs to gene alterations eliminating possible inherited defects. 

Although there are different opinions on the issue of whether we accept the latest developments in this area with open arms or should be very alerted by the news, by the end of the day, the developments, experiments, and evolution are impossible to avoid. As Herakleitos stated centuries ago, ” the only constant in life changes.”

What’s Up!

Looking from the bright side, new evolutions in science and technology greatly help some extremely irritating problems which used to seem incurable. For example, Charles VACANTI’s experiment in which he and his friends were able to implant a human ear into a laboratory mouse, also known as Vacanti Mouse or Nude Mouse afterwards, is one of the most challenging leaps to most of us in the late 20th. Century. By the time C. VACANTI and his colleagues finished their experiment in 1989, even if it was perceived as a moral grey area for some particular environment, that was certain that the experiment introduced people to the promising possibilities of medicine and science. 

Nevertheless, this experiment was a couple of decades ago and didn’t involve any genetic engineering interference with human DNA; in other words, this experiment did not cover genetic engineering. This experiment was conducted by tissue engineering, and genetics were not tampered with. The purpose was to assist people with ear injuries since the cartilage of the human ear was inconceivable to recover as it used to be, and people had to live with the formless bizarre ear lopes. 

But today, the sky’s the limit! It may sound like some fictional movie or even a little Black Mirrorish scenario to some of you, though, nowadays, Technology Firms and scientists are introducing user-controlled body parts or types of equipment on demand like Sony did. Their new technology allows taking photos and video recordings with a lens placed on the eye. The new lens, patented by Sony, will be activated according to the blinking movements of the user and will be able to record photos and videos on demand. The last one can be accepted as a relatively costly and handy tool that can be accessible like a mobile phone or earplugs that can make daily life easier for the user. 

However, what about germ regulations and nano-technological implants that can transform an individual into a faster, stronger, and to some extent, even more, intelligent version of modern homo-sapiens? Post-humanism steps on the stage right at this point, where we have hardships drawing a line.

Giant Leaps, Milestones, and Breakthrough Points

On November 9th 2014, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jenifer Doudna were nominated and awarded the “Breakthrough Prize” for gene editing. Their discovery was called CRISPR used to be a wildly expensive and highly technological initiative for the time, yet their motivation was pure, neat, and sincere. This alteration in gene technology can be applied to any living organism, from bacteria and plants to embryos. 

Meanwhile, today, the same technology can be found online as a DIY (Do It Yourself) kit, costing only 159,00 USD. You can just order yours online and save yourself from some genetically coded bacterial disease. Welcome to the better version of homo-sapiens! 

Moreover, this gene technology study may also lead to another aspect of selecting vital qualities from the early stages rather than treating any existing deficiency. It can be likely through embryo experiments being held these days. You may be able to “select” certain aspects of your future baby.

Let’s meet Dr Ben Goertzel, a cross-disciplinary scientist, entrepreneur, and author. In 2020 after a long stretch living in Hong Kong, he relocated his primary base of operations to the rural Seattle area. He leads the SingularityNET Foundation, the OpenCog Foundation, and the AGI Society, which runs the annual Artificial General Intelligence conference. 

Ben Goertzel illustrates the inevitability of technology devices entering the human body by stating, “Imagine you have a child and all the other children in his class are better than him. Because other children’s brains can be connected directly to Google or a calculator and communicate with each other while your child is back among them, he seems stuck. Your child has to do everything with outdated methods and can’t text from brain to brain with his friends. The class teacher says your son can’t be in this class anymore.” This can be the case with the help of artificial intelligence and nanotech chips implanted into your body.

Is new always better? Are we safe?

Another world-famous figure Elon MUSK also may be perceived as a related party on the scope. We follow Elon Musk’s work at Neurolink company as much as we can. In one of his interviews in 2019, Tesla Chief Executive (CEO) Elon Musk underlined that the only way to prevent humans from being overtaken by computers would be a system where computers can be combined with human brains. 

Using the expression, “The scenario of merging with artificial intelligence is the best scenario we have at the moment,” Musk said that the human brain could communicate with machines with the new brain implant he announced. He emphasized that the only way of salvation for the human brain, which is thought to be left behind by artificial intelligence with the project, is a brain with a computer connection.

Most of you may have heard about DARPA, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It is a US Department of Defense government agency accountable for designing new technologies for use by the US military. It is common knowledge that there are brain control, artificial intelligence, and external limb studies on military issues in DARPA.

To sum up, post-humanism has already taken its chair in the near future.

Concerns, Hesitations, and Threats

As stated before, it’s challenging to draw a solid line between at which point it is necessary, fair, or even humanist to equip a person with all mindblowing, breathtaking features which can assure a relatively happy long, and of course, efficient life. Actually, the line is uncertain and ambiguous as it gets. Post-humanism suggests integrating your unique personal skills with the highest technological facilities as tight as possible. 

We will be able to have better memories and IQ scores, save ourselves from suffering a disease that we inherited from great-grandparents, send our current state of health to a related department even without thinking every day, and receive necessary regulation. We may not have to try hard to keep our attention alive during the whole day at school or an important meeting. Just occupy ourselves with these brand-new lenses and start recording anytime we like.  

We can have flawlessly well-designed offspring and ensure a healthy life for them too. Moreover, we may be done with ageing, bad habits, and performance anxieties of any kind. That sounds like a perfect option. Right? Well, not for everyone! 

According to the research that Kaspersky held, almost two in five adults (39 per cent) say they are exceedingly concerned that human empowerment practices could lead to social inequality or conflict in the future. A significant number of participants express their concerns that Post-humanism technology will be high-quality, high-tech solutions that appeal to a privileged segment. They assume that these technologies won’t be affordable and accessible to everyone, and everyone will be able to benefit from this concept. If the unevenness is the case, many agree that it will cause inequalities between people who can reach the facilities and those who can not. Moreover, these inequalities will affect the human race all physically, mentally, psychologically, and socially. Some of you may even think the gap will become further than ever.

At this point, another bothersome scenario comes to mind: Security. As technology develops and penetrates human life deeply, it enables evil-minded vicious parties to take control of personally private data. People are thrilled with losing control of the equipped body devices, which may lead to inevitable consequences. Accepting that we are having difficulties even preventing our kids from violent content on YouTube or in a game they are playing, losing control of something so intimate and personal will be catastrophic.

Where we stand

Choosing your side may be understandably hard for the time being. Yet the future is lying among us like a clear page that is unwritten for now. Fortunately, we only need to do that once it becomes a necessity. Until then, let’s learn about comments on the issue by Marco Preuss, Director of Kaspersky Europe’s Global Research and Analysis Team. He expressed, “While we are seeing broad support and interest in human empowerment across Europe, there are understandable concerns about the impact of human empowerment on society. 

Governments, industry leaders, and empowered people must come together to help shape the future of human empowerment together. This way, we can ensure that this exciting industry develops orderly and secure for all.”

We wish for humanity the best, of course. Hopefully, Post – the Humanism concept will have an enhancive impact. Ready or not, the future is coming! Are you really what tomorrow brings? Fasten your belts, then!