Transhumanism and the Posthuman Future: Will Technological Progress Get Us There? Ted Peters

1. Transhumanism and the Posthuman Future: Will Technological Progress Get Us There? Ted Peters

2. Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the GTU

3. Transhumanism “Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future. We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth.” - Transhumanist Declaration World Transhumanist Association

4. Nanotechnology Nanobiotechnology

5. Nanotechnology Nano Tech + Genetic Engineering = Nanobiotechnology Nano = Dwarf 1 Nanometer = One billionth of a meter 10 hydrogen atoms side by side “Size Matters” STMX = Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscope [UCB/LBL] See 25 to 35 Nanometers – physics prior to emergent life Nanobots = nano sized robots to move oxygen or clean out cholesterol Bio Fab = application of nano-engineering to living systems IA = Intelligence Amplification (or cognitive augmentation) Cybernetic Immortality? Post-Humanism?

7. STXM = Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy Rollie Otto

8. 99 STXM = Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy National Center for X-Ray Tomography, UCB Electron Microscope for biological imaging Electrons travel at 99.9% speed of light Brighter than the sun Imaging whole cells at 35 nanometers Imaging structures at 25 nanometers Future: resolution at 10 nanometers Merging of the fields of physics and biology Synthetic Life

10. In Transhumanism we witness aNBIC Convergence- Jean-Pierre Dupuy • Nanotechnology • Biotechnology • Information Technology • Cognitive Science • AI (Artificial Intelligence) • IA (Intelligence Amplification) • Capitalism: laissez faire NBICAIC?

11. Singularity: 2045 ! Cybernetic Immortality: “Uploading a human brain means scanning all of its salient details and then reinstantiating those details into a suitably powerful computational substrate. This process would capture a person’s entire personality, memory, skills, and history.” pp. 198-199 Technological progress extends biological evolution. “The purpose of the universe reflects the same purpose as our lives: to move toward greater intelligence and knowledge…we will within this century be ready to infuse our solar system with our intelligence through self-replicating non-biological intelligence. It will then spread out to the rest of the universe.” p.372. Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (New York: Penguin, 2005)

12. H +Transhumanism = a “totalized philosophical system” • Metaphysical or Cosmological Level: the world is a “process of evolutionary complexification toward evermore complex structures, forms, and operations.” • Psychological Level: we human beings are “imbued with the innate Will to Evolve…” to expand survivability and well-being. • Ethical Level: “we should seek to foster our innate Will to Evolve by continually striving to expand our abilities throughout life…by acting in harmony with the essential nature of the evolutionary process…” - Simon Young, Designer Evolution, pp. 87, 19, 202.

13. Progress within Evolution?“…man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is.”– Charles Darwin, Autobiography, p.77

14. Progress within Evolution? NO Stephen Jay Gould Francisco Ayala

15. The Eschatological Problem How do we get there from here?

16. Two Views of the Future Futurum& Progress Adventus& Apocalypse

17. Progress is cumulative advance The backbone of the doctrine of progress is that “something is better than it had been and promises to get better still in the future.” - Steven Goldman, “Progress,” Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, 3:1519.

18. Futurum • (Futurology, Futurism) • Understanding • Decision • Control • Transhumanists want to replace “Darwinian • Evolution with Designer Evolution—from slavery • to the selfish genes to conscious self-rule by • the human mind.” • –Simon Young, Designer Evolution, p. 207.

19. The Eschatological Problem How do we get there from here? Can a leopard change its spots? Transhumanists want to replace “Darwinian Evolution with Designer Evolution—from slavery to the selfish genes to conscious self-rule by the human mind.” –Simon Young, Designer Evolution, p. 207.

20. Is Religion Luddite? “I am about to do a new thing.” Isaiah 43:19

21. Adventus (Eschatology) Human progress is subject to divine judgment.

22. Sin Poor Judgment Graffiti Computer Virus Totalitarianism Genocide

23. Is original sin back again?

24. Can we overcome sin through science and technology?

25. Martin Luther “Original sin really means that human nature has completely fallen…the intellect has become darkened…sins have taken such deep root in our being that in this life they cannot be entirely eradicated.” Luther’s Works, American Edition, 1:114.

26. Reinhold Niebuhr

27. Christian Realism: No advance in technology will overcome history’s ambiguity. “The idea of progress is…highly dubious….It is false in so far as all historical processes are ambiguous.” The doctrine of progress fails to recognize that “history is filled with endless possibilities of good and evil…every new human potency may be an instrument of chaos as well as of order; and history, therefore, has no solution of its own problem.” - Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2:240, 154-155.

28. Langdon Gilkey

29. Christian Realism: No advance in technology will overcome history’s ambiguity. “Morals do not advance in history. Hence, a progress of technology may in fact augur a regress in social harmony and social justice…instead of ‘saving’ mankind, can threaten to become the demonic instrument of mankind’s destruction. This permanent ambiguity of historical process, this continuation of sin even in an advancing culture, [means] that if there be a kingdom, it could not be realized through a sociohistorical development leading to a perfect society in history.” - Langdon Gilkey, Reaping the Whirlwind, 233.

30. History Eschatology M. Grunwald, Eisenheim Altar Piece

31. The New Jerusalem Adventus Albrecht Dürer, 16th Century Gustav Dore, 19th Century

32. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away. - Revelation 21:4

33. Conclusions H+ needs more realism: No amount of increased technology or intelligence will liberate us from sin. The Bible promises transformation: this fosters an ethic that promotes change in light of future well-being.

34. Bye, Bye