{"id":171013,"date":"2024-09-28T17:33:21","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T17:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=171013"},"modified":"2024-09-28T17:33:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T17:33:21","slug":"why-transhumanism-is-unrealistic-and-immoral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/why-transhumanism-is-unrealistic-and-immoral\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Transhumanism Is Unrealistic and Immoral"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cUtopians often produce evil because their movement\u2019s aspirations become paramount\u2014that is, more important than avoiding acts \u2018traditionally perceived as immoral.\u2019 If enough people follow Istvan on the transhuman roller coaster, people could eventually get hurt<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not afraid of dying. I just don\u2019t want to be there when it occurs<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 Woody Allen<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In 2016, transhumanism proselytizer Zoltan Istvan ran for president promising to defeat death while touring the country in a bus redesigned to look like a coffin. It was a great gimmick that made him, perhaps, the most famous transhumanist in the world.<\/p>\n

I know and like Istvan. I admire his indefatigable work ethic that has him writing hundreds of transhumanist-boosting columns and engaging in countless interviews (including by opponents like me). But his essay<\/a>\u00a0in Merion West<\/em> \u201cWhen We\u2019re Overly Optimistic about the Pace of Life Extension Research<\/em>\u201d took a dark and disturbing turn. He warns that at the current pace of life-extending research, the transhumanist goal of living indefinitely will not be attained during his lifetime (based on a formula he concocted he calls, \u201cthe senescence inference<\/em>\u201d). In 2131, he moans, our expected lifespan will \u201conly<\/em>\u201d be 165 years, and it will take \u201cwell over a millennium to attain Methuselah-like lifespans nearing 1,000 years<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That won\u2019t help Istvan! The prospect of dying so terrifies him that he would detach transhumanism from proper ethical imperatives. Writing that \u201cmorality is defined by the amount of time one has to live<\/em>\u201d\u2014!!!\u2014and insisting that \u201crealistic transhumanists know only that the most extreme measures, acts, and diligence can have a chance to save those alive today<\/em>\u201d\u2014he justifies \u201cextreme utilitarian acts<\/em>\u201d as \u201cphilosophically justified<\/em>\u201d\u2014\u201ceven those that are illegal or traditionally perceived as immoral, such as civil disobedience, stealing property, and even starting wars, so long as they seem reasonable and tangible measures actually to increase the speedy success of life extension goals<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such immortality \u00fcber alles<\/em> absolutism should be condemned. Roundly. Unfortunately, I have not seen any pushback from co-believers. Indeed, the two responses published in Merion West<\/em> dealt merely with whether Istvan\u2019s pessimism is warranted.<\/p>\n

That does not cut it. It is time to get real about the impossible goals and fractured ethical justifications for transhumanism, if only to bank the passions that Istvan stokes.<\/p>\n

Transhumanists are primarily (though not exclusively) atheists who think, as does Istvan, \u201cthat the belief in any religious afterlife is nonsense<\/em>.\u201d But religionists throughout history have testified to mystical experiences, sudden conversions, and what appear to be miracles. That is good enough for believers, for as the Christian Bible<\/em> puts it, \u201cFaith is the assurance of what is hoped for, the conviction of what is not seen.<\/em>\u201d In other words, traditional religion does not depend upon empirical proof.<\/p>\n

Not so transhumanism. Since its guiding principle holds that the physical world is all that exists\u2014and its overriding purpose is to offer hope of immortality to the irreligious\u2014its predictions must be judged on the purely materialistic premise that indefinite life can indeed be attained through applied technology.<\/p>\n

Our Bodies Are Not Meat Machines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ignoring the impact of entropy, Istvan clearly thinks so. He asserts that \u201cthe human body is like a machine\u2014an entity that can be fixed and made to overcome nearly all biological death<\/em>.\u201d Really?<\/p>\n

