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More Human Than Human

By Gregon

Betterhumans.com has a great article online regarding the subject of technological augmentation of humans. Titled “We Can Flourish as More Than Human“, this piece by bioethicist Russell Blackford goes deeper than the superficial ‘wow’ factor normally associated with the topic, taking a more human (scuse the pun) look at our cybernetic future. Definitely a subject worth acquainting yourself with, considering guys like Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil see the ‘singularity‘ just around the corner.

Greg
Editor
Greg is the owner-editor of The Daily Grail, as well as the author of a number of books including Stop Worrying, There Probably is an Afterlife.
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4 Comments

  1. More human than human(they haven’t the second clue!)
    Neurotransmitters in the brain are vaguely understood today. Wait, vauge is an understatement of the understanding they have in this field. They see the tip. The extent of knowledge they have to sift through will overwhelm them in the coming years. If you listen to them, they claim that we are on the brink of BORG Tech, just around the corner! Maybe in another hundred, or 500 years of research, we will reach the level they claim is just around this corner, that they see.
    I would suggest. Stop peering into the future with telescopes, proclaiming “Eureka!”. Proclamations, in science are made in short steps. Those are the steps that can be used as foundations. Gulping down data and looking far forward results in mistakes. It results in faulty data and misconceptions. Which leads to greater spans of time between true, solid scientific breakthroughs.
    Realise, it’s easier to be a Gene Roddenberry, than it is to be an Einstein.
    -dd

    1. This guy isn;t getting any,,,
      Russell Blackford writes about future humans looking back on us “poor primitives” in our tramatic times. Without words of his own, he quotes another author, Gregory Stock, as stating, “They will likely see it (our lifes and time), as a strange and primitive time when people lived only seventy or eighty years, died of awful diseases, and conceived their children outside a laboratory by a random, unpredictable meeting of sperm and egg.””
      LOL!
      Well buddy, random chance is good. Real good, when it comes to copulation. You should try it sometime! heheh.
      -dd

      1. Nothing coming
        So, not a reply to my comment? Not a Yea, nor a Nay? Echo’s caressing an empty corridor. I suppose you all think its better to beat off into a test tube, than to bear children the “hard way”. Have fun.
        -dd

  2. Hi,

    Borgs ? Enhanced soldi
    Hi,

    Borgs ? Enhanced soldiers,’restored’ humans sure, in the beginning they will fuel development, but with all the artificial enhancements, very quickly androids become suffisticated and cheaper. They will take over battle fields, the kitchen and yes probably the bed too. All this can expected in the relative short term, say less then a century. You wouldn’t need or want a clone because standby replica/androids could interface on your command with whom or whatever. The number of ‘real’ humans will most probably fall drammatically the next decades, induced or accidental, before any new gold age can set in. It’s hard to see another, sapiens way, out of our current mess’s. Otherwise underclasses will become toys in the hands of the rich and dehumanization would be ensured…at both ends.

    In the farther future, redesigning humans will not be a matter for the parents, newborns will be ensured a good set of healthy genes, but the whole human set up will become so fluid that children, once they reached adulthood will be able to reconfigure themselves as they will have it, therefor there’s no special need or drive for ‘parents’ to mold offspring. In fact i think it might be a taboo by then.
    The grown child will initiate itself into society by choosing and having implemented it’s first transformation. I believe ultimately parenthood as such will have become a totally obsolete concept. With virtual immortality, a new ‘batch of youngsters’ will be rare and a collective responsibility, specially as they are so recognizable as proto transhuman and remind all of our origins.

    It is very difficult to imagine a world where allmost all of the needs are met, it’s even harder to envision people not getting bored and depressed. They’d be under the influence of some kind chemical /hormonal stimulus. Such a society would need to incorparate some kind of ritual suicide to relieve pressure and offer those living a choice..
    Such a society needs/ will have a better understanding of what this life is about, and what happens at death and birth. It would understand that without challenges, nosoul would want to incarnate here, or……maybe that what this planet is all about, the creation of a holiday resort. The virtual made flesh.

    ” Fear accomplishes nothing but destruction. Fear is the greatest enemy of all that exists on Planet Earth. Fear is bondage, fear is not freedom”

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