Latest News and Developments about Humankind's Drive Towards Biological Immortality

The taken for granted issues are nowadays more frequently being challenged. As it was said in the film by Steve Martin, “The Man with Two Brains “You’re playing God”, “Somebody has to!”” this shows how perceptions are altering.

The debate whether we should or should not play “GOD” is an increasingly tense topic. Many humanists have gone towards an atheist perspective believing that there exists no divine creator or purpose-giver to act affirmatively. Nevertheless, humanists who are deeply pro-science do however somehow fear the Promethean sentence of going against religious dogmas.

The fear held by the humanists can be seen in reactions and belief. For example, humanists do not think that physical immortality or agelessness can be achieved through technological advancement. Humanists do blemish agelessness as unnatural or eternal life as being useless. Although humanists do not believe in a divine creator they stay keen to the notion of living an allotted time on earth, in other words a limited lifespan. They even refute the idea of physical immortality and superhuman (post-human) ability and intelligence are observed with fear rather than as competitive source of knowledge.

These tales of immortality might for many be stories coming from Frankenstein, Icarus, and The Tower of Babel: Humans Should Just Accept Their Limits, and many others. The apprehension of overcoming the impossible or the unlikely makes people tremble. Where does our innate fright of conquering death and aging as well as going beyond the sky come from? Moreover, medical science is mostly viewed as a method to cure the sick and not necessarily to enforce the healthy, but this is what longevity studies are trying to unravel.

Humanist to Transhumanist

The values and goals of most humanists are limited. Most people with a belief in superior knowledge and posthumans refer themselves as transhumanists. A transhumanist is ready to anticipate how life will be as posthumans emerge into the modern society. A well-known group of transhumainsts is the Extropy institute which refers to themselves as Extropians.

The emergence of Extropians (tranhumanists) is guided by similar principles such as self-transcendence, intelligent technology, dynamic optimism and boundless expansion that can take any particular order. The philosophy is to support optimism instead of pessimism and to think of a world different from what it is today; one where life would be eternal.

The idea is not to play “GOD”. The real focus is to transcend to posthuman. However, we should try to conceive all the feasible future of ourselves as well. In respect to god as being a superior being, we might become extremely powerful and maybe immortal, however we will not be some kind of supernatural ghost creature, questioned by physics. It is thus better to put gods aside. The question that we are really trying to crack is whether:

1. Are Posthumans Really Possible?
2. Are Posthumans Really Desirable?

Are Posthumans Really Possible?

Can humans really enjoy a transition to become posthumans, this is a question that only physic can challenge. In simple terms, we can transcend to posthumans only when our neurophysiology, physiology, inherited genetics and neurochemistry become sufficiently distinguished so that we are no longer categories as Homo Sapiens. Posthumans are memetically derived from humans. However, they will have a more complex motivational structure. This could include ability to control emotional response, control sexual orientation or in other words manipulate neurochemistry.

There are already many steps that have been taken in the becoming posthumans. Humans genetic structure is being changed to compensate for the failure rooted from nature. There are pills and medications such as Piracetam, Prozac, Deprenyl, and Hydrergine that are being consumed to change our psychology, improve our brain power and to decrease the speed of aging. There are by now more efficient neuro-chemical modifiers being in laboratory testing. The use of molecular biology with highly advanced computer systems is making it easier to alter our genetic structure to the betterment of humankind.

We are somehow integrating humans and machine into one being. More modern machines are both intelligent and also capable of self-modifying. The various topics of study that are concentrating on the machine human or so called cyborgs are AI, intelligent agent, neural networks, fuzzy logic and machine intelligence. We are not far from becoming cyborgs. Technology is in many aspects being used to replace joints. In laboratory development we have artificial retinas that might soon be commercialized. The next step according to many researchers is to connect electronic components to our neurons. This would enable us to communicate directly to our PCs, PDAs, Mobile phone and any other accessories. There is probably only a decade or two left until computers are implanted into our brain system. It might take as well up to 50 or 60 years but bet on it, it will soon come.

The emergence of even more fascinating advancement is engineered virus. A virus with the potential to modify the genetic structure of practically any cell in our body would give us an endless opportunity to manipulate our morphology and physiology. The rate at which progress is surfacing for molecular nanotechnology would probably ascertain that engineered virus will soon be a feasible product. It would perhaps even be possible to construct atom by atom in the body. The result of such a radical advancement in science and technology would be first the dusk of aging, immortality and the accomplishment of alchemists’ dream.