If actual machines made of much stronger stuff than delicate flesh\u2014say, of steel or titanium\u2014cannot be made to operate forever, why would we expect anything more from our bodies? Moreover, we are not made of elementary components that can be changed like lightbulbs. Our many biological systems are so varied, complex, and interactive that we may never fully grasp how it all works.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Even the \u201csimple\u201d human cell is so intricate that scientists are not close to understanding its functions after more than a century of study. As one scientific report put it, cells are \u201ccomplex genetic regulatory circuits and networks that process information in a manner similar to engineered circuits and systems, but with density, complexity, and capabilities that far exceed those found in manmade systems<\/em>.\u201d Ditto the complex interactions among our genes, proteins, and the myriad other biological systems that constitute our biological life. One need not apply the senescence inference to understand that no amount of research investment or scientific experimentation will figure out how to remodel our bodies into \u201cindefinite\u201d life.<\/p>\n

Uploading the Content of Consciousness onto Computers Does Not Equal Immortality<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most transhumanists recognize that, which is why they conjure wild scenarios by which they hope to remain alive despite their bodies\u2019 inevitable deterioration. Perhaps the most popular of these is the notion of uploading one\u2019s content of consciousness onto a computer enhanced with artificial intelligence to \u201clive\u201d forever, as it were, in the Cloud or as cyberbeings.<\/p>\n

But would the uploaded program really be that person? No. True life requires a living body. Moreover, the totality of our physical existence is far more than the sum of our measurable thoughts or the pattern of neural synapses firing in the brain. We do not just think. We also feel. Our emotions change our bodies, and our bodies affect our emotions\u2014as all three\u2014thoughts, body, feelings\u2014affect our life\u2019s course. And then there is the pesky issue of the subconscious!<\/p>\n

These constituents of life could, at best, only be partially mimicked by artificial intelligence. As Duke University neurologist Miguel Nicolelis told the BBC<\/em>: \u201cYou cannot code intuition; you cannot code aesthetic beauty; you cannot code love or hate. There is no way you will ever see a human brain reduced to a digital medium. It\u2019s simply impossible to reduce that complexity to the kind of algorithmic process that you will have to have to do that<\/em>.\u201d In other words, the uploaded computer programs would no more be \u201cyou\u201d than the animatronic Lincoln in Disney World\u2019s Hall of Presidents is the real Honest Abe.<\/p>\n

Transhumanism Is Immoral<\/strong><\/p>\n

While I do not believe transhumanism\u2019s dream of immortality will ever be attained, I do worry that its values could take hold. That would be bad for society. Why? At its core, transhumanism is an immoral belief system. Transhumanist obsessions are utterly solipsistic. In the end, all that ultimately matters is \u201cme\u201d staying alive. Virtues? Altruism? Self-sacrifice? What good are they if we are going to die and \u201cmorality is defined by the amount of time one has to live<\/em>\u201d?<\/p>\n

Most dangerously, transhumanism is ultimately utopian, meaning the overriding urgency of the great cause ultimately justifies any means. Hence, Istvan\u2019s fanatical statement that war is acceptable if that ensures he will live forever.<\/p>\n

Think about it: The worst evils in human history have not been not caused by religion, atheism, ideology, or nationalism but, rather, by the absolutist ideology of utopianism. Think the French Revolution\u2019s Terror, the killing fields of Cambodia, Osama bin Laden Jihadism, the eugenics movement, the Holocaust, the Gulags, etc. Smaller expressions have also led to destruction and wasted lives, such as the Heaven\u2019s Gate cult suicides.<\/p>\n

Utopians often produce evil because their movement\u2019s aspirations become paramount\u2014that is, more important than avoiding acts \u201ctraditionally perceived as immoral<\/em>.\u201d If enough people follow Istvan on the transhuman roller coaster, people could eventually get hurt.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Transhumanism reflects a desperate yearning to escape mortality. For those who see death as obliteration, it offers a desperate hope and sense of purpose.<\/p>\n

But that does not make it rational\u2014or right. As Ecclesiastics<\/em> puts it, there is a time to be born and a time to die. Transhumanists would be better served if they stopped bewailing that reality and focused on making the most of the finite time we are all given.<\/p>\n

Author: Wesley J. Smith<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

yogaesoteric
\nSeptember 28, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cUtopians often produce evil because their movement\u2019s aspirations become paramount\u2014that is, more important than avoiding acts \u2018traditionally perceived as immoral.\u2019 If enough people follow Istvan on the transhuman roller coaster, people could eventually get hurt.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of dying. I just don\u2019t want to be there when it occurs.\u201d \u2013 Woody Allen In 2016, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-threat-of-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171014,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171013\/revisions\/171014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}