Thoughts on Transhumanism

     Tonight's Internet Binge started out with checking to see if Dresden Codak had updated. Things went rather quickly from there. He had a link to a lecture on Prosthetic Culture - watched the nearly forty-minute long lecture with rapt attention. Started to think about my own particular desire for a prosthetic. Realized I'm using a prosthetic right now (the Internet). We're all Cyborgs. Read up on current Utility Fog theory and was glad to see we are making progress. Saw it was related to chemical computing and holograms. Remembered hearing about the blood powered cell phone tattoo. ... An hour later I was back to thinking about transhumanism. So, if we had chemical computers and Utility Fog, why would we need clothes anymore? It would certainly be great for me to be able to change my physical appearance at the speed of thought. Even a rather thin Utility Fog covering me would be able to successfully project a holographic image of me in a different body. Hell, I could program it to make me look like a robot or even a squid if I wanted.

     Let's take it a step further (or maybe many steps). Chemical computing would theoretically make it possible to upload my consciousness into the particular Fog that makes up what used to be me. Delete body. Maintain a physical presence purely through being a Fog. It's like having every super-power you can think of: shape changing, flight, invisibility, super-strength, you name it. Who needs virtual reality if you are a machine and all of reality superimposes virtual and real reality? Reality would be even more subjective then. I would be a collection of molecules that makes up a complex machine that has a consciousness, which can take actions on its environment. Wait just a second... that's right where I am now. Just, you know, without the superpowers.

     Transhumanism is exactly that. Its the metaphysical and philosophical equivalent of pulling ourselves up a mountain. We have to extend that first tenuous grasp and then pull ourselves up, or over, as the case may be. I don't think that Transhumanism is necessarily becoming a 'higher' version of humans, because once we reach that point, we won't become any more or less human. Our definition will change right along with us. We may solve many problems, but there will always be predicaments. The difference is that problems have solutions; predicaments are all about how you deal with reality. The way each person consciously their predicaments is what defines us and makes us human.

     "There are Three Great Immensities that everyone faces: Death, Nature, and Other People. Everyone dies - it is a predicament that we all face individually. Nature is what surrounds us and truly seeing the immensity of nature means having true perspective of yourself. Everything is both insurmountably important and completely insignificant in the overall picture. Other People are an immensity. It really is an amazing concept that every person we meet has their own, unique, history, thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. Their own world. There may be people very similar to you, but there is never another person who is exactly you." 

-- Professor Keith Green (Paraphrased from a lecture in History of Middle Earth)

Well, now for dreams about becoming a different sort of machine. I hope this inspires you to have an Internet Binge.