More intricate is that a group of machine intelligence research, cognitive scientists and roboticists predict that more stunning posthuman can be achieved. It might be possible to upload or download our physiology, emotions, memories, feelings and values from our biological brain to one that has synthetically been created. In other words, we could change our brain to one that have a million or not even a billion times faster processing capability compared to our natural brain.

So yes, Posthumans are highly feasible.

Are Posthumans Really Desirable?

The reason why human continually strive to go beyond limits and unfold the unachievable is simply due to our natural eagerness to improve and for comfort. Progress and enlightenment is from the humanistic perspective viewed as possible. We live in an era of grand adventure where technology, science and reason can help us to surpass the weaknesses that have been confined in our past. Human can absolutely achieve much. The application of our determination, intelligence and optimism is likely to lead to an evolution of our kind. An evolution, which is already directing towards enhancing our neurology capacity. Human creativity is looked in the boundaries of our imagination and intelligence, and with more intelligence the boundaries keeps on expanding.

The inhibitor to human enlightenment is aging and death. There are many who refer to death as Alan Harrington does “Death is an imposition on the human race and no longer acceptable” It is a blatant truth that death and aging are at the determent of complete wisdom. It takes years to accumulate knowledge and as a modicum of intelligence and wisdom has been achieved, aging or death resets the progress. This infuriating cycle is deemed to be challenged. It is worth to conquer aging and death so that wisdom can be increasingly accumulated.

There are many who believe that life will be meaningless if the traditional life cycle of aging and death was radical altered. The Extropians/Transhumanists view such an attitude as being rational and common. It is sure that our lifestyle will require intense revision if the posthuman lifespan was to be concretized, today. The change to human lifespan is definitely worth the effort. In reality, ageing and death itself is to many a source rendering life miserably futile. The accomplishment of immortality will probably not be at the detriment of theological belief; it would rather support the rationale behind it.

On the medical paradigm, this new culture has a distinction from previous approaches. The contemporary way to view medical science is to cure diseases while the new medical paradigm focuses on brining functionality of the existing one to incredible levels. Doctors and medical practitioners view their job as to cure or alleviate diseases and not as to increase the health of someone who is already healthy. This is once again some of the limited conception of the belief in “natural”. The very fact that we only cure a defect means that we are trying to bring it back to its natural state (God created stage). However, improving our brain or body potential is seemed as unnatural. This is why we consider psychiatric drugs as normal but intelligence-boosting drugs are rejected due to the fact that we are already mentally well.

In some way, we should consider that transhuman is also something natural; a natural endeavour to transcend into new complexity and forms. Moreover, by Nietzsche, it would be referred to as the “universal will to power”. There are many theories that proclaim our effort to unravel complexity or universal will to power. For instant, evolutionary theory, complexity theory, neurocomputing and artificial life are all related to overcoming limits deemed as being innate to humans. Human have an internal drive that is geared to change the environment as well ourselves as a being.

There will not be a punishment or a Pandora ’s Box for bringing posthumans intelligence and agelessness to our doorstep. Old myths that emerged when human was at the edge of extinction shouldn’t keep us back. Life has radically changed, but YES it is certain that we must take upmost precaution when altering our brain function, genes and physiology.

Progress shall not be subject to stagnation. It can transform manifold until dynamic of this exuberant process is reaped. The communal goal of moving forward, farther and higher has inherently been a conscious strive of human kind.

The supernatural being “GOD” is a rather primitive notion developed by superstitious people, people having just hatched out from unconsciousness and ignorance. The conception of god is oppressive in the sense that it is much more powerful than us. The introduction of posthuman might act as a means to change perception and add another dimension to the human evolution. It is of paramount importance to understand that we aren’t the zenith of nature’s development rather only a crucial part. We have to be able to consciously evolve and control our future.

We shall leave assumptions behind, and bring posthumanity to the foreground. Living forever, immortality and superior wisdom are what are awaiting us in the future.

Source:Maxmore

Anti Aging, Gerontology, Immortality, Longevity, Nanotechnology, Stem cells